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crafty crafty:  sweater stockings  by Yee-Fan Sun | 1 2 3

Every year, my boy and I have this battle over getting a Christmas tree. And every year, I lose. Deep down, I know he's right: it's silly to spend all that money on something that makes a great big mess in your living room, especially when you'll be spending the week-plus surrounding Christmas at the parentals', many, many miles away from your own abode. But there's one holiday tradition on which I stand firm: come this time of year, stockings must be hung. Which is why I was kicking myself this year when I discovered that in the process of moving to Edinburgh, and sorting out the stuff to store back in the States from the stuff to come with, the pretty velvet stockings I'd made for the boy and me a few years back somehow found their way into the wrong pile.

Time to whip up some new stockings, then. With nice velvet priced at the absolutely ludicrous price of around $20 a meter (thanks in part to the ever-weakening dollar in the face of a continuously strong British pound), and fabric stores proving uncooperative in offering cheap remnants, I headed to the thrift stores in search of material. I wanted something with good weight and a touchable texture, and in the requisite greens and reds of the season of course, but I wasn't sure exactly what I was looking for -- until I found myself face-to-face with a great big rack advertising holiday sweaters. Now, themed sweaters are normally the sort of thing that send me fleeing in the opposite direction, screaming in horror; sweaters that jingle are a bad, bad thing. But all those greens and reds corralled in one convenient location at the thrift store: here, clearly, was where I'd find what I needed. Sadly, the kitschy tartan sweater I wanted to buy proved a tad too pricey to warrant chopping it up for stockings, but when I managed to pull out two plain all-wool sweaters, one red and one green, from amongst the hideous acrylics, I promptly brought them up to the counter, paid my five-plus pounds, and skedaddled on home to get to work.

Dreaming of having your own lovely fuzzy stockings but totally clueless about how to knit? Fake it with these sweater stockings. And for extra thrifty brownie points, use your old sweaters -- it's a great way to recycle any moth-eaten sweaters you might have lying around the house that are too holey to wear.

what you'll need
2 wool sweaters* -- have fun playing with patterned sweaters, use a cardigan and cut out the stockings so they make use of the buttons as a decorative accent, or just stick with simple contrasting solids like I did
thread and sewing machine/needle (if you're using the old-fashioned needle and hand, you can use yarn rather than thread if you like -- the sewing goes a little faster with the thicker, stronger yarn in place of the thread)
scissors
pins
tailor's chalk, colored pencil or other writing implement

* Do use all-wool sweaters, as synthetics won't shrink properly when you do the washing step, and will have a pesky tendency to unravel when you cut them.

mosey this direction folks

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