Christmas Ornament

Here is the latest Christmas Ornament I have completed. I got a little behind schedule on making those, too. If you remember, I had planned to do three each month. (Which worked really well for January, but not so much after that.) This little bell is by Debbie McGrath. The pattern is super quick, super easy, and pretty satisfying to do. There is literally no shaping on this bell. The bell shapes itself because of the difference in stockingette stitch and garter stitch for the body and then when you close the top it rounds off.

Very nice knit. Very customizable. Sportweight yarn will give you smaller bells, worsted will give you larger. I used Caron Christmas Glitter in Green and #5 needles and got a bell that is about 3" tall.




The bell is knitted flat and I originally seamed this up with mattress stitch (my preferred method), but that left me with a pretty noticeable "valley" in between garter rows. So I picked out the mattress stitch down to the stockingette part (which looks good) and then whip stitched the seam from the right side. That gave me what looks to be another garter row. Much better, I think.

I mentioned there was no shaping on this, as far as increasing or decreasing goes, right? The top is rounded off the same way you round off a simple hat--draw the yarn through the top and cinch it. The pattern calls for you to bind off and then seam and draw up the top, but I think if I did this one again, I would draw the yarn through the working loops at the top and then seam the back with that tail, just like a simple hat.

Binding off gives you kind of a lumpy top, if you're not careful. Needless to say, I had a lumpy top. (Sigh. If I had a nickel for every time someone said that to me...) So I hid it with a little embellishment.

My bow is a 4-stitch stockingette ribbon knit on the same needles. This is some kind of variegated Christmas yarn someone gave me a while back. I attached it, along with 4 red faceted beads because tying that ribbon into an actual knot would have been huge, so I just faked it. The beads are there to hide the fakery.

Ah, Patwoman. You are so clever.