Happy Holidays, everyone! Here’s a Christmas-y piece I knitted last year.

None of my close family members are yarn-crafters, so I had to learn to knit and crochet by watching Youtube videos. We always had a lot of crocheted afghans and some knitted pieces in our home, however, because my great-grandmother (whom I never really knew) was an avid knotter/knitter. Notably, my sister and I have always loved the Christmas stockings that she made for us when we were born. The stockings have our names and birth years along with some Christmas-y designs. We use them every Christmas – even now! My sister especially loves opening her stocking on Christmas morning, so she wanted me to make a similar stocking for her boyfriend that she could stuff for him as his Christmas present. I was actually able to find the same pattern my great-grandmother used on a vintage knitting website! It was really exciting. Here are the three stockings together – the two farthest left are mine and my sister’s, and the one on the right is the one I made for my sister’s boyfriend.

The pattern works the leg of the stocking on flat needles, but, if I were doing the pattern over, I’d definitely do it on circular or double-pointed needles. Purling across with the color work was pretty annoying, and there’s no reason to not do it in the round – the foot and toe are worked in the round anyways.

Instead of name and birth year, I did his name and his name in Korean. My sister helped me design the pattern for the pictures and words. It’s really easy to personalize!

I think my sister and her boyfriend were both really happy with how it turned out, and I thought it was really cool that I got to use the same pattern that my great-grandmother worked from.

This is a really great Christmas present! The pattern is pretty simple, it doesn’t take very long to work up, and it’s very customizable. Stockings are so fun to open – you can fill them with candy, small delightful things (like tiny toys, nail polish, or small notebooks), or clothes (gloves, socks, cute underwear…). How are you celebrating the holidays this year?