In His Grip

Christmas Stocking Challenge -- Post 3

I have finished the knitting portion of my Christmas stocking.  You can read about how this challenge started here then post 1 and post 2.  Wow, this has to be the most challenging knitting project that I have ever attempted.  But with the help of the ladies at the Knit Wit store, and the great notes that were taken by Barb, I has able to turn the heel and make the gussets as well as do the decreases for the toe.  Yeah!

 

 

 

Now I just need to sew the seam down the back, finish up the top edge, and put Paula's name on the Santa side of the top cuff.  Then there is the blocking that will need to be done as well.

This is my first sock ever, I am not sure that it really counts as it is very large compared to the socks I have half completed to the point of turning the heel.   I cannot wait to do all of the finishing work and show off the completed project and the challenge conquered.

Christmas Stocking Challenge -- Post 2

I am two weeks into this Christmas stocking challenge.  You can read about how and why this challenge started here and here.  I have completed the design.  Big woo hoo's, going on here.  I got to this point last Sunday and have not yet sat down long enough to attempt the heel turning.  I have got to think that it has got to be easier than having all those bobbins hanging off your work.  The gals at Knit Wit will be where I go to get the help that I need.  The actual next step is to slip 18 stitches from both ends and place on a double pointed needle.  Seriously, slip stitches OFF my needles?  What if I drop them and they are not able to be recovered.  This step is freaking me out.  Needless to say, I am just so excited about my accomplishment so far that I just may keep it here.  Nah, just kidding, I will achieve my goal and beat this pattern.

Isn't Santa cute.  I was a bit worried about the tone on tone thing and not being able to see him well enough, but he is smiling through just fine.

I am not real happy with my skills on the tree. Carrying the yarn across the back was a bit of a challenge for me and it pulls a bit in places, but for my first try not too bad.   Hopefully, by my next update I will have tackled the turning of the heel.  

My Christmas Stocking Challenge

These are the Christmas stockings that starting hanging on our mantel 29 years.  Ryan's was made by one of my husband's best friend's mom, Barb.  I remember the box coming in the mail and being so excited that someone would take the time to make such a special stocking for our baby.  We proudly hung it from a shelf in our first home as there was no fireplace.  When Lindsey was born, again I received a box in the mail that contained her stocking as well.  Since the birth of Ryan, Barb had lost her battle with cancer but her sister took up the tradition of making a stocking for our babies and then made one for Anna two years later.   Hanging these stockings have been part of our holiday tradition and one that my kids still look for every Christmas season.  The stockings have Santa on one side and the Christmas tree on the other.  If you look closely at Anna's, Santa has a couple of moth holes that I have been meaning to fix for a couple of years.

Now that we have a new member in our family since Ryan's wedding, I was thinking I needed to make a stocking for Paula too.  I started searching the internet and books for patterns that would be similar or maybe the same one, but no luck, so I contacted, Barb's son to see if by chance they had a copy of the pattern for the famous Christmas stocking.  He said they did and would bring me a copy of it.  

First of all the copy right on the pattern is 1948 and looks very complicated for my self-taught knitting self, but call me crazy, I am going to try.  As I have found in the past with knitting, you just start and work one row at a time and try not to freak out by looking ahead.  

What was really crazy about the pattern was the pages and pages of Barb's hand writen notes that she took on the pattern as well as a page of all of the names of the folks that have been a recipient of one of the precious stockings.  There are 163 names listed as well as the hand drawn graphs of each name.  Wow, I think I really just might be crazy to think that I would even attempt to knit like Barb.  But this is my holiday challenge of the year.  I will keep you updated as to my progress and we will see how this goes.  Today I am headed to my local yarn store, Knit-Wit, to pick up my supplies.   I might not get finished this year, but I am determined to do this.