The twins two Large Christmas Stockings done on the Knifty Knitter 31 peg red loom were completed a week ago, but I've just now got around to adding their names. Embroidering on knit, also called Swiss embroidery or duplicate stitch, is not my favorite thing to do. Hopefully, I’ll improve with practice. I adapted my own pattern for the stockings, because my daughter-in-law wanted plain stockings with only the children's names added. I really wanted to something fancy, but I contained myself and did the plain design. Now that those are out of the way, I'm going to do one that will look like it fell out of a Dr. Seuss Christmas nightmare just to appease my inner child. The detailed pattern I used for these stockings is available here, but here's a brief description of what I did:For the cuff I did 29 rows of alternating knit & purl stitches to form a garter stitch pattern, then did a hang-hemmed like making the brim on a hat. The leg part of the stocking which varies from 32-36 rows is knit stitched. Short rows are worked starting on 15 pegs of the loom, decreasing to 5 pegs and increasing back to 15 to form the heel. The foot is 18 rows or approximately 6 inches and the toe is 2.5-3 inches: 3 rows of regular knit stitch and 6 rows of flat knit stitch then do a gathered bind-off.
In addition to the large stockings, I’ve been busy making little ornaments and/or pins using the Knifty Knitter spool loom. I just love doing what I fondly refer to as the “little quickies” on the spool loom.
Mini & micro stockings: These are a good example of results you get using the same loom and yarn, but different types of stitches and varying the strands of yarn. The first three stockings were made on the 8-peg end of the Knifty Knitter spool loom: the first was e-wrapped using two strands; the second was e-wrapped using one strand; and the third was flat knit stitched using one strand. The tiny micro stocking, which is about 2¼ inches tall, was completed using one strand of yarn. The cuff is garter stitched and the stocking is flat knit stitched.
Wreaths: Here is a picture of three out of five of my little wreaths that survived- I threw away two of them. The two casualties were made using a twisted flat I-cord on one and a braided I-cord on the other and had possibilities, but I just didn’t like the design. The three survivors were made using either a different number of strands or pegs, and varying lengths of I-cord. My favorite of the three is the one on the right, which I will be adding to my pattern box on the right side bar.
Candy Canes: I’m addicted to making candy canes. The ones pictured are only a sample of what I’ve made and were grouped to show what they look like by changing a few details. All were made on the 5-peg end of the KK spool loom. The first one on the left was made using one strand of red and one strand of white yarn then alternating the colors on each row. A pipe cleaner was added to hold for shaping. The center one was made by doing two rows of white and one row of red; always start with white and end with white. Fabric stiffener was used for shaping. The one on the right was done like the first one, but using two strands of yarn. My favorite is the one in the middle.
Instructions for the candy canes are available in my Pattern Box on the right.
