Faith in the unseen

Nope. This is not going to be a schmaltzy spirit of Christmas post. Frankly, after watching the crappy new Muppets Christmas special last week I think my Christmas spirit is lying dormant and won't reawaken until I actually light my candle and sing "Joy to the World" at the midnight service on Wednesday. I have a most serious case of Grinchicus Scroogifimus, and don't blame me if I go in my bed, draw the curtains, and don't wake up until the last bell rings.

Instead, I stretched my faith by trusting in my washing machine.

I've not done a whole bunch of felting. The whole "make it big, then shrink it down!" aspect seems a little counterintuitive to me. I have made Mr. D an arrow quiver, and three pairs of felted clogs, but that's it.

Miss E, being the second child, has less handmade stuff than big bro does. Just a fact of coming later, I think. So since this is the first holiday season she has really been aware of all the excitement, and since she has only a crummy store-bought stocking (that I think was actually bought for Mr D and not even for her, so double the bad mom factor), I decided to knit her her very own stocking--and felt it. Because there's something so...floppy...about a hand-knit stocking unless it is felted.

I checked Ravelry for felted stocking patterns, and chose an easy and free one. I probably could have figured it out on my own but I wanted to trust someone else's math.

I then freely and with great loving care cribbed a stripe pattern from my Secret Yarny Boyfriend, Mr. Brooklyntweed, from his Turn A Square hat pattern. I am somewhat obsessed with this neutral/Noro Kureyon combo, having knitted two hats and a sweater for Miss E using this same stripe combo.

The knitting progressed like wildfire as I churned my way down the leg (90-ish rows of 64 stitches) in dribs and drabs over the course of the week. Heel was turned (short rows, not so scary when I know they'll be felted) AND entire foot/toe finished during Hellboy II (cool effects, story not so coherent, can't wait to see what Guillermo del Toro does with The Hobbit!) and the sucker was huge. With huge-ass holes in the short-row heel.

And I took a deep breath and said to myself: felting covers a multitude of sins, and then I took a photo,

and then I felted it...

And it was good.

So those little scales on the wool fibers? Unseen, indeed. Tiny, but powerful.

And the holes in the heels? They closed up...
Christmas magic? you decide.

(Yarns: Patons Classic in Charcoal and Burgundy; Noro Kureyon in color 124. Needles: size 10.5 16" circular.)