So I broke out the pointy sticks again for the first time in ... five years? Four years, Ravelry tells me, since my last knitted project. Oy. Too long to remember much, I was afraid, but lo and behold, I REMEMBERED how to cast on! It took a couple tries, but by golly I got it!
What came next, on the other hand, required a lot of time on YouTube. O.o It took me far longer to make these measly six rows of K1, P1 ribbing than I care to admit.
But once I finally got going, well, it went a little better!
Until this craziness anyway. Back to YouTube I went. PSSO? Color changes. Weird Macgyvering of my crochet supplies in the absence of proper stitch holders. Oy.
But thanks to some quiet knitting during naptime (and a lot of baby free time thanks to the grands and the daily shopping that occurs when four Lynch families come together at the holidays), the last stitch was finally knit. Whew!
Seaming was tedious, but I think I did a better job than the first time when I made some of these for the first time EIGHT years ago (I'm not sure how I muddled through it then, either!).
You may be wondering, much like my husband, why I didn't just crochet this stocking. I did, after all, just release a Christmas stocking pattern!
So here's the story.
Eight years ago my husband's aunt approached me and asked me if I would be willing to try to knit a couple Christmas stockings for her two sons' girlfriends (soon to be wives). The reason wasn't simply wanting a handmade stocking, although that was certainly part of it. See, her mother-in-law had knit stockings for her two boys when they were kids, which became treasured heirlooms, particularly after her passing. So I set out to see if I could find a similar pattern and as it happens, the Knitted Christmas Stockings pattern by Joy Green is nearly a perfect match for the stockings Rege made!
I happily agreed to make the stockings and set about learning just enough more about knitting (I'd made ONE scarf when my mother first showed me how to knit maybe ten years ago) to get the job done. Turns out, though, Rege also made stockings for the other cousins, too, including my husband. His has a cowboy on it. :)
And so, now that we have a son of our own, it seems only fitting that I carry on this tradition with the same style Christmas stocking for him. I think I'm going to put a dinosaur on it. <3
Pictured below are two stockings knit by Rege (the blue cat belongs to my SIL) and two knit by me; the light blue snowflake was my original test run.
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas spent amongst those who are most special to you and I will see you again in the new year!
Happy crocheting.
-Connie Lee