You’ve Got to See Japan’s Awesome Stamp Story, 12 Years in the Making

As you probably know, Japan traditionally uses a zodiac calendar in which each year is represented by an animal, and the animals repeat every 12 years. One of the traditions that goes with marking the new year is sending new year’s cards, or nengajo, which include a stamp that commemorates the animal of the year, according to the blog Spoon & Tamago.

This coming year happens to be the year of the sheep, and the designer of this year’s stamp, Ayaka Hoshino, also happens to be the person who designed the stamp 12 years ago. Whether it’s coincidence or serendipity I don’t really care, because the results are awesome.

Back in 2003 the sheep was working on a knitting project, and now it’s done!

I know we’ve all felt like we had projects that lasted 12 years. Maybe there’s a UFO in your pile that old.

Perhaps in honor of the sheep, 2015 should be the year of finishing projects. What do you think?

[Photo via Spoon & Tamago.]

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Why should the fireplace get all the fun? Instead of knitting stockings this year, why not whip up a pair of Christmas themed socks? These Christmas sock knitting patterns are lots of fun to make and you can wear them to holiday gatherings for years to come.

For our friends in the southern part of the world, there are the Christmas in July socks from the Kiwi Lodge – Kylie (Ravelry link). These shorty socks are covered in Christmas trees and have bright pink heels and toes for a tropical feel. There’s also an option to make a longer sock if you celebrate somewhere it’s colder.

Twin Stitches Designs (Ravelry) has a fun pattern with mix and match colorwork motifs you can use to build your own cozy Christmas socks. From the sample socks I see Christmas puddings, trucks hauling trees, Santa belts, ornaments and a couple of different borders. There may be more patterns included but the listing doesn’t say. Make a pair that matches or use different motifs on each foot for extra holiday cheer.

If you want to stick to Christmas puddings on your holiday socks, check out this cute pattern from Stone Knits. These lovely socks feature a band of puddings around the leg and a bit of holly by the toes.

These vintage holiday light socks from Grey Owl Knits by Sarah are classic looking and lots of fun at the same time. I love this color combination but of course you can make your lights and stripes whatever colors you like or have on hand. They’re worked using stranded knitting.

And if you’d like even more of a mix of patterns for your socks, try Barbara Ceglédi’s Christmas Chaos socks, a free pattern on Ravelry. The pattern includes 25 little motifs you can choose from, ranging from snowflakes and Christmas trees to elf hats, reindeer and hearts.

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