There have been a few weddings this year, but more and more there are also babies being welcomed into the world. Making something for a new baby, much like making something for a wedding couple, or a friend, gives me time to think about the new arrival and the joy the new family will experience.
In 2008 I made a set of matching Christmas stockings for a couple of friends. My friend and her boyfriend wanted matching homey looking stockings. She and I worked together to create the stockings as a surprise for him. In those days I didn't know about Ravelry, and so I consulted google for stocking patterns. I found one my friend liked and ordered a paper copy of the pattern. I knit up the stockings and secretly passed them to my friend when they came for a visit in the summer. Of course I didn't take any photos of the completed stockings.
First comes love, then comes marriage, and then this sweet couple needed a third stocking to match their set. Of course I could not find the paper pattern I had purchased six years ago, but (also of course) I did still have some of the dark green yarn left over in my stash! In trying to match everything up, I obtained from my friend the only known picture of one of the stockings in the wild:
The pattern seller had upgraded their services since 2008 and I was able to re-purchase the pattern as a PDF from Annie's Woolens. I made guesses about the colors. I knew I had used Red Heart acrylic yarn on the first stockings, so at least there weren't too many options. The pattern is worked top down, and construction mirrors that of a traditional short row heel sock, except with bigger yarn and bigger needles. I think that the original stockings have my first ever attempts at short row heels. My duplicate stitch skills are much improved over last time, thanks in large part to this tutorial.
The end result is a very good match to the original stockings. I added ornaments to the trees to make this one extra special.
