His Crochet Christmas Stocking Pattern

Picture it. Your eyes shoot open as soon as the sun hits your window because you know… it’s Christmas day. Racing down the stairs you see presents all around the tree and beautiful stockings above the fireplace. You find the one with your name and see it filled to the brim with goodies. If you grew up at my house, your stocking was the first thing you dug into on Christmas morning. We had a strict rule of no present opening until nine o’clock sharp, mostly to avoid the dreaded “Mom, Dad, it’s Christmas!” at five in the morning, but it allowed for some time for everyone to wake up at their own pace knowing that they wouldn’t be missing out. But, stockings were the exception. 

While my father was “helping” (i.e. in a catatonic state on the couch), my mother would pack little toys, games, and goodies into our stockings to keep us busy in the morning. She always remembered our favorite candies so while we each got similar things, they all had their own unique spin. Hot chocolate was one of my favorite things, and sometimes there was a Mad-Libs I’d make my siblings do with me. Something about seeing Christmas stockings hanging up during the Advent season reminds me of those innocent childhood memories and brings a smile to my face. 

Fun fact: my aunt happens to be the one and only Cheryl Bennet from Crochet 365 Knit Too (now you know where I get some of my crochet expertise). When I was little, she knit me this beautiful stocking with the cutest little snowmen on it. After my brother was born, she figured she’d make another for him. And then there was my sister… and my other sister… and then three more kids after that. My aunt had no idea what she was getting herself into! It seemed like every Christmas she was racing to finish a stocking thinking she was finally done and then my mom would say, “Well… actually…” It wasn’t until a couple years ago that she even had the chance to make two for my parents! 

Even though my aunt got a bit more than she bargained for, I love seeing all the stockings hanging up together. Something about the old-style traditional look of them felt so nostalgic for me, and I knew way before I got married that I wanted that for my future family. However, I don’t know how to knit. Knit has a very unique and almost antique look to it that I wanted to recreate, but learning to knit just for this project seemed a little silly. I thought, surely, there must be a way to do this with crochet! How cool would it be if I was able to create a crochet Christmas stocking pattern? Over the last two years, I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, I’ve ripped out A LOT. I learned that the waistcoat stitch, or split single crochet, is a great way to get that knit look, but it is an extremely dense stitch that made my stocking design very stiff and I just didn’t like the way it hung. Back to the drawing board! I tried regular single crochet, but it was still pretty stiff. Sadly, I ran out of time last Christmas, we got some temporary mismatched five dollar stockings, and I was left feeling very defeated. Recently, I have discovered the almighty “extended single crochet” stitch and it has changed my life! Have you ever had a single crochet project that felt too dense and stiff? Extended single crochet stitch is about to blow your mind! Such an easy fix and it was right under our noses! Yes, I did have to accept that it’s not a “knit” crochet Christmas stocking pattern, but I honestly love it more than when I was doing the waistcoat stitch! It’s easier to work with, drapes beautifully, and the colorwork still looks amazing!

I started with my hubby’s stocking because quite frankly, I felt like I owed it to him. Not gonna lie, I was a little cocky and overly ambitious last year. After bragging about how I was going to “nail this knit crochet idea,” and how I could totally just create a huge pattern from scratch in no time at all, I wanted to be a bit more realistic this year. But don’t worry, you can keep your eyes peeled for Her Stocking next week (sneak peek below)! Until then, are you ready for His Stocking? It is live and ready to download on my Etsy and Ravelry!