A Surefire Way To Avoid The Dreaded "Second Sock Syndrome"

Why, knit a sock that needs no mate, of course! What am I talking about? A Christmas Stocking. This is the (long-awaited) secret project that came from the yarn pictured in my last post. See, I didn't forget to tell you...



Details:

Pattern: Fireside Stocking from Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts 2007 special issue. The pattern is by Kate Gilbert (whose pattern are brilliant, in my humble opinion). Modified to add the personalized border.



Modifications: Knit the pattern as directed until the end of the leg chart. Then, instead of knitting the hem straightaway, I knit a two-color braid using instructions from Latvian Mittens, by Lizbeth Upitis. For the personalized border, I came up with my own chart (wrote it up in Excel: my brother was so proud, as he creates Excel spreadsheets for everything, but this was a use of Excel that he hadn't thought of before...). I got inspiration from letter charts I found on-line and in different knitting books, but eventually made up my own to fit the number of stitches I had on the needles. The chart was for half the number of stitches, starting in mid-front. I knit it twice, which means my nephew's name appears on both sides of the stocking (his name will appear with either side of the stocking facing out, to account for hanging it on either side of the chimney... or to ensure that Santa Claus doesn't miss his name). I knit another two-color braid on top, and then knit the hem in red and attached it at the bottom of the personalized border.



Yarn: Cascade 220 in two shades of red (5013, 9404), three shades of green (8267, 9407, 2429), and ivory (8505). Instead of the blues and purples suggested in the pattern, I decided to go for reds and greens which I felt were more traditional Christmas stocking colors. Basically, I substituted the blues/purples for greens or reds on alternating rows of squares. I kept the idea of going from dark to light to dark colors for the greens. Because I only had two shades of red, I used the dark color for the center rows.



Needles: US 5/3.75mm in DPN and 16" circular needle. I used a slightly bigger needle size because I tend to knit more tightly in fair-isle.



Here it is, filled with presents for my nephew! He's too little to appreciate the stocking (or the presents, really), but his parents were very happy! And the stocking will be used for years to come...

Next up: a list of finished objects from 2007, plans for 2008, and a few resolutions...