Knit Advent Day 21
This is probably my favorite of the ornaments. I love the little poinsettia leaves, so cleverly knitted and sewn onto the felt backing. The gold sequins are the crowning touch. I also like the shape of the background felt.
Got a new book for myself today (in 2005): a compilation of seven Perry Mason novels in one volume, by Erle Stanley Gardner. For hours of reading pleasure, Erle Stanley Gardner rates as my favorite author of all.
Knit Advent Day 20
Santa is knitted in intarsia, and can be color-customized. Eyes and mouth were added later with duplicate stitch.
Knit Advent Day 19
Short rows shape the heel of this stocking ornament. It’s knitted from the top down. I started the short rows with the top gold outline on the heel, then made a lot of very short rows for the cream-colored heel. The gold outline at the bottom of the heel is also a short row, and I had to do quite a bit of ripping out to get the gold rows to meet properly.
To get the perfect angle between foot and cuff, the short rows continue into the turquoise of the foot. You should be able to see how the first three turquoise ridges after the heel are short rows. The toe is decreased on each side, then bound off to give the classic stocking toe shape.
Knit Advent Day 18
The cardinal is regular stockinette stitch intarsia and the pine needles are embroidered.
Cardinals stay around all winter in North Central Texas. They look like bright ornaments in our leafless trees.
Knit Advent Day 17
Here’s another garter intarsia ornament, a plain Christmas ball with band around it, which was knitted from side-to-side. The ball is shaped by increasing or decreasing only at the edges. The colors in the band just jog over and back to make its curved shape.
If you compare it with the drum (Day 10) you can see the difference that internal shaping makes. I shaped the drum by increasing and decreasing inside the outlines of the drum. That method moved the red body and gold rims of the drum in a curved shape, without creating jogs. The drum was also knitted side-to-side.
Knit Advent Day 16
Garter stitch is easy to chart, because 1 stitch is as wide as the height of one ridge (2 rows). That means you can chart it on square graph paper, with one block equal to one stitch and one ridge (2 rows). The other nice thing about this is that you can shape the edges very easily by casting on or binding off along the sides of a piece.
That’s what I did to make this candle. The three pieces are just garter stitch, worked to a graph that was the shape I wanted. A little embroidery serves as a wick.
Knit Advent Day 15
My daughter Eva’s favorite kinds of animals are insects and fish, so I have crafted a number of fishy things over the years. This ornament uses variegated and solid cotton embroidery floss, in the mosaic color technique.
In 2021, Eva is still fascinated by insects and fish. If I decide to redo this, it will be knitted with all solid-color thread, or a different variegated thread.
Knit Advent Day 14
To make this look like a bow, I had to shape the knitted ribbon. If I had knitted it straight and tied it, the knot would have looked clumsy and bulky. The strip of garter stitch was wavy and surprisingly long. I actually tied the knitting into a bow, and sewed it onto the felt.
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This yellow swatch turned out much better than I imagined it would. It uses several different kinds of Lion Brand yarn: Wool-Ease in two shades of yellow, Lion Cotton variegated yellow, Fun Fur in yellow, Trellis (the dark stripe), and Incredible, which is the variegated ribbon yarn.
It’s a swatch for a vest for 10-year-old (in 2005) Eva, who looks great in yellow.
Knit Advent Day 13
This sweet little pinecone is just a series of knitted tabs, with a bow on top. The pieces rely on the felt as a foundation to hold them in place. Without it, this would just be a pile of knitted pieces.
Knit Advent Day 12
Garter stitch pinwheels are fun to knit. Short rows provide the shaping, and the squareness of the garter stitch/ridge makes the math easy. The plastic wrapper is what turns this pinwheel into Christmas candy.
Yes, with pinwheels, we’re back to pi times diameter. But you don’t have to know about that, because you can knit a pinwheel without a pattern. All you have to know is how far across you want the circle to be, and how many “slices” you want to divide it into (multiples of six are best).
I explained it all in “Round and Round with Garter Stitch,” INKnitters, pp. 78 ff., Vol. 3, No. 11, Winter 2003. Bonus information in this issue: turning pinwheels into ovals and hearts. And a Valentine heart pattern, knitted with Brown Sheep’s Cotton Fleece. In the issue before that, I wrote about garter squares, and how to knit quilt-ish motifs without a pattern. You may be able to find issues of INKnitters online at eBay or etsy.
