Stealth Stockings

After the adventure of knitting a lace shawl in two months, I realized that Christmas was only a month away.  And I had plans for knit Christmas gifts! 

The original plan looked something like this:
- Socks for Amy
- Socks for dear friend
- Baby jacket for Goddaughter
- Baby outfit for friend of André's (baby due in January)
- Maybe socks for second sister
- Baby outfit for Aunt of Goddaughter who is expecting in March

Right. 

What actually happened by Christmas:
- Socks for Amy - Check!
- Socks for dear friend for my father.  Yes, singular
- Baby jacket for Goddaughter - pattern and yarn picked. 
- Baby outfit for friend of André's (baby due in January) - pattern picked, yarn I think will need buying.
- Maybe socks for second sister - her birthday is in March... store bought gift for Christmas
- Baby outfit for Aunt of Goddaughter who is expecting in March - um... right. 

So I give you what I got done, and hopefully I can work on the rest of the list over new years. 

First, socks for Amy.  Way back in February I went down to visit my darling sister, and picked up two beautiful yarns which were to be converted into knitwear for her.  The first became wrist warmers.  Just.

The second was a gorgeous sock pair from Turtle Purl in Gothic Plum, destined to be a second pair of wrist warmers.  Which apparently I was going to design from scratch, and because I didn't know how long the yarn would go, I wanted to knit from the fingers down. 

Or Amy could ask for socks while we were visiting her in Toronto a few weeks ago.  So socks it was!

They are in fact Chimaera from Knitty.  Toe up, which was essential - Amy is quite tall, and I wanted to get every inch I could without having to pull back and rip out the leg to have enough for the toes.  Although, having the balls pre-divided was probably the smartest thing I have ever heard of!


Added benefit (and the reason that Turtle Purl is my current knitting HERO) - the balls are dyed to match each other exactly.  Start in the same spot and you get identical socks.  No kidding.  These are my first pair of identical socks from self striping yarn!

I wasn't sure how the slipped stitch pattern would look over the leg and foot in the self striping yarn, but the longer I knit, the more I LOVED it.  Also, the gusset detail?  Amazing!

Super amazingly happy with these, and Amy loves them too. 


These socks went so fast, I thought for sure I would have time to knit another pair.  Especially after talking to my other sister Alison and finding out that apparently socks would be a good gift for my father.  Although I think his wife meant store bought ones, but oh well.

A quick peak in the stash revealed a denim coloured self striping ball perfect for simple ribbed socks for Dad.  

Suffice to say, Christmas Eve came around and here's what I had completed...

Update: by the end of Christmas Eve I had the gusset finished. Christmas morning saw the heal turned.  But by the time it came to go to my Father's for Christmas lunch, there was only one sock wrapped up. 

More on that story later. 

In the mean time, I'm tossing the stash for baby outfit yarns.  One picked, another might warrant a trip out in the cold.  We'll see. 

Merry Christmas dear blog, and we'll see you in the New Year!