This holiday stocking features a beautiful blend of short-row shapes with stranded colorwork. It also uses two different braid / plait techniques: the Lateral Braid, and a Latvian Plait. Both of these techniques are easy to learn even for the novice knitter. Several Youtube links are included in the pattern for reference.

I encourage everyone to shop local throughout the year, but most especially during the holiday season. The fibers used for this stocking are: Farm Fresh “North Country Cheviot”, a DK Weight, locally sourced 100% New England Wool, and Making Tracks “Vermont Vice” with “Razzle Dazzle”, 100% American Falkland Wool, all from Junction Fiber Mill in White River Junction, Vermont. The mill itself is a small batch wool processing plant run by two sheep farmers and friends, Amanda and Peggy. You can learn more about their processing and yarns here: https://www.junctionfibermill.com/

NOTES:
Learning the Latvian Braid - A great video tutorial can be found online by the Paper Tiger, entitled “How to work a Latvian braid in the round | KNITTING TUTORIAL” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAmDr9UKrH0

The stranded colorwork used in this pattern entails several sections of long interior floats. You will want to catch these as you knit using any method you prefer. A great video example of this is available by Knit Purl Hunter, called “Stranded Knitting - Catching Long Floats” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD7arufsuvg