whitby tall stockings

This is a pair of stockings I made back in August of last year but since I have had computer issues on and off they never got posted.  So i figured now is  a good time to get caught up on a few posts that should have been posted long ago.  Item I have made but you have never seen.  In this photo they are on the needle still and I had just made an eyelet round.   But they have been cast off and are finished.  there is a pink ribbon woven into the top of the stocking to help hold them up.  I also use garters to hold them up.  Here they are shown folded over at the knew but they actually are an above the teen stocking.

When I was making these I would work on them in the car while waiting for my kids to get out of school during car pool.

I call these my mismatched matched socks.  I bought the yarn on clearance the store only had a few skeins and well they are not the same dye lot.  At a dollar a skein  I did not care and they keep me warm.  Original pattern was from the top down. But I like working from the toe up so when I run out of yarn I can either make the cuff a different color or just finish the sock where I am or if I have more than the pattern calls for make the socks longer. I have never reversed a pattern before so this was a first. I also used two skeins of the same pattons yarn but different dye lots (on purpose bought them on clearance for one dollar). I figured if I goofed up well at least it was not an expensive mistake. At 90% the way done and I did run out of the yarn which I expected two since the pattern calls for. Three colors and four skeins. But not an issue I just switched to a skein of cream I also bought for a dollar. So now I have a pair of mismatched matched socks. I did not try to make the pattern repeats match I think it it fun and funky that way and since they are different dye lots they truly do not match one to another color wise but who care under winter boots of under jeans in cold Utah winters I sure don’t I made them for a learning experience and I made them for warmth both of which came out perfect. Oh yeah when one skein ran out the other did not for two more rounds and because these are purposeful mismatched sock I just let it do that. If I had followed the pattern and made it in fair isle but with two colors not three I would not have had the wide white band at the top but I did not care about that as that lands at the knee and looks like I did it on purpose which I did in a way. The pattern works backwards perfectly as long as you remember to increase where it reads decrease and visa versa. So I assume it works perfectly forward as well. My daughters are already trying to steal the socks so I guess others like them too. I did this as an experiment but was a no brainier project so it was an easy knit.

Oak leaf stockings

start of oak leaf stockings, originally uploaded by sunshine's creations.

When I was a little girl I lived in the country on many acres of land with my grandparents. Recently that old home was torn down by the new owners sad but that is life. Parts of the house I grew up in were over 100 years. So it was a historical house that is no more. The property was full of real big beautiful oak trees that I loved playing under. I am making these stockings in memory of those trees and the color I chose was a reminded to me of the bug houses that lived on those trees.

It took me awhile to find a pattern for the oak leaves that I liked. Once I did find one it was in French and had some pretty unique symbols in it  nothing like translating knitting from one language to another oi painful. I had to frog these socks four times to just get to this point. But now I know how to make this pattern and could not be more pleased with them. I have since found some other versions that incorporated acorns may add those to the back of the stockings or may make another set with them. The yarn I am using is Red Heart Stardust in orange (but the colors are actually orange with hints of red, yellow and purple). It is machine washable and discontinued. The fiber has a little sparkle in it too which I like reminds me of due on the leaves. Since I am incorporating multiple patterns together to make this item I hope it comes out OK as I am also winging it a ton too.

Alice in Wonderland Mitts

Because my middle  daughter wanted to make a pair.  This is the daughter who said she would never learn how to knit.   She said she only wanted the things I knitted but never would learn.  At one time I convinced her to learn but she said she would never do it again.  Imagine my surprise when she said she wanted a set of blue and white mitts for a costume she wanted to wear more surprised when she said she was going to knit them herself.

So I am making a set with her.  I went through the pattern to see any conflicts she might have with it as she is still a newbie.  Supper simple pattern to follow and free too. 

I showed her how to cast on again and I did the cast off for her ( a loose cast off)Hers is light blue she is posting  on her blog about them.  Mine are dark royal blue with cream.  In a few of my photos you will see the beginning of hers as we compared colors.  She frogged her first glove three times before she liked it.  I never frogged mine took four hours to knit both mitts for me.  She is still working on hers.


I did mine in knit in the round then plain stockinette stitch then back to knit in the round, whereas  my daughter did hers in a twisted knit stitch then purls not twisted then back to twisted knit stitch in the round.  Because of the nature of the two stitches of course hers does not roll as much if I did mine again I would do it the way my daughter did with twisted stitches but I would twist them on all stitches not just the knits and I would add a thumb gusset.  I have never liked the slit opening feel it is sort of uncomfortable and pulls funny.  Because of this I will probably always wear these with lace gloves under them
Another feature of the twisted knit stitch is that it has more texture than just the plain knit stitch.

french beaded corsage and boutonnière

My daughters went to homecoming recently and I made a corsage for one and a boutonnière for the other.

My middle daughter went stag as she is too young to date so I made her a corsage.

She found her dress six months prior thrift shopping for 30 dollars not a bad price for such a dress.  She modified the dress to be more modest with a shirt.  I used French beaded wire techniques to make this item.

I also used pink rhinestone buttons and plastic sequins to make the corsage.  The beads I used were beads left over from other projects that I had been collecting in color themes so I could make flowers out of them.

My oldest  daughter went on a date the theme was starry night or some-sort of thing like that. Her dress.

I found thrift shopping for 10 dollars.  Her jewelry is rhinestone I owned as a child and the purse was her grandmothers.  Last time it was used was in the 1960's to go to another homecoming dance.  I made a beaded boutonnière for her date in the shape a rocket with stars, and a moon. My husband did a doodle and I made the boutonnière after his design as the inspiration.  I used French beading techniques to make the stars and exhaust.  Wear as the rocket and moon I embroidered the beads on to apiece of felt then cut it out and stitched that on to a wire frame.