This week, I share the continuation of one family's Christmas tradition and chat with Leslye Solomon, owner of Woolstock Knit Shop.
Hollingshead Christmas Stocking
My friend and fellow knitter, Linsey Hollingshead, brought me a Christmas stocking made by her grandmother. She wanted to continue the tradition of hand-knitted Christmas stockings for each member of her family, starting with her husband of a few months, Steve. So, I counted stitches, and wrote up some instructions for her. She did a great job and I'm proud to say that it was her first sock-like object.
It's a pretty traditional top-down sock construction, with a seamed, shaped leg, a standard flap-and-gusset round heel, and a grafted toe. It is a great beginner project because the stitches are all easy to see and you only need to make one at a time - no second sock syndrome in sight.
Linsey's grandma was not fooling around when it came to her Swiss darning, either. She had lovely Christmas ornaments on the stockings for the men, and names, as well. Linsey worked out her designs on knitter's graph paper and chose the alphabet for the names from a book of embroidered alphabets I have. She then copied the letters she needed onto knitter's graph paper, and went from there. It is really lovely.
Chat
Leslye Solomon and I talked about blocking wires, getting steamed up, and a new app for your iPhone or iPad.
Links
Fiber Fantasy Blockers Kit (Blocking Wires)
The Handknitter's Guide to Sweater Finishing DVD
KnitSpeaker is the iPhone/iPad app we talked about. There is a link to it near the upper-right-hand corner of this page.
