needle felted stockings

Turns out we have no idea where our old stockings went. I stopped by the stocking aisle at Target on Tuesday, but all the stockings were way too expensive. Except these ugly blue and pink ones, which were a buck/each. I decided to get them and decorate them to make them not ugly, which is to say, to make them Christmasy and meaningful. Today I spent about an hour needle felting Chrismon designs onto the stockings, customizing them for each member of the family as I felt led. Here are the results.

Pip wanted us to hang the stockings on the Christmas tree, so we did. Tonight we'll move them to the foot of each person's bed or to the fireplace, not sure which yet. Each design was centered around a different color of green wreath, to unify the patterns.
I made Andrew's stocking first, knowing that he would be least likely to complain if my idea was a bust. But it worked beautifully. Andrew's stocking has five red balls on the wreath, representing the five wounds of Christ. The center holds a crown with a star jewel in it. I wanted to represent Christ the King, the Star from Jacob shining, and give a nod to the old adage, "a man's home is his castle," but with Christ's love and humility setting the boundaries for lordship.

Pip asked for pink and purple and turquoise on his stocking. I made an Advent wreath for him, with a Christ candle in the center to represent the light that shines in the darkness and to acknowledge Pip's fascination with acolyting.

Pemberley's stocking has a Trinitarian wreath encircling the Christ child. As I made it, I thought, "a cord with three strands cannot be easily broken" and also thought of the dance of the Holy Trinity. I wanted to represent Pemb's gentle and joyful strength. I think I thought of the baby Jesus because Pemberley is our baby. God coming as a baby changed everything, making babyhood holy by touching it. I used mohair for the face and wool roving for the rest of the design.

My stocking represents the singing Bethlehem star, or rather the star and angels singing together. It is layered, first with a star in yellow wool roving, then with mohair on top, adding a bit of chaos (hopefully of the good variety), with a cross-shaped light at the center. It's just what I thought about when I went to make my stocking.