when my mom and her siblings were little, they had christmas stockings hand-knitted for them. when my cousins and i were born, my grandma got the pattern and knit us all stockings, as well. i didn't realize as a child simply how incredible these stockings are, or how wonderful it is to have something handmade and personalized for you - the love that goes into it.
my aunt kathy recently got the pattern from my grandma and made stockings for her son-in-law and daughter-in-law and her first grandchild. becky wanted one for brandon, so i got the pattern from kathy and set to work. i had never done intarsia before, which is a knitting technique where you are working with multiple colors at the same time. you need to use it to create patterns when you knit. there are some tips i learned on a few websites of how to do this and not create holes in your final product, and i got into a pretty good rhythm as i went. it's complicated and requires a lot of concentration, but isn't super difficult.
the cool thing about this stocking project is that in every band there are a few different things you can choose from to personalize the stocking.
the beginning stages...i bought wool yarn in six colors and set to work. i bought graph paper and graphed out each band. the stockings all have our names and years of birth on the top; i practiced the name band once on scrap yarn and then set to work on the real thing. ruby "helped." (though lying on my lap and not attacking the yarn too much actually is a lovely way to help.)
my aunt kathy recently got the pattern from my grandma and made stockings for her son-in-law and daughter-in-law and her first grandchild. becky wanted one for brandon, so i got the pattern from kathy and set to work. i had never done intarsia before, which is a knitting technique where you are working with multiple colors at the same time. you need to use it to create patterns when you knit. there are some tips i learned on a few websites of how to do this and not create holes in your final product, and i got into a pretty good rhythm as i went. it's complicated and requires a lot of concentration, but isn't super difficult.
the cool thing about this stocking project is that in every band there are a few different things you can choose from to personalize the stocking.
the beginning stages...i bought wool yarn in six colors and set to work. i bought graph paper and graphed out each band. the stockings all have our names and years of birth on the top; i practiced the name band once on scrap yarn and then set to work on the real thing. ruby "helped." (though lying on my lap and not attacking the yarn too much actually is a lovely way to help.)
i took this picture of the back of the project so you can see all the different pieces of yarn that you're navigating! knitting this was not something i could do while watching tv - even mindless tv.
halfway done! here is my stocking on the right next to the one i was knitting brandon on the left. at the end you stitch it up the back, so his is still flat at this point. you can also see some white yarn near the "merry," which is what i pulled out and used those stitches to build out the heel.
completed stocking - front view!
completed stocking - side view - you can see the heel and the toe better from this angle. for my first heel, i'm pretty proud of it, but i can imagine that this will improve over time. hopefully there will be little niece and nephew stockings to make some day!
i didn't include a picture of this, but you should know: brandon's stocking is bigger than my own. it's the same number of stitches in each row and about the same size yarn, but my grandma knitted it up much tighter than i was able to. my aunt kathy said that happened to her, too, and it just means you can fit more presents inside. excellent silver lining, kathy. :)
i am inordinately and embarrassingly proud of the final product. it's my hardest project to day - and a meaningful one. it's my little "welcome to the family" present for brandon!
