Knit a Simple Christmas Bauble

The great thing about knitting Christmas balls as ornaments for your tree is that you can start with a super easy pattern and embellish them however you like.

Knits’ End has a great easy Christmas ornament knitting pattern, worked flat but really large in size — about 15 inches around and 6 inches tall! That’s a lot of space to embellish if you want.

Here are some ideas beyond knitting a solid-color one, which is, of course, great:

use up little odd balls to knit random stripes
or bigger leftovers to make a stripe pattern
use a simple colorwork band around the middle such as Xs or checks or a snowflake design
because it’s worked flat it would be easy to add a design of your choice, or even a word or a monogram, using duplicate stitch
or make a little chart and work intarsia if you’d rather
throw in a simple stitch pattern in the middle section where there are no increases or decreases

Do you knit Christmas ornaments? I’d love to hear about what you do.

[Photo via Knits’ End.]

Looking for more Christmas themed Knitting patterns? Check out some of our favorite Knitting patterns on Etsy and

These Christmas Knitting Pattern Books on Amazon

Getting ready for back to school makes me think about pencil crafts, so let’s take a look at some pencil themed knitting patterns!

I recently made a pencil on a circular knitting machine, and it was a fun, quick, easy project that uses little bits of leftover yarn (and if you don’t have yellow you can make it a colored pencil using whatever color’s your favorite). And if you want to make a bigger version check out this pattern from Orange Olive Road on Etsy.

If you want to knit a pencil pillow by hand, check out Sketchy, available on Ravelry from Shana S. Cohen. This one uses worsted weight yarn and has two size options and the choice to make a pencil with an eraser or a colored pencil.

Pencil scarves seem to be the most popular kind of pencil knitting pattern, and there are lot of cute ones. This one from Cosy Craft UK mostly uses garter stitch, with some welts to add texture and what looks like an I-cord edging. It calls for DK weight yarn.

If you want to go all garter stitch try this version from Emsley Co Creations, which uses five colors of DK weight yarn and just a little shaping to make the point of the pencil.

There’s also this fun, mostly stockinette so it looks like it curls a bit, pencil pattern that looks like it’s worked in chunky yarn from Little Knits Studio. This one uses just a little garter stitch and easy shaping for the point.

If you don’t want a pencil scarf, how about some pencil socks? The No. 2 Pencil Socks from The Yarn Enabler are available from Ravelry and use five colors of sock yarn. They feature wide ribs to mimic the texture of a pencil and have options to be worked from the top down or the toe up.

Needs Sharpening by Alexander Walker is a free pattern on Ravelry that uses five colors of sock yarn to make a sort of shortie sock. The little bit of black at the tips of the toes inspired the name. These, too, can be worked in either direction and are available in three sizes.

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