Winter Pines Blanket Square for Stocking in Caron United - Downloadable PDF

Winter Pines Blanket Square for Stocking in Caron United – Knitting Pattern Summary

The Winter Pines Blanket Square for Stocking is a knitted blanket square designed by Ann McDonald Kelly and worked in Caron United yarn. This pattern is part of the Caron United World's Biggest Stocking Project, a charitable initiative through which 15 cents from every ball of Caron United sold goes directly to the Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation, providing college scholarships to children of military personnel who have lost their lives in the line of duty. The finished square measures approximately 36 inches [91.5 cm] square, making it a generous, statement-sized piece suitable for a blanket or throw.

What Is Being Made

This pattern produces a single large knitted square intended to be contributed to or displayed as part of the World's Biggest Stocking Project. The square features a striking Winter Pines colorwork motif — a repeating pine tree design worked in a mosaic knitting technique — framed by clean garter stitch borders on all four sides. The combination of bold color blocks and textured stitch pattern gives the square a classic, wintry aesthetic that is both visually impressive and beginner-friendly in its construction.

Techniques Used

• Mosaic knitting (slip-stitch colorwork): The Winter Pines chart is worked using a mosaic technique, meaning only one color is used per row. Stitches of the non-working color are simply slipped rather than knitted, creating the appearance of two-color stranded colorwork without the complexity of carrying two yarns across a row simultaneously. This makes the technique highly accessible for knitters who are new to colorwork.
• Carrying yarn along the edge: Because only one color is worked at a time, the unused color is carried loosely along the side edge of the work rather than cut at each color change, reducing the number of ends to weave in and keeping the edges tidy.
• Working back and forth in rows: Despite using a circular needle, the square is worked flat — back and forth in rows — rather than in the round. The circular needle is used purely to accommodate the large number of stitches (127 cast on), which would be unwieldy on standard straight needles.
• Garter stitch borders: The top, bottom, and side edges of the square are finished with garter stitch (knitting every row) borders worked in the contrast color Cherry (A), providing a neat, structured frame around the colorwork panels.
• Picking up and knitting stitches: Side borders are added after the main body is complete by picking up and knitting stitches evenly along the left and right edges, then working several rows of garter stitch before binding off.
• Blocking: The finished square is blocked to even out the stitches and open up the fabric to its full dimensions.

Stitches Used

• Garter stitch – knitting every row, used for all borders and edgings
• Slip stitch (purlwise) – the foundation of the mosaic colorwork technique; stitches are slipped as if to purl with yarn held in back on knit rows and yarn held in front on purl rows
• Charted mosaic pattern – the Winter Pines chart is worked over a 24-stitch repeat, worked 5 times across the row, over 42 rows per repeat; the full colorwork section is repeated 4 times in total throughout the square
• Cast on and bind off – standard methods are used to begin and end the work

Chart and Color Sequence

The Winter Pines chart uses three colors throughout the square. The mosaic colorwork panels alternate between Aran (MC) and Dark Green (B) to create the pine tree motif, while Cherry (A) is used exclusively for the garter stitch borders and transitional rows between colorwork repeats. The sequence of the square is as follows: an initial garter stitch border in Cherry, followed by four repetitions of the 42-row Winter Pines chart separated by short garter stitch sections in Cherry, and finished with a final garter stitch border. This structured repetition gives the square a balanced, symmetrical appearance.

Materials

• Yarn: Caron United