St. Nicholas’ Feast Day is December 6th. We celebrate by hiding tiny treats in giant stockings. We also read a story about Bishop Nicholas of Myra (also known as Defender of Orthodoxy, Nicholas the Wonderworker, Nicholas of Bari, and of course, most commonly as Saint Nicholas).
My mother-in-law (who I lovingly call Feral Fair-Isle Sharon) and I made stockings for all the members of the family; each is unique. We had so much fun I wanted to post the pattern to encourage others to do it, too. I’ll be frank: you can really use any favorite sock pattern, any heel shaping, and any weight wool. (Some of you are closing the browser and reaching for your wool and needles now...) Simply make the leg and foot of the sock as long as you think looks nice; let it be the size it wants to be. The best part is finding or designing what borders and motifs to knit. We like ours with only MC & CC, but playing with color would look wonderful as well. You’ll end up with a stocking that is truly unique. And who wants to knit the same thing twice? No second sock syndrome here! I’m going to have 20 more babies so I can keep knitting these things.
Materials:Wool in main color (MC) and contrasting color (CC).
Dpns that make a good looking fabric with your wool
Yarn needle
Stitch marker
Some way to hang the stocking safely
Graph paper and a pencil for your own sketches and motifs
A book of motifs wouldn’t go awry (I think “Scandinavian Knitting Design” by Pauline Chatterton is the best- good luck finding it…) but there are many good ones in libraries and limitless patterns available for free online
Gauge: Whatever knitted fabric looks nice. You’re probably not going to wear them; am I right? Ours were 19 sts over 4”.
Considerations:• Choose your yarn weight and needle size depending on how large you would like your stocking, and your preference for fabric drape. The stockings I made used Cascade 220 (worsted weight) and US 9s; they are very, very large. Ours were 9” from top to heel, 6 ½” across, and 11 ½” from heel to toe (beginning shaping for toe at 8”). My mother-in-law used the same Cascade 220 and US 7s, and we got the same gauge. Cascade 220, Baby Ull or Faulk (all different sizes) all work well for stranded color work. A fingering weight yarn like Baby Ull would yield a lovely, moderate-sized stocking.
• If you are not familiar with fair isle you might want to try making a dishcloth (or another small project) using the opposite knitting method to your own (picking/continental vs. throwing/English). Then you will be more comfortable working in both hands with fair isle.
• As you knit, smooth the stitches and make sure they do not bunch on our needle. If you allow stitches to bunch while you knit fair isle, the work will pucker badly and the floats will hold the puckers in place. No amount of blocking could save your soul! While my pointer fingers are busy doing the backbone work of two-color knitting, I let my fingers and thumbs (that would otherwise be idle) trail and stretch the knitting as I work without thinking about it; they sometimes alert me when the stitches get too close together. Take special care to make sure the stitches are not crowded when carrying the yarn for longer distances, such as 4 or 5 sts.
• Twist the yarns to avoid long floats on the back of the work, which can catch on the items inside the stocking. We only twisted the yarns if carrying one color for 6 or 7 sts- farther than an inch (often a no-no in fair isle). And we never twisted the yarns for less than 5 stitches. This is because the more you twist the yarns, the more you distort and discolor your image from the front. Many people twist their yarns so often, the final project is a ruin. Of course, if you don’t twist the yarns at all, it will be impossible to fetch anything out of the stocking because there are very long stretches of color on some of the landscape charts. Twice across the landscape chart is sufficient. Also, try to stagger your twists, or they can end up in an eye-catching column.
• Do not twist yarn when you change colors working fair isle in the round; this is unnecessary. However, when you knit back and forth, then you must twist the yarns when changing color at the end of each row (such as when you are making your heel flap and turning the heel). Twisting the yarns at the ends of rows will avoid weird holes from forming.
• You can adjust the total number of stitches as you go (using k2togs or M1s) to accommodate charts of your own choosing. It won’t show in the finished stocking if you fudge the number a few times here and there (as many as +/- 4 sts).
Knitters, Beware! This pattern has not been test knit. So if you’re enjoying this free pattern, I’m afraid you’re getting what you pay for. Please let me know if you find errors, and I’ll correct them. Once this pattern has been test knit, I’ll erase this warning (although you still get what you pay for).
Pattern:CO 60 sts in MC. (Leave a very long tail. Later you will use it to sew down the edge and create a picot hem.) Join in the round, being careful not to twist.
K 6 rounds.
*YO, k2tog* all the way around. (Note: if you do not want a picot hem, simply purl this round.)
K 9 rounds. (On the last round you may have to fudge a few sts to have the right amount of sts for the pattern which follows, although Border 1 fits perfectly).
Pick out a border on your own or use one from these stockings. Join contrast color and begin!
(Look below to see the border 1 chart.)
Names. K 1 round in MC, then begin your name. This name has 31 sts, so I would M1 twice on the previous round. We made all the names 7 rows high. Draw out a name of your choosing! Make sure you leave at least 3 to 5 sts on one side so the letters don’t run into each other from the front to the back. (“Who is muelSam?”) And start at the top of your pattern (row 7) or your work will appear upside down.
K1 round MC, repeat border 1.
The big picture. Now for the best part! We drew out landscapes on graph paper, but changed them slightly as we knit. I added a Christmas star to one, and my mother-in-law added different sizes of stars to the shepherd chart. Change them similarly to make them your own. Get some graph paper and sketch out your favorite Christmas scene. You can also use another image. Large Norwegian stars would look especially nice. Check out Terri Shea’s Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition. It’s got tons of great charts (snowflakes, animals, motifs, and great borders, too). You can use that Santa head, reindeer or moose you’ve always admired but didn’t have the guts to put on a sweater (I know I can’t be the only one dying to knit a moose but nowhere to to knit it). Awed by a filet crochet pattern for the Virgin Mary’s face? Now is the time. Perhaps stick figure versions of each member of the family? Search for free charts online, or browse Christmas craft books from the library. Anything will work, so long as it is about 30 sts wide (for an image on the front and back). Or, just keep doing different borders that please you, all the way down the leg and foot.
(All landscape charts are posted together below.)
Shepherds.Knit chart twice over 64 sts (if you start with 60 sts, add 4 sts in the last row before beginning chart). If you like, cut off the last sheep to shorten the width. Add your own stars.
Nativity.Repeat chart twice (front and back). If I were to knit this again, I would erase the donkey (or is that a sheep? I can’t tell and I’m the one who drew it!) and make the Holy Family using duplicate st to avoid ridiculously long floats. Add a big star, too!
Wise MenRepeat chart three times over 63 sts. Since this chart is not as deep, add additional borders above or below.
How long do you want the rest of the leg? Make it so. (On the stockings in the picture, there was usually room for one or two more borders, and about 14” when we began to turn the heel.)
(See below for leg pattern.)
Heel. Ready to turn the heel? Consider simple but striking geometric patterns often found on the palms of Norwegian Selbu mittens (again, see Terri Shea’s book for a myriad of lovely designs). The most simple is a checkerboard, 1x1 or 2x2. It is kind of a pain to work a heel back and forth in fair isle, so if you don’t want to do that, you can leave it solid, add duplicate st, or do something in intarsia.
(See below for heel chart.)
Use half the stitches for your heel flap (or a few more to make your pattern work out). Put the remaining stitches for the instep on a holder.
Heel flap. Work back and forth in st st (while working your heel pattern), slipping the first stitch of each row. Do this for 18 to 28 rows, whatever looks right with your row gauge, sock size, and heel pattern. End with a purl row, and place a marker in the center of the row.
Turning the heel. Again, use any heel pattern you like. This heel pattern is written to be used with any number of total stitches, and I think is an easier shape to use with color work. Keep the 8 stitches in the middle of the row with the pattern intact, and don’t worry about the pattern being eaten up on either side. Depending on your stitch pattern, you may need to wrap the yarns at the ends of rows to prevent them from pulling when you use the yarn again on the next row.
Row 1: Sl1, knit across to marker, remove marker, k2, ssk, k1. Turn.
Row 2: Sl 1, p5, p2tog, p1. Turn.
Row 3: Sl 1, k to 1 st before gap, ssk (closing gap), k1. Turn.
Row 4: Sl 1, p to 2 st before gap, p2tog (to close gap), p1. Turn.
Repeat these last two rows until all stitches have been worked, ending on a purl row.
K across and continue around sock by picking up the same number of stitches as you made rows in your heel flap 14 to 26 sts down one side of your heel flap (this will vary depending on your number of rows, but one st for each slipped st plus one to avoid a gap turns out nicely). Knit across the instep stitches, then pick up the same number of sts up the other side of the heel flap. (This round can be tricky to do in pattern, so you can just use MC if you like.)
Foot. Use more borders or motifs and make the foot as long as you like. Snowflakes, reindeer, narrow bands of simple shapes, whatever floats your foot. You can echo a theme from your large picture (such as making a ring of crowns if you knitted wise men).
If you use the foot chart below, adjust the number of stitches in the vine to fit based on how many stitches you have. Then flip it upside down and stagger the flowers. I used four hanging from the top and four growing up from the bottom.
Shaping the instep. Adjust your stitches so you have instep stitches evenly divided on two dpns and heel sts evenly divided on two dpns.
Knit across one needle, so now you’re in the center of the heel. From here on out, consider the center of the heel the beginning of the round.
Begin the foot chart at the same time as you shape your instep.
Round 1: (1st needle) Working the chart pattern, k to last 3 heel sts on needle, k2tog, k1; (2nd and 3rd needles) k across the instep; (4th needle) k1, ssk, k to end of needle.
Round 2: Knit the round with no decreases in pattern.
Alternate these two rounds until you have the same number of stitches on your needles that you had on the leg (probably 60). Continue with charts or motifs until your foot is long enough to begin decreasing for the toe.
Toe. Begin decreasing for the toe and at the same time begin color work for your toe. You might repeat Border 2, or launch straight into your heel chart.
Decrease round: (1st needle) k to last three sts, k2tog, k1; (2nd needle) k1, ssk, k to end of needle; (3rd needle) k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1; (4th needle), k1, ssk, k to end.
Plain round: K this round in pattern with no decreases.
Repeat these two rounds until there are 28 sts on the needles, then knit only the decrease round. Continue until 16 sts remain. Graft toe.
Finishing. Go back up to the top and place a yarn needle on your cast on tail. Using a whip stitch, carefully stitch the cast on edge to the inside of the stocking to create a lovely picot hem (if you did a purl row, then the purl row will be at the fold).
Pick up 4 sts (centered over the heel) in MC, and work I-cord for 2-3 inches, then attach it to the stocking to make a loop so you can hang your beautiful handiwork!
Weave in all ends. Admire finished product. Hang (carefully) and fill with your favorite stocking-loot. My family uses tangerines, walnuts, a toothbrush, gum, chapstick, and some other random odds and ends.
Suggested Reading:Selbuvotter: A Biography of a Knitting Tradition. Terri Shea. Spinningwheel LLC, (2007).
Scandinavian Knitting Design. Pauline Chatterton. Scribner, (1977).
You are welcome to use this chart and pattern for any personal and non-commercial use. Step right up and ask if you want to sell a few for personal profit or charity; I don’t bite!
© 2010 Badger Unraveled. Some rights reserved.
