Thoughts on Christmas Fiddle-Faddle

These little things are pretty clever.  You take a bit of knitting, fold it in half,

and you've got a knitted Christmas ornament -- or decoration, gift tag, whatever!

I'm not much of a person for fiddle-faddle, to be honest (yes, I'm passing on the angel), but even as these little things were coming together -- in well under an hour apiece, less if I hadn't stopped to take photos -- I found myself thinking of variations, the endless possibilities.  Colors! textures! variegated wools, or stripes! bigger, even ... a dishcloth!

The star obviously requires some firm blocking, but it is definitely a star -- and can be made with pretty much as many points as you like.  I did this one on 65 stitches, instead of the 55 in the basic version.  (I think that the Old Norwegian cast-on was the best choice for these, being almost-reversible and blending in well with the garter stitch.)

She's not kidding about the "knitted firmly" part -- even though it can get a bit tough towards the end, especially on the star, you need the body for the piece to hold its shape after blocking.  Finer wools could of course be doubled.

I see no reason why beads couldn't be added, either.  This would be a great project for those Christmas fund-raisers, as a dozen or so could be turned out in a weekend, for next to nothing (now, so it doesn't take up valuable December time) -- and use up scraps in the process.  How about all of those golf-ball-sized bits left over from socks?

Comments

[Monika]

Wonderful! I was thinking of knitted Christmas things lately and forgot all about these little knits! Thanks for reminding me.

[joy]

Those ornaments are so cute; they'd probably look good felted too. :)

It's still too hot here to start thinking about Christmas, but mooncakes have been on sale for a month already!

[Christina]

Those are so beautiful!

[--Deb]

There is definitely something to be said for quick, cute little projects like that! I think they're adorable--fiddly, perhaps, but not too faddly.

[gina L.]

Your ornaments are wonderful. There is something very homey distinctly handmade about them! Great texture!

[Kristy]

These are precious! I am going to have to pick up a copy of the Knitter's Almanac.

[Julie]

These are adorable! An excellent quick gift for the holidays.

I've been reading your blog for a couple of months now, and I REALLY enjoy it. The artwork you share is magnificent and has piqued my interest in several new artists. (Well, new to me anyway...) You take such an interesting approach to the idea of a knitblog. Thanks for sharing! :)

[ax174]

I came across your blog in the Librarian Knitters list. Thanks for showing how the tree is made. I can usually picture how a piece is constructed by reading the instructions, but in this case, EZ had me fuddled. BTW, you *must* join the latest Zimmermannalong. We could really use your experience knitting the Almanac. I posted a plug for your blog here: http://zimmermaniacs.blogspot.com/2006/09/more-kudos.html. Cheers!