A New Year, A New Look and finished Christmas Items

Unless you are blind, you will see that I upgraded the template that I used. The previous template that I had been using was not compatible with the new blogger (with widgets and xml tags). Every now and then I would try to upgrade the template with no success, I would then look at the templates on offer and play around with those. I was never happy with the outcome. The other day though I decided to take the plunge and found a template, came up with a new header and the result is what you see. There is still some tweaking that I will be doing over the next little while.

As Christmas came and went I was able to knit three Christmas stockings for this family. Ali and I had never bothered with our own stockings, we have some at my Dad's house but there they remain. This year with the arrival of Ninja Baby it was time to make our own stockings. I decided on the yarn before the pattern - Cascade 220, and Village of Kirbla Estonian Stocking by Nancy Bush.
I used fewer stitches and took out a pattern repeat on the leg since I was using Cascade instead of the sport weight yarn the pattern called for. I also changed the first motif to include the name of the owner of the stocking. A corrugated rib heel sets off the colours. I must say that knitting corrugated ribbing back and forth is a PIA. More than once I had to rip back to fix where I carried the yarn on the right side. For the small amount on the stockings I think it is worth it. A whole garment worth - no way.- That is what steeking is for.



Pattern: Village of Kirbla Estonian Stockings
Yarn: Cascade 220
Needles: 3.5 and 4.0 mm ( US 4 and 6)
Ravelry link with more details