A tired puppy is a good puppy. We took Abby for a nice long walk after lunch today and she ended up sleeping most of the afternoon. I used it as a chance to work on some knitting. I'm now finished the first of the Evangline Mitts and two repeats into the second one.

I'm making a few modifications to the pattern. I added an extra repeat before the thumb so that my mitts will come right up to my elbows. I've got more yarn in my skein than the pattern calls for and a second one if I really need it (but I hope not because I'd like to make a matching hat). I've also reversed the middle cable on the second mitt so the mitts will mirror each other. Not that anyone is likely to notice when I'm wearing them, I just like mirrored pairs.

Pattern: Traditional Family Stocking Pattern (one of five designs)
Yarn: Cascade 220 in 8895 Christmas Red, 7827 Golden Rod, 8555 Black, 9430 Highland Green, 8505 White
Size: As written (82 stitches across the top)
Yardage: 1 skein of red, a third to half a skein of other colours.
Needles: 3.75 mm bamboo circular (24")

The stocking was finished and delivered on time. It turned out a lot bigger than any of the other stockings so I wonder if I was supposed to use a smaller yarn or leave out part of the pattern or something; my brother's stocking is the same design but doesn't have the "Seasons Joy" at the top below the name. Niall and Jane didn't seem to mind though and I'm still very pleased with how it turned out since I did a lot of learning as I went along.

I crocheted the seam up the back. It went really quickly and seemed appropriate since Jane has been encouraging me to learn to crochet better. I'm going to keep it in mind if I'm ever seaming up a blanket.

We delivered the stocking Christmas Eve when Jane invited us over for a do-it-yourself pizza dinner - lots of fun and so good. She had two kinds of dough (plain and herbed), four different cheeses (I used them all), pineapples, mushrooms and a couple of different sausages (I picked the spicy one). We used to make pizzas like this when we were little (just use a pie plate - it's the perfect size) and it was a great, relaxed way of doing Christmas Eve dinner.

This is the stocking I started a little while ago. It has been my slow project (it's not a surprise so I can share it here). Doing the colour work is too complicated for me to be keeping track of Abby at the same time so I have to wait until Rob is able to watch the dog in order to work on it (puppy watching is a full attention job - we take turns). It seemed to take me forever to get through Santa and his sleigh; it really felt I had accomplished something when I finished it (even though I was only half way down the stocking).

I'm a little past what shows in the above picture now. There are houses below Santa. The number of bobbins of yarn I was using for the houses was crazy. There were so many colours at once. It was a relief to get past all that so I was only working with two or three colours per row.


I've still got seven or eight hours of work before it is finished but that seems so much more manageable than it did before. All of what's left involves either very little or no colour work at all and the toe and heels have lots of decreasing which will make them seem faster. I'll need to gently block and press the stocking before I seam it up; despite my best efforts, a lot of my colour work features strange tension changes.