The Saga of the Christmas Stockings
In the past, my family put stockings up on Christmas Eve, left them up for Christmas Day, then took them down on the 26th. This makes sense for the ugly store bought fuzzy red and white stockings. But Christmas of 2024, a new tradition began that was 4 years in the making, and now we leave the stockings up for a few weeks so that my family and our guests may admire my craftsmanship!
You might be thinking, “It is 2026! Why are you just writing about this great accomplishment now?” Yes, this blog post has been about five years in the making! Perhaps I should write a blog post about my constant battle with procrastination… nah, I’ll do that later!
The stockings I said I would make for my family had become a joke! Each year I would say, “This year will be the year I finish the stockings!” And each year, I would make some progress, but not finish the stockings. I kept telling my siblings, “I could get them done, but I have been prioritizing paid jobs over this.” Because let's face it, it’s all about the money these days! But on Christmas Eve, 2024, I finally finished the stockings!!!! And I felt so accomplished! And now, over a year later, I am excited to share the story with you!
Almost a decade ago, my friend connected me with someone who was looking for a knitter to replicate the stockings her grandmother used to make. After making several stockings for someone else’s family, I thought it would be nice to make stockings for my own family. I wanted to make each person a different stocking. I paged through the several stocking books I had to find the perfect stocking for each sibling. I ordered the yarn in late October or early November of 2021 thinking that would surely be enough time to knit nine stockings. Boy, was I wrong!
By the time Christmas came around, I had only completed one stocking and begun part of another. The one stocking I had completed was the “Paper Doll” stocking from Knit a Vintage Christmas. I even wrote a blog post about that stocking which I ever so creatively titled, “Paper Dolls.”
As Christmas 2022 approached and I was not close to finishing the second stocking, I decided to change my plan. The “Paper Dolls” stocking was only two colors, but the other stocking I was knitting had a tree, presents, and other Christmas themed items. I decided to put that stocking aside and bought yarn to make all the stockings with the “Paper Dolls” pattern. The yarn arrived on November 20, and by November 24, I had made significant progress on two stockings. To add some variety, I decided to alternate between red and green.
Then finals week arrived and I had to put all knitting on hold as I frantically wrote papers and studied for exams. By Christmas Eve, I had completed three stockings and begun two others. As the hours passed by, I lost all hope of finishing the stockings in time for Christmas.
I stayed up all night knitting on New Year’s Eve. By January 1, 2023 I had five stockings completed and had started the next two. The new plan was that they would be Epiphany stockings, but January 6 came and went, and still the stockings were not completed.
Once school started up again I put the project aside. I did not pick up the project again until mid December. This time I cast on the two stockings for my parents. This was a different pattern by Robin Denney. The idea was each of their stockings would have a heart on it and when held next to each other the stockings would form a heart. Once again all knitting ceased during finals week, but I was close to finishing the sixth and seventh “Paper Dolls” stockings. The heart stockings were smaller, so I figured I would breeze right through them. I began the colorwork hearts on December 16, less than 10 days away from Christmas. My plan was to act like I would not be able to finish the stockings and then surprise my family on Christmas morning with a new set of matching stockings!
By Christmas Eve morning, I had finished the sixth stocking, and everything but the toe of the seventh. If I worked on nothing but the stockings all day, I would be able to finish them all! There was one other project I had to finish: a Santa hat for my neighbor’s new baby. But since she said a Christmas Eve drop off was ok, I was not too worried. I was making great progress on the little Santa hat. I made up the pattern as I knit. The whole time I thought, “This does not look right, but I need to trust the process.” Finally when I was almost finished I held it up and thought, “This is ugly!” So I took it apart and started over with a different method of decreasing. I finished the hat and dropped it in my neighbor’s mailbox in the middle of the night. It was a very cute hat! But alas, once again I had not finished the stockings. So much for my plan of surprising everyone with the stockings.
My three big projects for Fall 2024 were the lighthouse blanket, my senior thesis on Little House on the Prairie, and passing chemistry class which I had taken “for fun.” So once again I picked up the stockings in December. This time I was so close! I only had to finish the toes of my parents’ stockings and two of the paper dolls stockings, then add the little loops to hang the stockings on the hooks above the fireplace. I was also trying to finish a pair of socks that were supposed to have been my dad’s Father’s Day present.
Christmas Eve arrived and I was almost finished! I sat on the couch all morning knitting and weaving in ends. I sewed up the toes of the stockings and added the loops, and I even finished the socks! After 3 years of feeling like a failure, I finished 10 projects in one day! What an accomplishment!
