…Birdie Stockings

I know this post is long overdue, since it features items I made as Christmas presents, but I still have to show them off anyway!  Trent’s sister, Amanda (whom you’ve seen wearing the monkey hat), and her husband brad (seen wearing the manly mitts) live way off in Seattle.  For a very long time, she’s been wanting some Christmas decorations in the knitted form.  We decided to surprise them for Christmas with some pre-stuffed homemade Christmas stockings.  We didn’t want the stockings to look like your standard green, red, and white stockings, but something a little different for them. 

 

I chose a simple knitted pattern from a great book, Holiday Knits. I knitted in the round using magic loop technique (my first time with magic oop), making one in green with a brown birdie, and one in brown with a green birdie. This was my first experience with embroidering on knits, and I found this video  on youtube to be extremely helpful. The embroidery turned out really nicely!

We stuffed them with fun goodies from World Market, and Brad & Amanda loved them.

btw, the mini stockings of ours that are pictured above are for kitties, not kiddies.  No little rugrats yet!

 

…Tabi Socks

Pattern: Tabi Socks by Veronik Avery
From: Knitting Classic Style

Ok, so my first pair of socks EVER didn’t turn out so bad! I took on quite a bit for my first foray into socks, seeing as how this pair is more like mittens for your toes. It attracted me by the separation of big toe from small toes (and big toes have always hate those little piggies). The lace pattern was intimidating at first, as it was vary easy to become distracted from the small chart showing a 32-stitch repeat, therefore I often finished a repeat with not the right number of stitches. After I became fairly familiar with it, it went a lot smoother and as a result the right sock (which I knitted first) turned out a little more sloppily than the left sock. Eh, oh well.

I really like the lace pattern though – its leafy and it has a side-seam look to it too. I know that the socks don’t quite go with the sandals pictured, but all other flip flops I own are pretty mangy. Guess I should start shopping for a pair of flip flops or sandals that are suitable for these semi-beauties.