Pattern: Traditional Family Stocking Pattern (one of five designs)
Yarn: Cascade 220 in 8895 Christmas Red, 7827 Golden Rod, 8555 Black, 9430 Highland Green, 8505 White
Size: As written (82 stitches across the top)
Yardage: 1 skein of red, a third to half a skein of other colours.
Needles: 3.75 mm bamboo circular (24")

The stocking was finished and delivered on time. It turned out a lot bigger than any of the other stockings so I wonder if I was supposed to use a smaller yarn or leave out part of the pattern or something; my brother's stocking is the same design but doesn't have the "Seasons Joy" at the top below the name. Niall and Jane didn't seem to mind though and I'm still very pleased with how it turned out since I did a lot of learning as I went along.

I crocheted the seam up the back. It went really quickly and seemed appropriate since Jane has been encouraging me to learn to crochet better. I'm going to keep it in mind if I'm ever seaming up a blanket.

We delivered the stocking Christmas Eve when Jane invited us over for a do-it-yourself pizza dinner - lots of fun and so good. She had two kinds of dough (plain and herbed), four different cheeses (I used them all), pineapples, mushrooms and a couple of different sausages (I picked the spicy one). We used to make pizzas like this when we were little (just use a pie plate - it's the perfect size) and it was a great, relaxed way of doing Christmas Eve dinner.

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. We were able to spend lots of time with family and a little time at home with our critters (dog and cat). It's been a lovely few days with plenty of good food and good conversation, cold weather and warm fires, and many good wishes.

I was responsible for making the pudding this year. I was a little intimidated at the prospect. I have made Christmas pudding before to share with friends, so I knew how the recipe worked, but it was a little different to be making The Pudding. The Pudding that is lit on fire and served following Christmas dinner. One of two traditional desserts that we all look forward to for that special evening (and again for breakfast on Boxing Day).  Suppose it didn't hold its shape? But it did and it tasted just like it always does.

Our family pudding is a plum pudding (sugar plums, as in candied fruit, not actual plums). A full recipe is huge so I made half and it filled Mum's large pudding basin (40 oz?) with just a little room to spare for rising. Everything is measured in weights which I find rather fun and is a lot easier than having to level stuff all the time (especially the stuff that doesn't level well - like raisins). My mixing bowl wasn't big enough by the time I'd added half the stuff so I turned it into my stock pot to be able to stir. I discovered (because it turned out all the mixing spoons needed washing) that a rice paddle is great for mixing heavy pudding batter. The last thing added is a half glass of brandy and that smell mixed with all the dried fruits was Christmas to me.

Just before I packed the pudding into the basin I grabbed a button, wrapped it in waxed paper and stirred it in. Before we cut the pudding I asked everyone to agree on some meaning for the person who found the button (the traditional bachelor/old maid meaning was not going to work for our gathering). It was decided that the person who got the button would do something for everyone else but no one was too concerned with what.

This is the stocking I started a little while ago. It has been my slow project (it's not a surprise so I can share it here). Doing the colour work is too complicated for me to be keeping track of Abby at the same time so I have to wait until Rob is able to watch the dog in order to work on it (puppy watching is a full attention job - we take turns). It seemed to take me forever to get through Santa and his sleigh; it really felt I had accomplished something when I finished it (even though I was only half way down the stocking).

I'm a little past what shows in the above picture now. There are houses below Santa. The number of bobbins of yarn I was using for the houses was crazy. There were so many colours at once. It was a relief to get past all that so I was only working with two or three colours per row.


I've still got seven or eight hours of work before it is finished but that seems so much more manageable than it did before. All of what's left involves either very little or no colour work at all and the toe and heels have lots of decreasing which will make them seem faster. I'll need to gently block and press the stocking before I seam it up; despite my best efforts, a lot of my colour work features strange tension changes.