"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

I've been kicking around the idea of knitting a Christmas stocking for Sylvia, but hadn't really moved beyond thinking about it until I was inspired by my friend Katie, who recently cranked out a beautiful stocking for her daughter in record time. Another friend lent me Christmas Stockings from Interweave Press, and I set out to make the Giant Jester Stocking in it. The yarn arrived last week (Wool of the Andes worsted from KnitPicks), and I'm off and running. You can see here the progress I've made so far. But what's that, gentle reader? You wonder why there are balls of red and green yarn nearby when the stocking's cuff is clearly cream and spruce blue?

Aha! The mystery is solved! This stocking has the cuff, heel, and toe in two colors (alternately striped), and the body in a different two colors (also alternately striped). The cuff is knit in the round on a size 8 24" circular, then you switch to size 7 DPNs, knit a couple of rows with the new colors, then turn the stocking inside out and continue from there.

The original version of this (in the book) has red and light blue for the body and purple and lime green for the cuff, heel, and toe. That's right--lime green. What were the folks at IP smoking when they thought that was a good idea? I think those colors look hideous together, so I've substituted some colors that are a bit more Christmas-y and a great deal less vomit-inducing.