>It never fails. Immediately after Thanksgiving, after the last dinner guests have been kicked out… uh, I mean have made their fond farewells and head home… I start hankering for Christmas. Not in a hurry-up-and-please-be-Christmas kind of way, as a kid would wish. My thoughts center on making the holiday season last as loooong as possible.

My parents had little experience with or reverence for American holiday traditions. Our little family had to make it up as we went, trying our best to assimilate and fit in with our neighbors. So we hunted for Easter eggs. Ate turkey and cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving. And even though Mom and Dad had no idea about the Christ in Christmas, they grudgingly went along with the tree, the decorations, Santa and presents because it was the thing to do.

The first tree in our house that I can remember was the most magnificent sight a five-year-old could behold. It was a tinsel tree. Yup. Silver, with a color-wheel. And it was real metal foil, not the soft mylar of today’s silver trees. This was a tree with (ouch) teeth. Gingerly, Mom put her own spin on the decorations, draping the branches with strings of Chinese lanterns and origami birds.

My mother truly enjoyed the decorating part. Long after my brothers and I fled the nest she continued (to the consternation of my dad who was sort of a grouch about most holidays) to put up garlands and lights and Christmas doo-dads all over the house. I don’t know where she learned or copied it, but one year I came home to visit and found these little handmade stockings hung everywhere.

She demonstrated how easy it was to crochet. With a few strategic tweaks to the design I was off and running my own personal stocking factory. It was my habit to begin crocheting them every season, starting just after Thanksgiving. Over the years I cranked out hundreds, as ornaments for various trees, as gifts, gift enclosures, as handy holders for candy and lucky money.

I can’t find a single one today, so in a bit I will scrounge around for some appropriate yarn and make up a sample for photography so you can see it. But for now I will post the pattern I developed from the stocking my mother showed me.

Mini Motif Stocking
Skill Level Easy
Size about 4 1/2 ” tall as shown
Materials
small amounts of worsted weight yarn in three colors
The obvious red (A) /green (B) /white (C) for Christmas come to mind, but feel free to use unexpected colors
Size J-10 (6.00 mm) crochet hook
Yarn needle
Gauge (not critical)
Hexagonal Motif, before assembly= 4 1/2″ at widest point
Instructions
Body of stocking is a six-sided granny motif. This is dense motif, that is, it has no chain spaces between the groups of stitches as you’d use in a traditional granny square. I find this leaves fewer smaller holes for the candy to fall out.
Motif is crocheted in rounds with RS always facing. Fasten off and change colors after each round (or not).
With A, ch 5, sl st in beg ch to form a ring.
Rnd 1: With A, ch 3 (counts as dc), 17 dc in ring, sl st in top of beg ch, fasten off A — 18 dc
Rnd 2: With B, join in any sp between dc, ch 3, 5 dc in same space between dc, [sk next 3 dc, 6 dc in next space between dc] 5 times, sl st in top of beg ch, fasten off B — 6 6-dc corners

Weave ends.
Assembly
This motif ruffles a bit, but that is a good thing. Fold hex in half along the dotted line as shown in diagram, with wrong sides together, matching stitches all around. RS facing, begin at the tip of fold at the toe, with A, join with sl st through the back loop only in the middle (2nd) dc in the 3-dc group. Ch 1, sc in same back loop. Going through the back loop of both thicknesses each time, sc in next 21 st, mark last sc for clarity. To form the top opening, going through the RS of one layer only, make 2 sc through the front loop in each of next 11 dc, ending up at the last of the joining sc (marker), sl st in marked sc. For hanging loop, ch 15, sl st in same sc (marker), fasten off. Weave ends.

Cute, EH? Hope to have an image of a finished one here soon. How many will you make?