Remember this from June? For months now I’ve been playing with the pattern. Or, rather, trying to chart the written instructions. At this point, though, I’m giving up – I’ll leave the charting for someone smarter than myself.

This is Hocking, a pseudo pattern. It features a simple, basic stockinette body with increases made down the center back and each side, and the shawl is finished with an interesting flowers and fans edging that very much reminds me of the place where it was cast on originally (Hocking Hills State Park here in Ohio) with its greenery and water falls. (See my “About” page for a picture of the lovely waterfall at Hocking Hills with me actually knitting on this shawl in front of it!)

This shawl was knit in Classic Merino Lace from Knitting Notions (its dreamy soft!) on size 4 needles.  I had purchased 2 skeins, which equaled about 770 yards, and I only used about one and a half. You can certainly use thicker yarn with a corresponding bigger needle. If you want to make this more shawl-like, you can do a bit of math to figure out the final total of stitches you’ll need before beginning the edging (which is over 21 plus 8 stitches).

Hocking (A pseudo pattern)

Begin by casting on 7 stitches.

Knit one row, placing markers as follows: K2, place marker, k1, place marker, k1, place marker, k1, place marker, k2. These first two and last two stitches are your edging, and will always be knit.

Knit one more row, then begin the following two rows:

1. k2, slip marker, YO, k to next marker, YO, slip marker, k1, slip marker, YO, knit to next marker, YO, slip marker, k2
2. k2, purl to last 2 stitches, k2

I know I posted this a while ago, but I have finally gotten around to posting the chart/pattern that I used for this sock so I could share it with everyone. And since I’m on spring break vacation this week, it seemed like the perfect time!

The sock is easy enough – I knit it top-down, but it could be knit toe-up just as well. Whatever method you prefer! The chart is over 16 stitches, so you could easily do it over 64 or 72 80 stitches (it was pointed out my math was wrong and to do 72 stitches you would have half a flower – my apologies on this!). Just make sure you knit loose enough that you can get the sock on your foot! I have small ankles so I did 64 and it seemed fine as long as I knit it loosely.

On with the pattern…

Yarn used: Kraemer Yarns Saucon Sock in Lime, and JL Yarn Vinca in Color #10
Needles: A set of 5 size 1 DPNS

Cast on 64 stitches in your main color
K2 P2 ribbing for 6 rows, and then begin chart and knit through. Make sure you’re knitting loose enough so you can get it on!

If knitting top down, then you’ll start at the top portion and work your way down the chart (or just rotate it to read as you would a normal chart). If you’re knitting toe up, then just leave it as it and knit away!

After the last row of the chart, knit one row in the main color. Knit next 48 stitches in main color (16 short of a full round).

On the next 32 stitches (16 of current round, 16 of new round):

Row 1 – Slip one and knit one to begin heel and turn.
Row 2 – Slip one, purl across.

Repeat the slip 1 knit 1 and the purl back for a total of 32 times, ending with a wrong side row. Knit one row plain across and then turn.

Heel turn:

Purl 2 beyond center (18 stitches if you originally cast on 64 sts), p2tog, p1, turn.
Slip 1, knit 5, k2tog, k1, turn.
Slip 1, purl to one stitch before gap, p2tog, p1, turn.
Slip one, knit to one stitch before gap, k2tog, k1, turn.

Continue until all stitches are worked and you have 18 stitches left.

Gusset:

Pick up 18 stitches along first side, knit across instep, and pick up 18 more on 2nd side of guesset.

Knit one round around. On next round, knit to 3 stitches before instep, k2tog, k1, knit across instep stitches, k1, ssk, knit rest of stitches. Continue alternating rounds of straight knitting and decreasing until you end up with 64 stitches again.

Knit around and around and around and around until you reach 2 inches less than your foot length.

Toe:

Round 1 -
Needle 1 -  knit to last 3 stitches, k2tog, knit 1
Needle 2 – knit 1, ssk, knit to end of needle
Needle 3 -   knit to last 3 stitches, k2tog, knit 1
Needle 4 – knit 1, ssk, knit to end of needle

Round 2 – Knit around

Repeat until you get down to 24 stitches. Transfer onto 2 needles and kitchener together and weave in ends and you’re done!

If you have any questions feel free to contact me and ask! I’m not a pro at pattern writing so I’m sure there are some mistakes or some unclear directions.

It’s done and I love it! It goes so well on my little couch in my craft room. It’s not big, just a small little rectangular pillow but it’s so cute! It only took me forever and a day to come up with a design I liked – I toyed around with probably 4 ideas before I decided to just make up my own thing and try my hand for the first time ever at some Fair Isle-like knitting. And it worked perfectly.

(In all honesty, the pillow started out as an attempt to make a square and I cast on enough stitches for 4 pattern repeats width-wise, but then realized it was too small that way and instead of frogging it after all that work, I just decided to work with it to make it a longer pillow – but it looked just as cute that way!)

Here’s how I made it:

What you’ll need:

Two colors of yarn of a similar weight. I used Baby Bee Sweet Delight for the off white, and Paton’s Lacette double-stranded together since it’s a fingering weight yarn and it worked well.

Needles the proper size for your yarn. I used size 5, but I probably could have gone up a size or two without too much trouble but I like the tight fabric the 5 created.

Blunt needle for weaving in ends

What to do:

Print off the pattern image shown below. The pattern is over 12 stitches and 12 rows, so decide on how many repeats you want. Obviously different yarn and needles will give you a bigger or smaller size so gauge swatch if you need to see how big 12 stitches by 12 rows is. Take the number of repeats you want and multiply it by 12 and then add 2 to that (Mine was 4 x 12 + 2 = 50).

Cast on that number of stitches with your main color (whatever you want as the ‘background’ on the pattern), and knit 2 rows, slipping the first stitch of every row. Then start the pattern (odd rows are knit, even rows are purled), knitting from the bottom of the chart up, and reading right to left on odd rows and left to right on even rows and continuing to slip the first stitch of each row. The pink X means that you knit (or purl, depending on the side you’re on) in your contrasting color.

Repeat the pattern as many times as needed to get the size you want, and when you are ready to finish knit 2 rows of the main color again for an edge and then bind off.

Finishing for the back of the pillow is entirely up to you. I sewed mine to some matching plain cotton fabric because I got too lazy to knit a plain off white back for the pillow – but if you want an entirely knit up pillow then feel free to cast on the same amount of stitches as you did for the front and knit enough for the back and then seam it all together and stuff it and enjoy!

Pattern Chart: (Click to open and download)