I don't even recall how I came up with the idea, but the fact that my sister gave me yards and yards of light blue felt I wasn't particularly fond of probably had something to do with it...

felt, sequins, kumihimo, tassels, jingle bells. Exact construction date unknown, but probably early 2000s. Photographed 25dec2002.

Initially I was very unhappy with this piece, because I didn't feel the snowflake came out well. It's grown on me; the real difficulty was that it didn't come out the way I imagined it. One of the joys of making these things is that folks more or less have to take what they get, since they're gifts, not commissions. At the same time, I try to “fit” the stockings in some way to the recipients, which gives me a starting point—the best of both worlds. As the recipient is very tidy and precise, the geometry of a snowflake turned out to be a good choice, so everything worked out well.

Made about the same time as the winnie-the-pooh stocking, it too features a tassel near the hanging loop.

UPDATE: I found this page without a posting date^[1] . Because it's so old I had only the 512 pixel wide image, since back in 2005, when I originally created this page, a) pages with images loaded very slowly and b) browsers didn't automagically resize images to fit the browser window, they way they do now.

I don't mention the kumi in the original text, but I wonder whether I made it specifically for this project? Yes, back in the day, I used to take the time to braid cords for specific stockings. On the one hand, the pattern of braid structures is bilaterally symmetric, going from tabby Keiruko no himo) to oimatsu to a square structure of some sort, which implies that I had specific plans for the braid, rather than just futzing with a sample; on the other, the grey yarns don't really match the stocking body, and I did use pre-made braids, if the length and colour scheme more-or-less matched. I still make cords, usually colour-matched, but I usually use the bradshaw winder, as it's so much faster.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.