Christmas stocking with Raccoon

I recently knitted a Christmas stocking to match this fox with Santa Hat Christmas stocking:

It has green and red reversed, so it starts off in red:

The raccoon is quite large, but so is the fox with hat. 

This is the pure wool version, around 25" long.

Now available as a made to order Christmas stocking on my Etsy website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SantasSockCentral

Sail Boats on a Christmas Stocking

I recently finished knitting a Christmas stocking with sail boats, on special request for the customer.

This stocking has the same name on front and back. Sometimes I knit a nickname, birth date or initials on the back. 

The customer chose the boats and I made a knitting chart from them. I had to frog a part of the boat, it wasn't looking right.

This is pure wool, Donegal Tweed. 

I'm always a little nervous sending a new pattern to a customer, they have such faith in me. 

I sell Christmas stockings and knitting patterns on Etsy: Santa's Sock Central

Ravelry name: Gigi82

5 years on Etsy

February, 21st marks my Etsyversary! My shop has changed a lot through the years! 

First item sold: kntited pillowcase with cable pattern

First 3 Stockings

Year 1: Within 5 minutes of hearing about Etsy, I opened my shop. I had one (badly-photographed) aran cardigan, beautiful and way too cheap! Later on I listed baby booties, leg warmers, socks and pillow cases that I knitted. I sold nothing for 4 months. Finally got some orders for pillow cases (with aran patterns, all kinds of colours and sizes), most were custom orders. Got into personalized Christmas stockings and sold a few around my first Etsy Christmas, way too cheap, although they weren't as good as they are now.









Year 2: Custom pillow cases took off! Had to go yarn shopping every week (yeah, such a chore), because everyone wanted a different colour and lots of yarn goes into them. I realized I wasn't charging enough but kept going. Around Christmas time again Christmas stockings were popular. I raised my prices. I offered more choices on colours and patterns. Sold more than I could make, ran out of time, customers had to wait a long time.

More colours, more patterns

Year 3: Found my niche: Personalized knitted Christmas stockings. I wasn't giving any discounts before Christmas. I stopped doing the pillow cases. I offered more choices for Christmas stockings: More patterns, more sizes, more colours, pure wool and acrylic yarn.

Popular Christmas Stockings

Year 4: My out of season discount was still quite high and I had a waiting list I was working on well into the time new orders started rolling in. I started creating knitting patterns. I changed my shop name to SantasSockCentral.

Lots of large stockings

Year 5: Last year. Out of season discount went down to 10% and I finished the waiting list by August. Success! I created more knitting patterns. Promoted on Instagram and Twitter. Started an email list of customers.










https://www.etsy.com/shop/SantasSockCentral