FO Friday: Christmas Stockings!

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I'm back with FO Friday, this time with a finished commission knit -- a pair of Christmas Stockings!

Stocking number one is shown here, and it's done, but it still needs a wash and block. Stocking two is awaiting the last of its ends to be woven in - I want to do that before I block them both.  (Yes, the foot and toe looks short - but it matches the measurement given in the pattern so 🤷‍♀️?)  I expect the foot and toe to grow a teeny bit with blocking, but, otherwise, it's done!

Yarn is Briggs and Little Regal (The B & L mill just redid their website, and you can order from them directly now, yeay!) in "Bleached White", "Scarlet", and "Dark Green."   Needles are the *3.75 mm Takumi Pro Bamboo Needles (at the time of this writing, Knit Picks doesn't seem to be restocking the Takumi needles any more, but there are still some left in stock!) 

The pattern is a vintage pattern from Leisure Arts that I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy.  Being a vintage pattern, there were a few adventures.  For one, the pattern was written to be knit flat and seamed, which - just no.  Unless the pattern requires intarsia, why would you ever knit it flat?  Second is that yes, the pattern was supposed to be done entirely in intarsia.  Again, no.  For this particular set of motifs, that wasn't necessary - for some of the alternate motifs, they maybe would have worked better in intarsia?  There's one that is an absolutely adorable, multi-colour teddy bear motif that I don't think would have worked well in stranded colourwork without some major use of duplicate stitching. 

(This pattern, despite being vintage, was written well after circular needles became mainstream, so I really don't know why it insisted on all the variations being worked in intarsia - you can do the same thing in the round with colourwork and duplicate stitch?)

That said, the only place where I couldn't float my yarn with relative ease was the names at the top of the stocking, (not shown in the photo, - the names go at the top between the two green stripes) so, for those, I just knit them as stranded colourwork, then cut my yarn at the end of each round.  It was only a few extra ends to weave in, and, as someone who absolutely despises duplicate stitch, it was worth it! 

These are getting their wash and block very soon, and will hopefully be shipped to their new home early next week -- still in time for Christmas!