Handmade Holiday

Before they get packed away for another year, let me take you on a little photo tour of some of my handmade Christmas decorations.

First up are the Christmas stockings I made couple years ago for John and myself. They actually mark the turning point when I went over the edge ... um, I mean, when I went from being a casual, every-once-in-a-while knitter to someone who constantly has something on the needles.

These are made from TLC Essentials yarn and are simply an enlarged version of a regular-sized basic sock. I combined the features from a few different patterns in Interweave's Christmas Stockings book. I skipped any fancy texture or colorwork because I started them just before Christmas and wanted to finish them in time. The names were duplicate stitched.

Next, we have some mini stockings and matching mini mittens which grace our doorknobs this season. Since I had never made a sock before, I actually knitted these stockings just prior to working up the larger ones in order to understand the process. The patterns for both minis are also in the Christmas Stockings book. The yarn is from Caron -- Christmas Glitter in Green which has a metallic silver thread running through it and Victorian Christmas Gold in Cranberry with a gold metallic thread.

Finally, over on our tree, we have some cross-stitch ornaments which I made many, many moons ago, even before I learned to knit.

tags: knitting  cross stitch