Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Knit Along: Wednesday 9th November 2011

Not much in the way of reading this week.  I have spent almost all my time trying to get my kids to do their schoolwork.  Which means constant supervision- which means that although knitting might get done, no artwork and no reading (because those take WAY too much concentration!).
On my needles this week is a Christmas stocking for DD.  I was originally going to make ME one, because I dislike the store bought one I have.  The idea of a country style, folk art stocking really appealed to me.
Only once I got my yarn, DD wanted HERS first!
I started out by using some worsted weight yarn- acrylic, so I could wash the stocking.  It was HUGE.  Except to DD who told me it was not big enough -she, apparently, wants it big enough to put a folding scooter in.  At least that is today.  Yesterday it was a trumpet.  The day before it was a recorder...
I am not a huge fan of huge stockings.  My house is small and four of them would just NOT fit.
So instead, I went with my own design, using some of Knit-Picks Palette yarn.

I cast on 96 stitches, joined to knit in the round, and K2, P2 for 1 inch.  Then I knitted  2 rounds before starting the holly chart below.
I have a chart for each of the family member names too- with a slightly more fancy font than you normally find :)
I knit that chart, before knitting 2 rows, then a green diamond pattern, 2 rows, 2 rows in snowman background, then the snowman chart.  When I am finished I shall type up all my instructions for you!

2 of the charts I am using, come from the Little Cotton Rabbit's Mini Christmas Stocking charts.  I highly recommend her stockings and mini bears for Christmas decorations!  Another chart I also got online, but the bird, holly, candy cane, snowman and swirl are all my own.  Not all of them fit ideally into 96- you might have to add a couple of stitches surrounding them- or do as I did and totally forget that and just make a joining pattern on the back.  I will show you that next time- when I hopefully remember to photograph it!

My art has not totally gone.  Apart from knitting charts- I have also been working on this...


A portrait of my son :) in pastel pencils.

P.S. You can click the pictures for more detail.

P.P.S.  See the other yarn along participants over at Ginny's Place :)

14 comments:

  1. A beautiful project and your art is wonderful.

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  2. Love your stocking! I'm always in awe when I see someone knitting something like this with its intricate pattern and colors :) So neat! Your drawing of your son is amazing to :)

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  3. oy!! So talented are we. Thanks for the encouragement but knitting and purling is about 200 light years behind what you can do lol.

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  4. Linda: Thank you :)
    Rosina: thank you and thank you :) Colour knitting is not so hard once you have the technique down pat :)
    Crunchy Momma: Thank you :) Truth be told, it is not ;) But I HAVE been knitting since childhood- not constantly of course though LOL

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  5. ive been thinking about knitting some christmas stockings, yours is looking great!

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  6. I always love to see these beautiful patterns. I am more of the "pick one color and go with it" knitter. And I just hope if I have to join another ball of yarn I don't totally screw it up :-) Does it take a long time to do these types of knits? I feel like I would mess it up for the pure fact that I end up putting my needles down several times in one row to deal with my babes!

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  7. All those color changes! That looks quite difficult. I'm sure it'll be lovely once finished.

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  8. Karen- Thank you! I say go for it, I was inspired by other stockings :)

    Heather: Not necessarily. This is a fine yarn, so it is longer than say, a worsted yarn BUT I am knitting in the round so EVERY stitch is a knit stitch!
    So long as you have a safe place to put the knitting, and so long as you push back the stitches on the needles, you rarely loose a place- simply because you can SEE where you are with colourwork :)
    Ellen: Thank you :) Not really that hard.
    I will add that Tasha at ByGumByGolly has some classes online (free) in progress to show you how to knit with the colourwork patterns :)
    http://blog.bygumbygolly.com/p/vintage-knitting-college.html

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  9. Oh my goodness, you are scary talented!

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  10. now thats wonderful, so clever x

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  11. Haha, I agree with Amy above! The stocking is beautiful!! And the portrait of your son is simply incredible! The detail on his sweater...so great.

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  12. Wow, so much talent. The portrait of your sun is beautiful, and the stocking is great, my big girl would love that.
    x

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  13. i love your colorwork, it's going to be a treasured heirloom, so lovely.
    and the portrait is so beautiful. my mother painted me when i was two, it's one of my favorite things still.

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  14. I KNOW I tried to respond to these last comments several times already- but it seems it never managed to keep my posts!
    @Amy Caroline: LOL thank you :)
    @Nocton4: Thank you!
    @House full of jays: LOL thank you :) That is his favourite cardi/hoodie, so I really had to make sure it made it into the picture!
    @Becks: thank you :) My daughter loves it too :)
    @Lori ann: thank you- that is the plan :) I love that your mother painted you. I have a tiny sketch I made in one of my books when my daughter was about 4 months old... every time I see it (whether physically or just in my mind's eye) it brings back the memory of me sitting there drawing her :)

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