Operation Holiday Stockings

Operation Holiday Stockings

My stockings for the year (a total of 32).  These are for U.S. Soldiers deployed overseas.  Last year I made about a dozen stockings. This year my goal was to make 52 stockings (one for each week of the year).  I fell short of my goal as I was distracted by so many other knit-worthy and crochet-worthy causes.

The stockings are filled with all sorts of goodies... toothpaste, candy, drink mixes, lip balm, and so on...



Yes, you can fit 32 stockings into a shoe box for a size 11 men's shoe.  My baby boy has some big feet!

• If you are interested in learning more about Operation Holiday Stockings, the Ravelry link is HERE.
• Also, the Operation Holiday Stockings website is HERE.
• The pattern I use for stockings can be found HERE.
• The stockings are due by Thanksgiving... The project is ongoing.  If you are interested, please join us next year! 

Vacation Knitting

A little break from my ongoing "travelogue" to show you what I've been knitting.  This is a knitting blog after all!  My goal for my recent trip out of town was to make as many stockings for Operation Holiday Stockings as possible. It made for simple packing of knitting supplies since I was essentially only bringing one project on which to work.  I did not finish as many stockings as I hoped; I guess that means I was too busy enjoying the sites in unfamiliar places. 


I made four of these stockings on our recent trip and only started the fifth one in the airport in New Orleans on the way home to Colorado.



I am calling this cap "Rain Forrest Ripple"

Same yarn as some of the stockings above (Berroco Comfort Worsted Weight Yarn...
(Ripple Eyelet Cap instructions to knit in the round can be found on Ravelry HERE).

I got in an organizing kind of mood yesterday.  I have a bad habit of printing off patterns, but have no organizational system to keep them straight.  The end result is that when I am looking for a pattern, I go back to the computer and printing off the pattern again.  A waste of paper and expensive ink!  I bit the bullet yesterday and started organizing.  I threw out lots of duplicates as well.  Now, if I can just get in the habit of putting new patterns in the binders when I print them off!

I used "Post-It" notes for labels.  Very simple and easy.

I also organized some of my kitchen cabinets yesterday.  I was on a roll.  I love days like that! 

Stockings, Stockings, Stockings...

Do you recognize the yarn?  Bernat Camouflage Yarn.  I love working with this stuff. This is the last of it, but I like how these stockings turned out.

This week's knitting has pretty much been dedicated to making stockings for Operation Holiday Stockings.  I've been having fun and I love the sense of accomplishment from finishing a project nearly every day.  I think I made five more stockings this week.  My good friend "K2" commented about my stockings last week (apparently she has the perfect yarn in her stash for some Christmas stockings) and asked that I write up the pattern.  If I can direct your attention to the upper right hand side of your screen, you'll see a new area called "Pages" and there you'll find an item listed  as "FREE:  Operation Holiday Stockings Pattern".  This is the pattern I've been tweaking since last year and it pretty much sums up how I now make these stockings. I've tried the short row heel method, but for now I am still using the method with heel flap, heel turn and gusset, as I am finding this method to be more consistent for me. Some day I'll master the short row heel.

Whatever the case may be, I invite you to check out this pattern if you'd like.  Seriously, I KNOW it's just JUNE, but Christmas will be here before you know it.  If you give this pattern a try and like it, I'd love to hear about it.  If you try it and my instructions confuse the heck out of you, well... I'd like to hear about that just the same.  I welcome feedback of any sort.   Maybe if I come up with another pattern someday, I can have a whole gob of free patterns listed here.  That would be pretty cool, dontcha think!?