Family of Socks

Do you do gift knitting for your friends and family at the holidays? I've done some in previous years: socks for my cousin Annie in 2009 and for my friend Elizabeth in 2010. Last year, I also knitted my biggest gift project ever, a vest for Mr. D. This year I decided to knit socks for my sister-in-law, her partner and my nephew, six year-old Olin.

You've already seen the finished Karen's Crow's Feet, and the in-progress Hearts for Evi Socks when I wrote about them in October. Since then, I finished Evi's socks and started and finished Olin's, which I'm calling the Stripes for Olin Socks. All three pairs have been blocked, and I think they look fantastic! And best of all: my holiday knitting is done—as of December 6—the earliest ever!

I have also finished knitting another sort of sock project about a week ago: a Christmas stocking. Mr. D is Jewish, and so he doesn't have a special handmade Christmas stocking, like the one Aunt Helen knitted for me when I was little. He has been using one of my collection of store-bought and craft fair stockings when we do our annual stocking tradition (more on that in a later post). My knitting group decided to knit Christmas stockings as a group project, so here was my opportunity to knit Mr. D his own stocking! My knitting guru, Christy, converted Maurya McBride's Snowflake Stocking to a stranded pattern in the round, and as a result, I got to practice two-color, two-handed knitting. The result isn't perfect, but I'm really proud of finishing it—it's only my second completed colorwork project.  Here is the final result:

So, gift knitting is done, but the holidays are just beginning. I'll keep you updated about my holidays—both Christmas and Hanukkah—in the weeks to come.