Wednesday 5 December 2012

Christmas is coming...


December is here! We are getting scarily close to Christmas. I hope all of you who are knitting or crocheting gifts this year are merrily casting off and preparing to wrap everything up ready for December 25th!

I haven't done any Christmas crafting this year. I knew I'd struggle with finding the time to knit people gifts, because if there's one thing the Year of Projects has taught me, it's that once I have a list I will find any excuse to go off piste and work on something completely unrelated! The project I'm sharing today is a prime example of that...

I knew this year I wanted to learn stranded colourwork. I was very generously gifted the yarn and pattern to knit Peerie Flooers so it was almost top of my list for the second YoP. I finally got round to starting it a few weeks ago and quickly discovered that I love knitting stranded colourwork!

Unsurprising then, that when my needles for Peerie Flooers broke, I reached for my new delivery of Patons Diploma Gold and cast on for Eskimimi's Cool Stocking. What was I doing to myself! A pattern and yarn not included in my YoP list, so shouldn't even be on my radar right now. And not only is it one pattern, it's two, because I will also be making the Star Stocking. Both of which, of course, have to be finished before Christmas comes, because what would be the point in knitting them now if they weren't?


Casting on went smoothly, the cuff was nice and quick and before I knew it I was thick in the middle of all those lovely colours.


It is hard to tell in that photo, but I have been finding it harder to do the stranded knitting on dpns. My floats are a lot tighter than they are on Peerie Flooers, so I am going to have to do some serious blocking on this stocking to get it straightened out.


This was my nemesis. It took me three goes to get that toe right (mainly down to my ineptitude at reading the instructions!), but my main concern was the afterthought heel. I am Not A Sock Knitter so this was an alien concept for me. But I put my trust in Mimi and her pattern and just followed all the instructions to the letter (reading and re-reading several times in the case of the heel, so as not to repeat the toe fiasco).


I put a lifeline in the live heel stitches before unpicking my pink waste yarn. I didn't want to have to faff around with my dpns while risking losing the live stitches and having the whole thing unravel on me. It was really weird seeing the sock tube open up like this!


But I did successfully pick up the live stitches with my lifeline, and was able to easily get them back onto my needles. For ease of picking up stitches, I went back down to my 3mm dpns to capture them all, before knitting them back onto 3.5mm needles as I completed the first row of the heel.


Once this heel is finished, I will cast on straight away for stocking number two. It will have taken me about two weeks to get this first one knit, so I still have time (just) to get the second one finished and both of them blocked and finished off before Christmas Eve!

15 comments:

  1. You know, I do consider myself a sock knitter but I have never done an afterthought heel, they look terrifying ;)
    The stocking is looking amazing :)

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  2. A quick tip for keep your stranding a little looser, is to knit your project inside out. That way the strands are stretched the long way around the outside, rather than taking a short cut across the inside. You are still knitting with the right side facing you, so you can see what you are doing, it's just the side you are not working on is between you and the side you are working on, if you see what I mean.

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  3. I'm not much of a sock knitter but I've done a fair few...none with an afterthought heel. I've heard that for socks that you actually wear, afterthought heels are a "love 'em" or "hate 'em" kind of thing. For stockings, they great :)

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  4. My next pair of socks will have an afterthought heel just so I can cross it off my list.

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  5. Ooh looking good! I hope you get it finished in time.

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  6. Glad I am not the only one starting a Christmas themed item right before Christmas. I cast on a tree skirt the other night. Not sure how far to go with my skein before I start the labor intensive bind off, but hopefully will end up with a tree skirt before Christmas Day. Love the stocking!

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  7. Gorgeous colorwork! Last night I found myself wishing I'd knitted myself an Xmas stocking...think it's too late?

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  8. If I can knit one in two weeks, I reckon anyone can!

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  9. I've always been a "leave it until it's almost too late" sort of person.

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  10. Thanks for the tip! Such a simple idea and yet I would never have thought of doing it. Might give it a go for stocking #2, although I have ordered a new circular needle as I think the dpns didn't help on this one.

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  11. I can see why Mimi is such a fan of them, especially for colour contrasting heels in otherwise stripey socks.

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  12. I thought I'd share the tip as when someone told me it really helped.

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  13. I want, very badly, to knit stockings for my husband and myself. I keep putting it on my list, but never get around to starting! Your progress looks great.

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  14. You are amazing to do stranding on DPNs. I tried that for that baby giraffe hat and just couldn't get it so I bought a shorter needle.
    This stocking is amazing so far!

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