Endless Roses Christmas Stocking

As the result of a trip to Norway, I was inspired by the beautiful designs that were used in the knitting from Selbu, the home of the now famous “Selbu Mittens”. The museum in Selbu, Norway has some wonderful pieces of knitting history. This Christmas stocking has borders of “endless roses”, a typical Norwegian motif used in hats, mittens, socks and sweaters. I saw many examples of these roses in the Selbu museum. Techniques used in this stocking are broken rib for the cuff at the top of the stocking, knitting with two colors at the same time, catching floats, working a flap heel with the decreases at the bottom as they were knit on some of the Bunad stockings from the traditional Norwegian national costumes, a round toe and an I-cord hanging loop. In worsted weight this is a generously sized stocking with a finished size of about 16 inches around and 23.5 inches top to toe. My sample is worked in a heavy worsted weight but a finer yarn could be used to make a smaller stocking.