2023: a needlework chart for any craft

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Every year, I design a knitting stitch pattern by charting the digits for the upcoming year. Here is a needlework chart for 2023.

I developed a lace stitch pattern for 2023, 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.)

Depiction of how 2023 needlework might look as stranded knitting. Version 1, at the bottom, reminds me of the angled lines on feathers. Version 2, at the top, looks like flattened diamonds with a speckle in the middle of each one.
Chart showing how to work the 2023 needlework chart by means of dark and light squares. Written instructions in blog post.
  • The 2023 needlework chart has a repeat of 10 + 1 columns. Version 1 is a repeat of 2 rows; version 2 is a repeat of 4 + 2 rows. Since rows 3& 4 are the same as rows 1 &2, just shifted sideways by half, you can end after either row 2 or 4.
  • 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 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, (1B, 3A) × 2, 1B; work from *, 1A. (11 sts)

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

Repeat rounds 1-2 to make version 1 of 2023, at the bottom of the illustration, .

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

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

Repeat rounds 1-4 to make version 2 of 2023, at the top of the illustration. If working version 2, end after either row 2 or 4.