No, sadly, these stockings do not hang in my house, but they are hanging in someone else’s house–a family who is very fond of their new handknit Christmas stockings. And even though I didn’t get to keep these, it didn’t make me any less satisfied with the finished product. In fact, this is probably one of the hardest projects I’ve done, partially because I had to do the same pattern 4 times, and a very hard pattern at that, and I think that made finishing them all the more rewarding.

I’ve come to realize something about myself: I absolutely love fair isle and colorwork designs, but when I’m in the midst of knitting them, I tend to not be so fond of it. This is definitely one instance when I am merely a product knitter and not a process knitter. However, I love the finished product too much to give up on colorwork, but it’s helpful to know that I may just always hate the process.

I think the design element that makes these stockings even more charming than all that wonderful argyle and snowflakes are the crocheted initial patches. The recipient’s names were too long to embroider on, so I came up with this alternative. Luckily I was thumbing through a crochet dictionary I rarely look at; as soon as I saw the pattern for these letters, I knew that I had to do that for these stockings. I’m just thrilled with the results.

4 months of knitting is definitely worth it to create a lifetime of family tradition. I would definitely make this pattern again. In a few years (wink wink).

Visit my shop to see what I currently have for sale to stuff your stockings this holiday season.

For more details about the making of these stockings, visit my Ravelry project page here.