Post Script to Friday: After wearing the Velma sweater all day Friday, I came to the conclusion I was not happy with the way the neck of the sweater had stretched out and caused the ribbing to hang funny off my shoulders. If I am feeling adventurous, I might crochet around the neck. Alternately, I will wash and dry the sweater carefully and bury it at the bottom of my least-touched winter clothes tote.

Fast forward to what I spent the end of last year knitting: stockings.

These are the Silk Stockings from Annie Modesitt. When I first read Romantic Hand Knits, I was taken with the idea of knitted stockings. Not because I expect to stand on a veranda looking out over a lush lawn, wearing a white petticoat and pouting into the sunset while my blonde pompadour tumbles down over my shoulders, but because knitting a pair of thigh-high stockings would be pretty hardcore.

I let the idea marinate for a while, and, this fall, the idea came together with two skeins of undyed wool/mohair yarn from <a href="http://grandviewfarmvt.net/&quot; title="Vermont Grand View Farm" target="_blank"Vermont Grand View Farm. As the title suggests, the stockings are meant to be knit in silk, but there was no way I was going to pop for enough silk yarn to knit such a big project. Also, the pattern calls for DK weight yarn, which seemed like it would result in heavy, saggy stockings that wouldn’t fit into shoes. In wool, I certainly wouldn’t be breaking hearts on a veranda, but I’d have stockings that held their shape, stayed up decently well on their own, and were within my price range.

In early November, I started the stockings. I knew they were a big project, but I was pretty sure I could finish them up at the same time Querido finished his big finals projects.

Silly me.

The stockings move along quickly, but they are a huge, huge project. I memorized the lace pattern right around the time I turned the heel, but the stockings just kept going. I devoted days on end to knitting them on winter break (Melba was in heaven), and still they dragged on.

I knitted, and knitted, and knitted some more. I carried them in my backpack. I knitted them during movies. I stayed up late knitting. I knitted like I was being paid overtime to knit. And finally, two weeks after finals,
they were done. I was so exhausted by the sheer amount of knitting that it wasn’t until yesterday’s photo shoot that I really appreciated being done with them. The fact that it was barely 50 degrees helped. The wool is, as I had hoped, warm, stretchy, and light for its volume. In American wool, the stockings are not dainty or frilly, but perfect for layering with a wool jumper and peacoat.

My notes are on Ravelry, but please. Unless you want to go really crazy, get started on a hat instead.