Handmade Monday - Christmas is a'coming...

Hello there Handmade Monday ... this the day in the week when we all admit what we've been up to.  Or at least what we have finished.

I've never been one to put the Christmas Decorations up more than a week before Christmas.  I only go Christmas shopping in December and I don't send Christmas cards more than one weekend before Christmas.  But this year, I have started thinking about Christmas gifts for craft fairs good and early.

Did you know that there could be so much effort to get a Christmas stocking just right?

I've tried fattening, thining, shortening, lengthening, I'm still not sure I'm happy but here goes:

Footnote: (pun intended), I'll get the iron out when I get to the final design!

I think I still might tinker a bit more. I'm trying to achieve a vintage look.  Any suggestions gratefully received.

Knitted sock update: progress continues on the right foot, but panic is beginning to set in, I had to continue for around 6 inches, then do something... if I can't find the instructions soon, then my deadline (that I set myself) of October 2nd, might just slip away.

Doting parent update: I am proud to announce that I removed the stabilisers from my 5 year olds bike on Sunday, and she rode off into the sunset!  Unfortunately the 2 and half year old appears to want to follow suit - he crawled at 5 months, walked at 10 months, so I guess riding a bike by 3 is in his schedule!

So pop over to 1st unique gifts and see what everyone else has been up to.

Handmade Monday sock it to you!

Handmade Monday is an opportunity to see what people have been making, noone said it had to be any good, so -I'd like a bit of a fanfare please, maybe a drum roll too. I would like to show you the LARGEST thing I have ever FINISHED in knitting...

Here it is, the left foot:

It is bad luck to put new shoes on the table, what about new socks?

And here is the right foot:

I'm a bit too busy at the mo, but I am aiming for completion by the end of the month.

I treated myself to a sock kit from Laughing Yaffle, followed the instructions, and hey presto, it worked!
Now I suppose I should tell you about my knitting:

• The kit comes with 5 needles, I lost one within a few hours, this must be why there are 5, because I was able to carry on knitting.
• I have never completed anything other than finger puppets (which I did design myself), and that would have been when I was 12.
• I can't knit without looking.
• I really dislike stopping mid row, because when I was about 7 I turned my knitting around and went back the wrong way and everyone laughed at me!
• When my Great Gran was going doo-lally she would put 2 or 3 heels in one sock. 

This to me is the best feature:

grafting the toe!

The instructions for grafting the toe were clearly gobbledy-gooch, they couldn't possibly work, but I thought I would give them a go before complaining ... and I was of course proved wrong, they were perfect.  Look, can you see a join on the middle 8 stitches? Neither can I, and I know which colours I joined.

My partners words of encouragement included:

• I hope you don't intend to sell these they will be the most expensive socks ever.
• When I dropped a stitch several rows earlier: what they've got a hole in them and you haven't even worn them yet?

Anyway, despite the level of laughter that will be coming from the likes of laughing yaffle and Rosmademe, I can proudly say that ONLY took me 2 weeks, just the right foot to go.