Tiger Christmas Stocking

Dear Friends…

Yes, another knitted project! This is a Christmas stocking in the favorite colors for a special little boy I know.

Garment Project Data:
– Type: Christmas stocking, meant to be hung
– Date made: December 14th and 15th 2016
– Pattern: Made it up as I went
– Fabric/Materials: Cotton yarn in orange and brown
– Trim: black wool yarn
– Time to finish: 2 days

The first decision was the yarns. The idea was to do tiger stripes, but to use yarns I already had in my stash. I came up with a cotton orange, a cotton brown, and a wool black. I was wary of using the orange with black because of the different materials and thicknesses, and I was worried it would be a very stark look. But just orange and brown seemed a little pale. With the help of some friends, I settled on the brown for the stripes and black for trim.

Here goes! I’m free handing the pattern, so I really didn’t plan or gauge. It actually ended up being a little larger around than I’d pictured, but it’ll work. You’ll notice that despite not working in the round, I’m on round needles again. Here I’m using a size 3, since I wanted a really tight look.

And the heel is turned! I actually goofed a little and one side slants a bit more sharply (a few more rows) than the other side, but I can fix that when I seam up the back. You can see I’m tapering the stripes by doing uneven amounts in each row.

The finished knitted portion.

And done seaming up the back! Since this is going to be a Christmas stocking and not worn, I seamed up the bottom/back (which would be uncomfortable when worn) and didn’t worry about actually making the heel a full 90-degree turn. Also, the foot portion is proportionally short, which makes it easy to get things out of the bottom.

And complete! A crocheted scalloped border at the top, and a crocheted loop to hang it from. Weave in the ends, and voilá!

Most sincerely yours,
~ Sarah

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