Friday, June 12, 2009

Christmas in June

My friend asked me to re-knit a Christmas stocking that her Grandmother made for her. She made stockings for the whole family, but when Mel was born she switched out the yarn. Cut to many years later and an unfortunate incident with soap and water and the stocking knit with the fine merino wool, which wasn’t color fast, is the worse for wear.

I have one of the original stockings to work from and the design is pretty simple: stockinette and duplicate stitch. I think her Grandmother used Red Heart for the first stocking (which survived the wash just fine, not a surprise) and I’m hoping to find a substitute yarn that will be superwash and a similar gauge.

I found the Caron Wintuk Worsted weight was a pretty good match. I could not match the Kelly Green of the original, but the red and white are spot on and I got gauge.

I cast on 58 stitches on size 3 dps and knit in 1 to 1 rib for 10 rows. Change to size 4 needles and knit flat in stockinette using white for 25 rows.

Change to red, knit stockinette for 28 rows.
Change to green, knit stockinette for 28 rows.
Change to red, knit stockinette for 28 rows.

The heel and foot is knit in the round using a standard Dutch Heel. I should be done with the main knitting pretty quick and then I will do the duplicate stitch and finish the foot.

3 comments:

me said...

WAIT! You do replacement custom stockings!!!??!?!?! :P I think ours are crocheted anyway. Out of the prettiest of acrylic yarn that my grandma favored.

Liz said...

In this case, yes I was asked if I could do it. Crochet is not my strong point.

Unknown said...

I'm so very excited to find this pattern. I'm one of eight siblings who have this beautiful traditional German Christmas stocking. My Mom received first one as a gift when my brother was born in 1949; from then one she made one for each of us. She carried the tradition on to grandkids until her death in 2003. I just found the last stocking she was working on. The original knitting magazine she had was lost. I hope to finish the stocking I found & do several more after that to carry on the family tradition.
Happy Early Holidays! Marti