Hmm, I never expected this knitting blog to embrace Christmas quite so enthusiastically (we’re talking kisses-on-both-cheeks-and-a-hug levels of enthusiasm, right now). But here is the third and last of my posts on ridiculously easy-to-knit Christmas decorations. And just to reassure all those tinsel-deniers out there, I’ll be back to normal by next post.
Continuing in the vein of festive decorative knits for beginners and children, and those who just want their decorative makes to be unchallenging, I give you, (i) knitted ‘paper’ chains, that’ll last a whole lot longer than those sticky paper ones you had as a child; (ii) knitted candles that are extremely unlikely to burn the house down, and (ii) knitted wreath decorations for your tree.
Righto, let’s start with how to knit a paper chain.
The knitting couldn’t be any simpler. You’ll need to knit strips that are 20cm wide and 4cm long. Your ball band will give you an idea of needle size and stitch number to achieve 10cm width – let’s not fuss about exact gauge, here – so just double the number of stitches to cast on your 20cm-wide strip. Knit every row until you’ve worked 4cm of knitting. Cast off. Pick another colour yarn and repeat the process… and again, and again. Obviously the process is quicker and easier if you’ve chosen some reasonably hefty yarn: I chose Vanna’s Choice.
Once you’ve got a decent number of strips, sew their ends up to make a chain. You can then decorate them with beads, sequins, or – if you’re especially deviant and determined to subvert the medium – toenail clippings. And you’re done! Hurrah!
What’s next? Oh yes, how to knit candles. Ahhhhh…. candles. An essential part of everyone’s Christmas, whose soft light forgives the bags under your eyes that were caused by staying up until 3am crocheting everyone’s blimmin’ presents. Anyway, I wouldn’t recommend you actually set fire to these candles, but they do look quite cute.
So, you’ll need to knit a square (if you want to make a thinnish candle), or a wide rectangle (if you want a squat, fat candle). This design looks quite good in off-white. I used Deramores Vintage Chunky, in Chalk, 25 stitches wide, 36 rows. Don’t go crazy with the number of rows, or you’ll have to reinforce it down the middle with wire, or a spare knitting needle.
Then roll your candle up, and sew its edge.
The ends will look something like this:-
Now, make a wick and a flame. The easiest way to do this is to take some thin metallic pipe-cleaners. I folded a dark purple one in half, leaving inch-long ends ready to stick down into the candle. Then I made a double-looped flame-shape with an orange pipe-cleaner, securing it into the folded purple wick before sticking the wick down into the centre of the top of the candle. Am I even slightly making sense? I do hope so.
And of course you can embellish and decorate your candle in any way you wish. 🙂
Try displaying it in a candle stick or candle holder, potentially next to some knitted Christmas trees from a couple of posts back. 😉
…And finally, we arrive via an inefficiently meandering route at how to knit little wreath decorations for the Christmas tree. Now for this one, you, your child, or your own inner child can use a knitting nancy (aka a knitting doll), one with four pins on top. Alternatively you can work a 4-stitch i-cord on conventional needles. Choose some rich, green yarn and knit away! You’re aiming to make about 20cm. Then cast off. Take a 45-cm piece of wire and fold it in half. Insert the folded end into the end of your knitted tube and push it all the way through the length of the knitting. Then curve the whole thing round to make a ring, and join the wire together to make a circle. This should reinforce your wreath pretty well, just in case the cat sits on it. Cut away any excess wire, or use it to make a hook. Sew the two ends of the knitting together over the join in the wire. Now you need some decoration. A little bow of thin ribbon at the top can help conceal the join. In the example below, I wrapped a red metallic thin pipe-cleaner round and left it at that, but you can decorate with embroidery, beads, or sequins. See how pretty it is? See how easy?
Now, let me just remind you of a blogger who does Christmas properly, with a colourful Norwegian twist. 🙂
Right, you sorted? Ready for Christmas? Ah, if only it were that simple…
Love the knitted chain. Such great ideas for Christmas!
Thank you. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your creative Christmas ideas. I made a Christmas tree but I crochet it instead. And, I used a spool of green thread for the trunk. I just glued on the bottom of the tree.
That sounds cool. I imagine the texture of crochet would work really well to look like the surface of a tree?
Hmmm…. Maybe I should come back next week and do all these things in crochet version…..
Ill email a picture of my tree so you can see how it looks. ?
Yes please!
The candles are so cute! I love any candle that won’t burn down my house. (Don’t tell the neighbors, but sometimes I forget trivial things like blowing candles out before I leave and turning the oven off after I’ve baked the casserole. I tell the Husband those are his responsibilities. I can’t be responsible for everything, can I?)
Yikes! Just remember not to set fire to these candles if you make them, okay? I really REALLY don’t want your house to burn down.
Wonderful idea! I was looking for a pattern to make a crochet angel for the top of the tree – any suggestions?
Hmmmmm…. I don’t know of any personally, sorry. But are you on Ravelry? I just did a crochet pattern search for ‘Christmas tree angel’ and there were a few there. Any good? I hope you find your perfect pattern.
I will check out Ravelry today! Yes, I just did the search too. Lots of good patterns. Thank you!
Sorry I couldn’t be properly helpful. 🙁
No worries!!
Very Cute and lovely projects for the kiddies too .. 🙂
Thank you. 🙂
Toenail clippings! LOL! Your writing humour cracks me up. Keep it up 🙂
Oops. Sorry. I can’t keep things serious for long…
I am ever so slightly annoyed with myself, but I am NOT going to do this. They are cute, they are ingenious, they are long lasting and they are perfect for the safety conscious. I would love to spend a few evenings making some, just because. But I can’t, I must finish the three projects I have already got underway and I purchased some totally delicious aqua variegated yarn [my favourite shades of sea] to make a shrug or something similar for January……….. and to do anything else now would be purely foolish, wouldn’t it?
Yup, you need to be A Very Well-Behaved Crafter. 😉 Says she who has a million projects on the go. Are you sure it’s OK for me to be slow with gifts for your RAK?
Yes, it is very okay to be slow. I myself am proving t be a tad slow at it on account of all the other projects going on. My timing was a bit poor and I am grateful you will do something sometime for somebody 🙂
They both sound like such beautiful ideas – I’d love to join in… eventually.
Very nice! Those candles are a must for me (I don’t need to sleep between now and Christmas, so I?)
Naaah, sleep is for mere dilettante, part-time crafters. Anyway, these are all so easy that you could knit them in your sleep.
Thank you for setting me into the Christmas mood. You are so right. We need to knit all these things. And it reminded me that it is time to change my window display. The flowers there are so last season really.
speaking of yarnbombing the house, is your rainbow railing still in place? Or did you change the colours for something more christmassy?
Yup, the rainbow knitted railings are still there, but the hanging baskets and pigeons are back indoors. Hmm, maybe the railings need some festive adornments…
So, any ideas for your new window decorations?
To be honest, it will have to be a rather simple thing. I have just to much work to get done until christmas. But from that point of view, your whreath would probably good. A very flat, almost 2dimensional one as it has to fit in the gap between window and security grid. I will keep you updated 🙂
Yes, updates please!
beautiful! also a nice change from the cheap glittery stuff on sale everywhere.
Super cute. I’m planning on trying some of these with the kids over Thanksgiving break.
Knitting Nancy?! Sounds like someone’s maiden aunt. We antipodeans call that “French knitting”. NO idea why but whatchagonnadoeh? Now knitted “paper” chain is my kind of wonderful. I can say “Christmas” now as it is less than a month away. Stevie-boy was most impressed with the candle. He read your post yesterday when it lobbed on my Facebook feed. I, being an RSS Feed Reader snob couldn’t possibly read it when out of sequence (note to all libraries NEVER remove the Dewey decimal system lest you increase the population of the local mental institute by 1) and so I had to point blank refuse to look at “check THIS out! I want you to make this one… ” yesterday. I do like the candle BUT that “paper” chain is gorgeous and will most certainly be making a repeat appearance. We are attempting to do a completely handmade Christmas decoration thingo this year and so far so good. Stevie-boy has made our new Christmas tree out of a large length of bolt (5 ft tall anyone?) to which he has drilled and loaded lengths of wood that decrease in incremental size till they are teeny tiny at the top (staring at bigger at the bottom as you do (well in my case you do 🙁 ) ) and we are going to spray it Christmas tree green (they have that colour at the hardware shop…right?). It spirals out into something quite magnificent but folds flat for under the spare bed storage for the 11 months of the year that it is not needed. The rest will be paper mache’d (NO spell check, not “machete” although if they don’t go quiet to plan…) and carved from wood and baked and iced and knitted and crocheted and made out of cold porcelain. Bring it on commercial Christmas, my homespun Christmas can take you ANY DAY! Cheers for the lovely chains Ms Twisted. You dun good (and I am not afraid from them 🙂 )
I’m lovin’ all these simple ideas! I’m going to share the tree one with my knit knite group the first Tuesday in December! I’ll be sure to have them check out your blog. And I’ll let you know how it goes!!
Again lots of great ideas, I’m afraid I might have to steal all of them, it’s just so darn cute!
Knitted paper chains HAVE to be done! 🙂
Love the knitted paper chain! We did that one year with 24 chains, then tore one off each day like an advent calendar countdown. You could do the same with these using buttons instead of sewing them together… then use it again year after year. 🙂
Brilliant and slightly bonkers as always!
All sensational ideas worth stealing and claiming as my own!!!!!
Reblogged this on garnharmoni and commented:
Some festive ideas! 🙂
Thanks for sharing! I am thinking of making the “paper chains” to bring a bit of Englishness to my home in Sweden. 🙂
Oh, I love all your lovely Christmas decorations, especially the chain. I’m afraid it would take me forever to make. If I started now, it would be ready for Cristmas 2015! Thanks for sharing.
That’s it. You are my new favorite blogger! I just started knitting again after a 10 year break: your blog is so inspiring ❤️
Awww thank you! You’re very kind. I hope you’re enjoying being back into knitting again. 🙂
Thank you for your inspiring Christmas ideas. I’m going to get started on the knitted paper chains for my grandchildren. Beginner knitter here, would I use 8 ply or 10 ply ?
Hi Peta, Either would work fine! Of course, the thickness of the yarn will determine the size of the finished links, though. Personally I’d go for the slightly thicker yarn. Have fun!