Woo hoo .... or maybe I should say "YIKES"!! ... it's December 1. Ho ho ho (help help help!) ... LOL.
I have picked back up as of yesterday the Christmas stocking project for my great-nephew. I'm at the point of working the deer head(s) - there is one on each side so it can hang either way. The deer heads, per the pattern, are supposed to be knit using the "intarsia" method; however, some of the stitches are singles & you should have at least 2 for intarsia to work, plus you have to twist yarn when you add a new color to prevent holes. That just seemed too hard and if I have to work a few "duplicate" stitches (recommended in pattern for those 'single' stitches), why not do the whole thing in duplicate stitch? The charts are like 'counted cross stitch'.
So that's what I'm doing - 100% duplicate stitch for the deer heads. It's not easy - new technique for me, but as I go, I can see improvement. It's a slow go. I think it's going to take a minimum of 3-4 days per head - I should have started a month or two ago. I worked yesterday afternoon/evening and had to stop at 9 pm ... headache & my eyes were starting to cross. I'm back at it today & it's going pretty well with fresh eyes ... for example, a part that looked almost impossibly hard last night happened with a minimum of problems this morning.
Here it is so far ....
I still have the horse blankets to work on. I had a talk with "mom" to see what the girls (3 & 5) could handle as far as 'closures' for the front of the blankets & for the surcingles-like straps around the belly. The horses are slick & I have determined a surcingle is necessary to keep the blankets mostly in place. She tells me the 3 year old can handle large buttons, so buttons it will be. I looked through my button stash ... some that would work, but I think I can find something better, so I'll have to take a trip to the store in the near future. I should be ok on getting the horses/blankets finished in time for Christmas.
Deer Stocking Update ....
I just spent a considerable amount of time figuring out how to get the nose on. After realizing I had some sort of error that was just compounding as I went along, I had to cut all the “nose” stitches off that I’d worked (trying not to cut any stockinette stitches!) & start from scratch. I discovered a missing brown stitch which is next to the nose stitches (nose in black - like stitching blindfolded) which I thought was the cause of all the trouble, but there was another issue as well. All got sorted out & the nose is now on.
I’ve got enough of the head done that I’m noticing a disturbing trend, especially with the nose worked. The stocking head appears to be ‘wider’ and I think it needs to be taller, based on the pattern pictures, which means it could be distorted. Not good. So here’s what the plan is:
Finish the deer head on one side, at least enough to see if it’s going to look weird. If not looking weird, continue on.
If it looks weird, that will then be The End of the deer stocking. I saw a cute crochet stocking that can be this year’s present (the little guy is only going to be 7 months old at Christmas) & I can work on another ‘heirloom’ quality knitted stocking during the year & have it ready for next year’s Christmas.
Here’s the crochet stocking ... looks pretty cute & if I get the right yarn in some great colors, I think it will be a good ‘first’ stocking, until I can get something more elaborate knitted in the future.
Country Cottage Stocking Crochet Pattern
https://theturtletrunk.com/country-cottage-stocking-crochet-pattern/
I love the texture on this stocking .... it involves FPDC – Front Post Double Crochet I am NOT a fan of ‘post’ stitches, but I’d rather be doing ‘Front’ than ‘Back’ Post. Also, I could work this up in about 2-3 evenings, which would take a lot of pressure off ... we have a 99th birthday coming up this month (my dad), so plans for that are beginning to take up time, too.
Her work is SO neat in the pictures, which are terrific for instructional purposes!