Hand Knit Christmas Stockings

If you were to think of the most common Christmas decorations, what would you think of? What about if I were to ask you about the most common hand knit Christmas decorations? You've got it... Christmas stockings! There are many places where you can purchase custom knit Christmas stockings, but they don't have the same charm as one that you can make yourself.

In this lens, I will share with you resources to help you make your own custom knit Christmas stocking this holiday season. First, I will share resources for alphabet knitting charts and lists of free Christmas stocking knitting patterns so you can turn any stocking pattern into something personalized. Next, I will share with you a "blank template" of a Christmas stocking knitting pattern (Shaped like this title image), and provide you with the information you'll need to create your own design.

It is not difficult to add someone's name onto an existing stocking pattern to personalize it. This may involve adding additional rows to the top of the stocking, but shouldn't be too difficult.

This is a great resource for stocking knitting patterns. Don't like one of the featured stockings? Include the elements that you do like into your design!

With the generic pattern shown in these links, you will knit a straight tube, decrease for the toe, and then insert an afterthought heel. The patterns of the three stockings are nearly identical, but the pattens are completely different. (The difference is what row to insert the afterthought heel.)

The charts of the three stockings in my examples are 70 stitches wide (circumference of the stocking) and 117-120 stitches long. The afterthought heel is inserted into the chart pattern around row 77. So if you design a chart that is 70x120 stitches, you can insert it into one of the patterns shown below.

When you are knitting the pattern, at the point where you would like the heel to be placed, you knit over half of the stocking stitches with waste yarn, turn the work and the purl back across. You then continue knitting with the stocking colors across the waste yarn stitches. This eliminates the necessity to make a gusset, and allows you to continue with your pattern uninterrupted. This technique is used for socks people wear, but since these stockings are being made to hang on a fireplace instead of on a foot, the proportions don't need to be exact.

After the waste yarn is cut, you pick up the stitches on either side with the color you care about. You then cut the waste yarn, and are left with live stitches to knit the heel!

With my help, you can be on your way to designing your own custom stocking. The following links will bring you to a tutorial I made on how to use Microsoft Excel to create your own knitting charts. (Alternatively, you can use paper graph paper and colored pencils!)

You can be a technophobe and still create your own knitting charts with ease. All you will need is some graph paper and colored pencils!

Keep in mind that knit stitches are not perfectly square, so you may need to do some adjustments if you want to create a symmetrical image.

The great thing about knitting charts is that you can use things that are unrelated to knitting as charts, too (such as cross stitch charts). You can find a knitting chart online, and incorporate it into your design. Just make sure that if you are going to publish your design that you give credit to the original designer.