Merry Christmas 2019

Merry Christmas!  I love handmade Christmas Decorations.  I made this Santa wallhanging and the two Christmas stockings years ago.

 Handknit Christmas stockings are hanging on the mantle.

Three handmade teddy bears look adorable under the Christmas tree.  I made them years ago, along with the Christmas tree skirt.

 

 

Christmas Bracelets

I made my granddaughters each a Christmas chain maille bracelet.  A's bracelet is a Byzantine Rose bracelet.  I made it Christmassy by making the "rose" segments red and green.  The rings are bright aluminum and colored aluminum. 

I made it adjustable since I wasn't sure exactly how long to make it.  I'm really happy with the finished bracelet.

I made Jingle Bell Bracelets for my other 2 granddaughters.  The pattern is available from Weave Got Maille.  The chain maille pattern is called sweet pea, and I like the tutorial by Aussie Maille on YouTube.  It's easier to make if you make the chain first, and then work on each segment.  The chain has 2 rings of a color for each sweet pea segment. Each segment has 6 rings of the same color.

 The Jingle Bell Bracelet turned out so cute!  

My notes:  K's, 6 3/4" + 4 rings, adjustable. A's 6 complete segments of Byzantine with 5 roses.  End with 4 rings = 7 1/2" finished to last ring.  Each Byzantine segment is about 3/4" and each rose is about 1/4" .  N's 6 1/4" (1st ring) to almost 7" last ring (4 rings to make it adjustable).  These bracelets are bulky, so you need a little more length. K's wrist is 6 1/4".  Byzantine almost 7" and added a ring or two.
Sweet Pea: 16 g. 4.75 mm ID rings.  Byzantine Rose: 16 g 4.5 mm ID and 16 g 7.0 mm ID for rose. Can use 18 g  3.5 mm ID and 18 g  6.0 mm ID for rose.  I used awg size rings.
I like to make the byzantine section, then add a ring for the rose through the 2 end rings.  Add a ring through the 2 end rings and through the first ring and repeat with a 3rd ring.  It seems easier than making the rose unit and attaching it to the end of the byzantine section.

Reindeer Christmas Stocking

I really enjoyed knitting this Reindeer Christmas stocking.

It turned out pretty huge, but I used worsted weight Paton's yarn instead of the DK yarn recommended in the pattern.

The pattern, Nisse Christmas Stocking 2016,  is by Arne & Carlos, Norwegian designers.  I changed the reindeer in the pattern, though. The designers had 5 reindeer around the top part of the stocking, but when the stocking is hanging, half a reindeer shows on the front side of the stocking.  I didn't like having 2 and a half reindeer when the stocking is displayed, so I chose a different reindeer graph for my stocking.

The designers had the beginning of the rounds at the beginning of the heel, and I changed it to the center back of the heel.  This hides the "jog" of the colorwork along the edge of the stocking where it's not seen when hanging up. 

I changed the heel to a German short row heel because I wanted to try out that heel style.  I'm happy with it.  I also made the toe a little more rounded than the pattern by removing the knit rounds at the end of the decreases of the toe when I got down to 24 stitches. 

My notes:  German Twisted Cast on and US size 3 needles for ribbing.  I changed to size US 5 needles for the stocking.  Paton's wool yarn.  Loop:  Pick up and knit 4 stitches and knit ICord for about 2.5".  Sew to inside of stocking and reinforce it well.