A Blackwork Christmas - December

Welcome to the final edition of A Blackwork Christmas SAL! I've had a lot of fun over the last twelve months making these, and I am glad I succeeded at finishing them all! It hasn't always been easy to keep up what with one thing and another, but I always managed to catch up in the end.

A Blackwork Christmas - November

Welcome to the eleventh edition of A Blackwork Christmas SAL! Today I'm running late again - It's been quite the day what with one thing and another and I was rather distracted from my stitching as a result. I did manage to finish the stocking though as I'd planned - with the amount of work planned there just isn't space left to not finish something before the post.

A Blackwork Christmas - October

Welcome to the tenth edition of A Blackwork Christmas SAL! This month I have stitched up a storm and not only did I finish this month's stocking but I also fully finished September AND stitched and finished August! I'll start with the oldest first with the pictures below and end with the October one. Just two stockings left! Can you guess what colour they will be?

A Blackwork Christmas - September

Welcome to the ninth edition of A Blackwork Christmas SAL! I've been doing a bit better lately health wise but still have issues holding my embroidery for longer sessions so while I was able to complete the stitching of today's pattern I didn't get the backstitched outlines or the finishing done. However it's progress which is good.

A Blackwork Christmas - August

Welcome to the eighth edition of A Blackwork Christmas SAL! I've not been too well the last couple of days and have only managed to do the morning Mini Magical Mystery SAL stitching but not much else. As such I have no stitching to show for today so I made a computer generated one instead.

A Blackwork Christmas - July

Welcome to the seventh edition of A Blackwork Christmas SAL! I'm running late today as I was happily chatting with my fiancé on Skype doing the finishing and I didn't realise the time - sorry to keep you waiting! On the plus side this month's stocking is fully finished!

A Blackwork Christmas - June

Welcome to the sixth edition of A Blackwork Christmas SAL! Since I have done most of a rainbow so far with my colours I decided to go with purple this month. As mentioned in this morning's Mini Magical Mystery SAL 8 post I'm having a bit of a flare up with my rheumatism so sitting and stitching isn't really comfortable as a result. I did get *some* stitching done but it's nowhere near finished.

A Blackwork Christmas - May

Welcome to the fifth edition of A Blackwork Christmas SAL! This month I decided to go for the hottest colour available: red. This rounds off the yellow-> orange -> red series of hot colours I've been doing these last few months. They look so bright and cheerful hanging on my lamp!

A Blackwork Christmas - April

Welcome to the fourth edition of A Blackwork Christmas SAL! This month I again reached for a nice warm colour - I chose orange! On the spool the Kreinik looks more orange than when backstitched, which caused some issues with the colour for the cuff but a few rounds of stitching and ripping later (and the discovery that I was just two stitches from the top after adding the backstitched outline because I'd not paid enough attention - I managed anyway but it was a bit fiddly.)

A Blackwork Christmas - March

Welcome to the third edition of A Blackwork Christmas SAL! I hope all is well with you! Things have been a bit uneventful here lately - which is probably a good thing all things considered. Although I suppose the Mini Magical Mystery SAL that I've been doing every day lately is something different from the usual. Any way... on to this month's stocking! I had so much fun designing this one and it was fun to stitch too.

A Blackwork Christmas - February

Welcome to the second of the A Blackwork Christmas SAL posts! This month I've made things difficult for you! I have made two designs each with an additional option! You can choose to add French knots or beads to the stocking this time! And... like last time I have made a second pdf with the optional spot to add a date/initials. So many choices! Fortunately the stockings don't take long to make so you can made more than one quite easily!

Tutorial: Stocking Construction

This is a tutorial on how to construct a stocking - it was written and posted to go with the A Blackwork Christmas SAL but will also work for any of the other stocking patterns I've given over time. It will be given in sections that you can use depending on how you want to finish your stocking - not everyone wants a lined stocking but you may need pointers on how to finish a two sided stuffed stocking. Please note that this is a photo tutorial so is picture heavy - please make sure you are on Wi-Fi if using a mobile device.

A Blackwork Christmas - January

Welcome to the first of this year's A Blackwork Christmas posts! As I mentioned in the announcement post all of the patterns are stocking shaped. Should you prefer a more traditional square shape for an ornament then feel free to stitch the Blackwork pattern into a square shape instead. I've followed up with a tutorial on how to construct a lined stocking. I've edited this post to add the link to it.

A Blackwork Christmas - SAL Announcement Post

Sometimes when you try to design things you end up with something completely different - this is one of those cases. I was thinking about the Ornament of the Month SAL and what to do for it when I had the idea of doing stockings this year - except all of the patterns I have made so far ended up with blackwork only - not something I like to do for the Ornament of the Month. So I decided that I would just do these as a separate SAL and do something else for the Ornament of the Month, which worked nicely. Many of these patterns are ones I have designed specifically for this SAL, so are not traditional blackwork patterns and it may not be possible to make them in Holbein stitch as is the tradition for blackwork.