Christmas on My Mind

It's October, so of course I'm thinking Christmas. I've actually been thinking about it since July when I bought my daughter a dollhouse on Ebay. I have quite a few projects that have been stewing around in my mind for a while. I want to make an ornament wreath like the ones I saw filling up Pinterest last year. I think my oldest is old enough now for an advent calendar. Oh, and we need stockings.

I knitted stockings for my husband and myself a few years ago, but I am unhappy with them. I used Lopi yarn and they are scratchy. Also, they're too big, and I don't like the colors. Plus, with two kids and a baby on the way, I certainly don't want to spend all my knitting time making three more dissatisfying stockings just so they all match. I thought about coming up with something knitted that I DO like, but, eh, knitting takes a lot of time and I'd need five stockings. I think I'd rather spend knitting time on something else.

The stockings I grew up with were just about perfect, in my opinion. They were big enough, but not enormous. My mom made cross stitch cuffs with everyone's name on them. She's been working on those cuffs for the past 20 years, though! I think she made cuffs for my sister, brother, myself and herself in pretty quick succession, but then stalled out on my dad's. She finally finished his (after something like 10 years) but then my sister and I got married and pretty quickly started adding grandkids. Cross stitching takes as much time as knitting, if not more, so I'm not going to cross stitch name cuffs. I'm just going to get the cuffs embroidered.

I also think I'm going to be using her stocking pattern as my template. Unfortunately, the pattern piece didn't include seam allowances. Not too long ago, armed only with the template and no directions, I blithely cut out ten pieces of quilt batting and 10 stocking fronts and backs, only to discover the final product was just that bit too small. I'm stalled. I want to get these darn things done, and I know it won't take me very long to put them all together. I just have to decide if I want to cut new stockings with correct seam allowances or if I can live with stockings that are (in my opinion) a half inch too small in all directions. Grrrr.....