I did take a brief hiatus in January when the fatigue of pregnancy, the holiday madness, and a second cold in the same month laid me flat on my back. A couple weeks later, I was coherent enough at night to pick the needles up again and actually follow directions.
Well, sort of. I successfully completely a pair of fuzzy feet for my sister, and they were only about 1 1/2 weeks late. We had fun felting them here at my house one evening. I haven't heard anything and forgot to take pictures, so I'm going on the blissful assumption that all is well with them. (Of course, I haven't asked about them either!)
Then I hit the Christmas stocking for my niece again. My sister is a very understanding person, and is totally fine with this gift being months late. (Of course it helps that my niece is only a year old and therefore doesn't know that her aunt is horribly delinquent!)
I finished the body of the stocking (the red part). I knit it in 8 squares, and then sewed the squares together to form what I like to think of as a pointettia pattern in the center of the front and back.
Then I began to run into trouble. Somehow, in the instructions for picking up the stitches to begin the white part, the cuff, I did it exactly backwards. I didn't figure this out until I had knit 3 never-ending inches of stockinette (the flat white knitting immediately above the red section), and then knit about an inch of the fold-down pattern. In a sudden moment of clarity while I was out of town and away from the children -- a rare moment of peaceful daytime knitting -- I realized that the side that was supposed to fold down on the outside of the stocking was in fact inside-out.
Rather than rip out the entire white cuff, and repeat the eternal 3 inches of stockinette again, I ripped about an inch of it out, turned directions (it won't show because the cuff will fold down over it), and knit correctly til the top. I'm now making progress again and here you can get an idea how it will look once I finish about 3.5 inches of the lace pattern. (I use the term "lace" loosely here, for all those highly-experienced lace knitters who look at this and scoff.)
Once I finish the white cuff, I'll pick up (hopefully the right way this time) more red at the bottom of the stocking and knit the heel and toe. I'm guessing this will be the boring part -- as I recall there isn't much of a pattern here. But this project has shown me that I can only handle so much variety without getting totally lost!
Despite the screw-ups, I'm really enjoying this project. It has enough variety to keep my interest. What's best about a Christmas stocking? You only have to knit one!
