Who would have thought a Christmas Stocking design would come from a mitten? Well, here at Judy’s Colors, with eccentric Judy at the helm, patterns can come from just about anywhere. Wait till you see the mittens and hat that came from boots and socks!

Nancy C wanted mittens for her family; for herself, she wanted her favorite hearts and pink colors. And so Nancy’s mitten was made. Nice mitten, but it didn’t remind me of Nancy at all. So she got another mitten, which has no photo so I can’t show it to you!, but it is black and a dark green with a sophisticated motif and lace at the top of a very short cuff. She loved it.

Anyway, I kept thinking there was a stocking in that mitten, somewhere. So I started with the braids and pink heart/star motif.

Made the braids a little different, but didn’t like them at the top of the stocking. Reused the leg yarn, but kept the braiding for “another day”.

So I put ribbing at the top of the stocking; by now the whole design was taking on the look of (to me!) ski stockings, so “Skiing” came into being. At this stage, I liked the braids at the bottom of the leg, and I didn’t like the ribbing at the top.

As the stocking was evolving, I had hoped to do three colorways: pink, lavender and apple green. The idea and I just couldn’t work together, so I gave up and did something else.

Originally I had not intended to make a place for initials on any of the designs, but you kept asking for them, so “I had to do it my way”! (NC is a nod to Nancy C) So they landed at the ankle. But I thought they looked “weak” between the braids and foot.

Getting closer to the final design: simple braid at the top and initials or star motif above the thick braiding at the ankle. Just didn’t think the blue would appeal. I was wrong; those of you who have seen this partial, like it!

And here is the final Skiing Christmas stocking, in the red/green colorway.

The grey/maroon version is inspired by my sighting of grey-hooded teens in droves who wouldn’t be caught dead in any kind of color. Turns out it is a favorite colorway with you! It has lots of greens in it, which I really love.

If there were an army of elves at my “beck and call”, I would love to do a show of these stockings. Titled something like “All Alike, None the Same”. Then knit them up in at least 30 different colorways! It really is an easy stocking to change the colors. I bet I could do the original idea of pink, lavender and apple green without any trouble now.