another new project

This is a project I've had in mind for a while. Especially since we are having the whole extended family for Christmas this year, I'd like to showcase more of the hand crafted items I love so much.
I gathered up a selection of Briggs and Little wool (sadly, this is but a small slice of what I own...) and researched some patterns. Some were free, but the greatest resource was a Knit Picks one I bought.

I want to make stockings for myself, my husband and our son to hang from our mantel. Yes, it will look nice this year when the whole family is here, but it's also something that we will enjoy for years to come.
You can see the start of the first one - I'm doing Latvian braids at the top, then a plain section where I will duplicate stitch a name, and another braid to define the name area. Then I'm picking motifs as I go. I've completed a reindeer motif already, and I think the next one will be some gold bells on a blue background. I'm doing rounds of purl stitches between each motif, just to give some definition. Considering I got this much done in about 2 days, these shouldn't take as long as I was expecting them to. And with a long weekend starting tonight (Family Day in Ontario is Monday), this is great cottage knitting.

I'll update this project as I go - I don't expect it to be an exclusive knit - I will probably be putting it down and picking it up throught the year. The plan is also to knit some ornaments and such for the tree and elswhere in the house - eventually I'd like it to be almost completely hand knit. (It will never be exclusively that - we have too many keepsake memories that have to be there).