Modifications for Purl Soho's Snow Day Stockings

December 6, 2020

My partner and I don't always decorate for Christmas, but when we do, we love to hang stockings to fill with little notes, candies, chapsticks, stickers, or other small snacks and trinkets we pick up over the course of December. His family has a tradition of handmade stockings, most of which are gorgeously cross stitched, but since neither of us enjoys cross stitching enough to do entire stockings, we settled on my knitting them instead. I chose the Snow Day Stocking by Purl Soho pattern because it knits up quickly and the marled pattern felt perfectly cozy.

Two completed Snow Day Stockings: The toes and tops are a creamy white, and the main section of the body is a marled bright red and creamy white. The stitches are very defined due to the large needle size and single-ply nature of the yarn. They have an i-cord loop incorporated in the bind-off for hanging.

I chose to use Red Gingham for the contast color alongside Heirloom White because it is a classic bright red. (The Red Poppy in Purl Soho's blog post is a lot more orange in real life than it looks on most computer screens.)

Pattern modifications

Using yarn over (YO) increases in the toe strikes me as a weird choice because YO's create holes, and if you "knit all yarn overs from previous round through the back loop" as instructed to twist the hole, you just get a smaller hole. Holes seem like exactly the wrong sort of thing for an object that traditionally holds small objects, particularly with such a large gauge that the holes are large. I gave the YO holes the benefit of the doubt and knitted a few rows, but decided that it was both as impractical as I expected and somewhat ugly. I simply could make a Christmas stocking that a pen might fall through!

My replacements for the YO toe rows:

Round 1: *kfb, k1, mirrored kfb (place marker between stitches) repeat from * to end of round. 4 stitches increased
Round 2: *k1, m1l, knit to next marker, m1r, slip marker, k1, repeat from * to end of round. 4 stitches increased

mirrored kfb: video instructions here
m1l: pick up bar between stitches from front, knit into the back
m1r: pick up bar between stitches from back, knit into the front

The completed toe section with my modifications: there are no holes and the increases are very smoothly integrated into the toe's shape.

I've also documented these modifications and my other project notes for these stockings on Ravelry, but I'm attempting to document projects in a location where viewers don't need to create an account to see them and on a platform I have full control over, too, in case Ravelry ever disappears. Plus, as always, I'm just not very good at keeping external sites updated and am always trying to blog more.

Additional project notes

  • Needle: US 17 - 12.0 mm
  • Gauge: 8 stitches and 11 rows = 4 inches in Stockinette Stitch, with yarn doubled
  • Yarn used per stocking: 1 skein (87 yards) of Purl Soho Super Soft Merino in Heirloom White (dye lot 456936), 1 skein (87 yards) of Super Soft Merino in Red Gingham (dye lot 272965)
  • I didn't bother making pom poms since I'm not really a pom pom person, but if I ever do, I'll likely use both colors of yarn to do so.
  • Someday, I will likely embroider little tags with names on them to attach to the hanging loops, but for now, Matt's just hangs higher because he's taller.
  • I've found working double knit i-cord is my preferred way to set up a provisional cast on in the round over a small number of stitches, like this pattern calls for. This helps me avoid ending up with uneven stitches wherever I switch needles. I cast on the right number of stitches with scrap yarn using the long tail cast on, work double knit i-cord twice (4 rows, as each run around takes 2), and then distribute the stitches over 2 circular needles or DPNs. To distribute the double knit i-cord stitches, you want to alternate needles as you slip them off as every other stitch is the "back" part of the round.
  • I prefer knitting small number of stitches in the round over two small circular needles instead of on DPNs. With a pattern like this with a repeat halfway through, it's mentally easiest for me to split the stitches such that the first half is on one circ and the second on the other, but you can't easily use a traditional stitch marker when it's between needles. Instead, I tie a small bit of yarn to the cord of the circular needle that I have to switch to between rounds.
  • I knit 13 rows to get the 5-inch length in the foot, 22 rows to get the 8-inch length in the leg (not counting the specified "round 1"), and 9 rows to get the 4-inch length in the hanging loop (not counting the bind off knit row).