Everyone in my family has a needlepointed Christmas stocking. I made the last one in 2000 when my granddaughter was born and now with the birth of my grandson Carter, the kids kept hinting that he needed one too. I managed to ignore them because I'm so into knitting now, but I couldn't ignore the package that arrived on my doorstep. When I opened it I saw a complete Christmas stocking kit. I texted my son, "????", and he replied, "Can you teach me how to do it?" I said I could and then inspected it closely not knowing what to expect as in all my years of needlepointing I had never bought a kit. I'm here to tell you it has EVERYTHING you need, and all so neatly organized with beautiful wools (not acrylics) that are labeled with a color map and detailed directions and even a needle. And here's the big surprise, they only paid $25 including shipping. I'm completely shocked and think it's an unbelievable bargain for the quality. The wool is gorgeous, the design is adorable, the organization is lovely. 

I decided to help out my son and stitch Carter's name on it using this free charted alphabet to graph it out. Once that was done I decided to stitch a few of the blue snowflake blobs. I liked it and so I did a few more. It felt very familiar and soothing. Next I asked my husband how many square inches I would have to do per day to have it done by mid-December. He looked at it and figured about three. Hmmm, that seemed doable--only three square inches a day--maybe I would do it myself. The little family popped by on Sunday for dinner and I told him I was thinking about stitching it myself and did he mind. He smiled. And that's how I have added another project to my Christmas craft/knitting/stitching queue. Holy. Moly.

Years ago I professionally finished needlepointed projects into ornaments, pillows, stockings, etc. for a few of the local shops. It was very lucrative and I don't remember why I stopped doing it. When I'm finished with this stitching I'll write up a step-by-step tutorial on how to finish a stocking that is lined and edged with piping. It's not so difficult. In the meantime you may like to start on your own stocking. Below is a link to the Hugging Penguins Christmas Stocking from Dimensions in case you are in need of expanding your Christmas project queue. :) I also found a cute stocking with Santa. He's a pretty popular guy to have on a stocking.