Greenland: a needlework chart for any craft

A long time ago, I encoded the word Greenland as both lace and a needlework chart as suggested by Ron, a Patreon backer. I didn’t really have a good routine in place for the needlework charts at that time, and had trouble even choosing a chart I thought was best from the possibilities. But now I’ve picked one I like a lot and came up with a layout I think shows it off well.

I don’t know that I’ll do something like this for all of my oldest needlework charts, but here’s a proper chart that has repeat borders in it, written instructions, and also an image showing how the pattern looks when it’s repeated.

I did make one small change in where the chart repeats because it was easy and I like it better.

how Greenland needlework might look as stranded knitting
chart showing how to work Greenland needlework by means of dark and light squares. Written instructions in blog post.
click to enlarge
  • Greenland has a repeat of 22 + 1 columns and 8 rows.
  • In the written instructions, color A is the light squares above, and color B is the dark.
  • The written instructions below are formatted for stranded knitting, but it is my hope that they could be translated into instructions for other crafts. For instance, if working filet crochet, 1A could be one open square and 2B could be two filled-in squares.
  • Designers, please feel free to use this in your patterns (no need to ask). I’d like credit but won’t be offended if people don’t give it.
  • My blog posts and free stitch patterns are supported by subscriptions on Patreon or donations to my Paypal tip jar in the sidebar. If you appreciate my work, please consider helping out. Thanks!

Round 1: work knit as follows; 1A, *(1A, 1B) × 3, (4A, 1B) × 2, (1A, 1B) × 2, 2A; work from *. (23 sts)

Round 2: work knit as follows; 1A, *1A, 3B, 3A, (1B, 2A) × 2, 1B, 3A, 3B, 2A; work from *.

Round 3: work knit as follows; 1A, *2B, 4A, 3B, 1A, 1B, 1A, 3B, 4A, 2B, 1A; work from *.

Round 4: work knit as follows; 1A, *1B, 5A, 1B, 2A, 1B, 1A, 1B, 2A, 1B, 5A, 1B, 1A; work from *.

Round 5: work knit as follows; 1A, *1B, 2A, 1B, 5A, 1B, 1A, 1B, 5A, 1B, 2A, 1B, 1A; work from *.

Round 6: work knit as follows; 1B, *1A, 3B, 4A, 2B, 1A, 2B, 4A, 3B, 1A, 1B; work from *.

Round 7: work knit as follows; 1B, *2A, 1B, (3A, 3B) × 2, 3A, 1B, 2A, 1B; work from *.

Round 8: work knit as follows; 1B, *4A, (1B, 1A) × 2, 1B, 3A, (1B, 1A) × 2, 1B, 4A, 1B; work from *.