2022: a needlework chart for any craft

Happy New Year!

Each year I design stitch patterns by charting the numbers of the upcoming year. I thought this chart would make a nice border in a whole range of crafts. The elements involved are standard enough in a lot of historical crafts that I don’t think this is anything new; my method for reaching the pattern is somewhat unconventional, is all.

I developed a lace stitch pattern for 2022, but I also like to provide a basic chart for any craft that’s worked on a grid: beads, cross stitch, whatever. I try to provide at least some digital art of the pattern repeated all over not as a chart. It doesn’t necessarily look like a finished object for any particular craft, but I want to give a sense of it in use. (I try to make it look like knitting when it’s got floats short enough for easy stranded knitting.)

how the 2022 needlework might look as stranded knitting -- a border with two horizontal stripes and a narrow checkerboard pattern between them.
Chart showing how to work 2022 needlework by means of dark and light squares. Written instructions in blog post.
click chart to enlarge
  • 2022 has a repeat of 3 + 1 columns and 9 rows.
  • In the written instructions, color A is the light squares above, and color B is the dark. The light colored stripes at the top and bottom of the chart are part of the code.
  • 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). Ordinarily I’d ask for credit, but this is so very standard that I’d feel funny about that!
  • 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: using A, knit. (3 sts)

Round 2: using B, knit.

Round 3: using A, knit.

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

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

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

Round 7: using A, knit.

Round 8: using B, knit.

Round 9: using A, knit.