Christmas Stockings

Another skill that I have recently mastered is the art of turn a heal and knitting socks.   I love socks and I love making socks.  They are just so practical and comfy.  Who doesn't like a nice soft warm pair of socks to mull around the house in or cuddle up on the couch with a cup of hot coco??

However, I have bene practicing socks on a larger scale for Christmas this year - Christmas stockings.   I have been turning them out left and right but now I have to add the finishing touches to make them even more adorable than they are now.  I like them to be classic and elegant - timeless.  I have a ridiculous amount of bulky sweaters that I have been yearning to use and I decided to use them for Christmas this year.  I have no idea why I was "saving" them.  They were bought to be used.  I think I get this trait from my mother.  I tend to hold into them until the perfect project beckons their call to be knit.

The recycled/repurposed sweaters are in creams and light blues.  The yarn has beautiful silver thread throughout.  Just stunning.  The blue is the perfect shade of pale sky and the glisten of the thread makes them pop (subtle pop).  All are natural fibers - merino wool.  I also have some red and a few other surprises. I can't wait to list them but not yet.  I hate that I am seeing Christmas out already in the stores.  I mean it's still AUGUST!!

Last night I learned how to jog..

Jog in knitting that is.   Just a little trick that I picked up from a book last evening and I thought I would share.

When you are knitting stripes and it's time to change colors I am sure that you noticed that they colors do not always line up perfectly when knitting in the round.  I find that rather annoying and unsightly being the perfectionist that I am.

So, here is how you "jog"-

change colors and knit until the first stitch in the color change.  Pick up that stitch and the stitch below and knit them together (K2tog)  By knitting these 2 stitched together it levels out the color change and all the colors line up properly.

So for example,

I am knitting in RED and I want to change to Blue.  I change to blue like normal.  Once I have completed one round and just before I knit that second row of Blue, pick up the blue stitch you started your color change in and also the red stitch from the row below.  Knit the red and blue stitches together using blue.

Voila!  A perfectly lined up color change...

The Fibonacci Sequence and Knitting...

In mathematics, the Fibonacci numbers are the numbers in the following integer sequence:

Sunflower head displaying florets in spirals of 34 and 55 around the outside

The first two Fibonacci numbers are 0 and 1, and each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two.                                                     

A little history according to my favorite online reference "book" -        
                                            Wikipedia

The Fibonacci sequence is named after Leonardo of Pisa, who was known as Fibonacci.  Fibonacci numbers are used in the analysis of financial markets, in strategies such as Fibonacci retracement, and are used in computer algorithms such as the Fibonacci search technique and the Fibonacci heap data structure.  They also appear in biological settings, such as branching in trees, arrangement of leaves on a stem, the fruit spouts of a pineapple, the flowering of artichoke, an uncurling fern and the arrangement of a pine cone.

Some pictures of this seqence occurring in nature

  

Sunflower head displaying florets in 

spirals of 34 and 55 around the outside

                               

Now you may ask what the heck does this have to do with knitting??  Well I'll tell you..  The Fibonacci sequence is known to be pleasing to the eye.  Why?  I think, in my opinion, since this sequence happens so often in  nature it naturally looks pleasing to us.  Make sense?


I am going to use this in my most recent project: a Christmas Stocking

(Yes, I know that winter is almost over but I am trying to get ahead this season.)  I will be using this sequence to determine when the color changes will occur.  I will be using 2 or 3 colors.  I'll keep you posted and we'll see how this really turns out.

Exciting News!!!

I have been holding this under wraps for some time but now I can shout it from the roof tops.  My cable knit Pillow sham is featured in this month's issue of Southern Flourish Magazine!   Yeah!!

I am so excited!  I can't believe that I was asked to contribute to this beautiful magazine and for their Holiday issue too!  If you love Southern Living you will love this magazine.  The pictures are stunning, the goods are gorgeous and the people who work there are wonderful!  You can read all about them on their website:

http://www.SouthernFlourish.com

If you would have told me 5 years ago when I picked up my first pair of knitting needles and my first ball of yarn that I would be featured in a magazine, I would have laughed.  Pinch me, please!  It just goes to show you that when you do what you love and love what you do it shows.

I feel very fortunate and blessed to have found my passion so early in my life.  Some people never find it and others may find later or not at all.   Whatever you passion may be and even if you are still searching for it remember this

"Do it well, finish it right and them move on"
                                                         Eunise Schriver