Stash Reduction Mishap

The goal was to have less stash at the end of the year. Once again, I failed. So, the stash has snuck out of the closet and cabinet is starting to lurk in the craft room. The stash in question is yarn. And it is trying to take up residence on the cutting table which should belong to the fabric stash.

This could lead to a stash war. If that happens things could get ugly. I doubt if the beads would stay out of the fray. And the roving could get involved. Any way it would look like World War III and I don't want to clean it up.

Reflection shows, that once again I bought yarn faster than I knit it up. Some skeins contribute more to this problem than others. The problem is skinny yarn doesn't take much space but packs the yards in. It is so easy to bring a 1000 yards of lace home in one or two small skeins. I do not about other knitters but 1000 yards of lace weight is good for a couple of months of knitting.

The last influx was from Christmas. Several people know that I like yarn. It is easy to find and I always greet it cheerfully. Three skeins of sock yarn showed up under the tree. It turns out even Bert, a field beagle, knows I like yarn. I am still not sure why his was slobber free. He adores blue and it is blue.

Setesdal Christmas Stocking

I saw the Dale of Norway Christmas Stocking booklet and liked it. I managed to leave it at the store but it called my name. After a couple of weeks I returned and got it. At the same time, I picked up two skeins of Cascade 220 yarn to make the Setesdal Stocking. The gauge for Cascade 220 is the same as for the pattern.

I had the bright idea that 440 yards would yield two stockings. Fraternal twins, one with gold for the background and one with red for the background. It didn't turn out that way. I think if I had decided to do two matching out of 4 skeins, I got get a third with the background in red.

I had a bit a of problem with the heel at the first two short rows. There were little holes that didn't go away with blocking. So, I add a bit of yarn and darned the 'corners' on the heels.

The twist cord was a challenge. 38 inches wasn't enough length for the yarn. I ended up using 44 inch strands and would probably go to 50 in the future. The knot isn't hidden as well as I would like. The background color works the best for stitching the cord on. I tried red but it was showing too much.

Another note for me, is to use smaller needles on the ribbing. Normally, this isn't a problem for me but it was this time. blocking helped. I may take steam to the ribbing if it tries to flip in the future.

Mine turned out slightly smaller than the pattern dimension because I knit tight and used the recommended needle size. I did this because I liked how the yarn knit at the gauge for a stocking. To keep the portions, I counted the rows of lice/ticks in the picture on the pattern.

All in all, I really like the pattern even if my stocking is less than perfect.