It's November already and time to start posting some festive things! It's no coincidence that today's post is part of the Stitch Craft Create Handmade Christmas Decoration blog hop. It contains a short Christmas book review, a free pattern and some exclusive (affiliate) links with a £5 discount code and also a link to some free ebook downloads.
As part of the 'hop', I was invited to pick my favourite project from the book 'Handmade Scandinavian Christmas' by Hege Barnholt. There is plenty to choose from in a book designed to inspire family Christmas traditions, and it pretty much all appealed to me. I love the simplicity of the Scandinavian style and how items from nature are collected and brought indoors (you already know I love doing this, as evidenced in my most recent pattern) and used as decoration. The book evokes the kind of Christmas I like to imagine we will have - the realities of burned roasties and sprouts that accidentally get left in the pan until the dishes are washed are not a part of it at all.
If you love walks in the forest, cutting and gluing, feeding the birds, making gifts, knitting, homemade food, beautifully wrapped gifts and making things as a family, then you'll probably love this book too - all of these things are covered. In fact there are over 120 handmade festive craft ideas and they are all relatively simple and inexpensive to do. Plenty are suitable for little helpers. As I type this, we have apples drying in the oven.
Perhaps it's because I first read the book on a particularly cold and dark evening, but for my own project I decided to use the various "light and warmth" candle ideas as inspiration. This was my starting point...
With a cupboard full of glass jars (I drive my family mad with them, but they are so useful) this was an easy choice. I love the way the light diffuses through the yarn but wanted to knit something. This is what I came up with...
I had planned to collect some holly or pretty berries, but as this Halloween was the hottest on record and the roses are still out, there was nothing suitable. You'll have to use your imagination for that! If you'd like to make your own, the following pattern is suitable for any jar which is 15 cm high, but can easily be altered for different sizes, simply by casting on more or less stitches (if using aran yarn and 6mm needles, cast on approximately 1.3 stitches per cm).
You will need
As part of the 'hop', I was invited to pick my favourite project from the book 'Handmade Scandinavian Christmas' by Hege Barnholt. There is plenty to choose from in a book designed to inspire family Christmas traditions, and it pretty much all appealed to me. I love the simplicity of the Scandinavian style and how items from nature are collected and brought indoors (you already know I love doing this, as evidenced in my most recent pattern) and used as decoration. The book evokes the kind of Christmas I like to imagine we will have - the realities of burned roasties and sprouts that accidentally get left in the pan until the dishes are washed are not a part of it at all.If you love walks in the forest, cutting and gluing, feeding the birds, making gifts, knitting, homemade food, beautifully wrapped gifts and making things as a family, then you'll probably love this book too - all of these things are covered. In fact there are over 120 handmade festive craft ideas and they are all relatively simple and inexpensive to do. Plenty are suitable for little helpers. As I type this, we have apples drying in the oven.
You will need
- Standard glass jar is 15 cm high (eg 500g Dolmio jar like mine)
- Approximately 15g scrap yarn in Aran weight (I used 15g of Red Heart Soft)
- 6mm needles
- Needle for sewing up
- Tea light (the scented variety can be very festive)
- Long matches or candle lighter
- Using a long tail cast on, cast on 20 sts, leaving extra tails for sewing up
- (WS) Purl
- (RS) K2, *yo, k2tog; rep from * to last 2 sts, k2
- (WS) Purl
- (RS) K2, *k2tog, yo; rep from * to last 2 sts, k2
- (WS) Purl
- (RS) Knit
- (WS) Purl
- Repeat rows 3 to 8 five times (or until the piece can be stretched around the circumference of the jar, if using a different jar)
- Bind off loosely leaving a long tail for sewing up
- Sew the cast-on and bind-off edges together (to make a tube) using flat stitch, do not cut the ends yet
- Fit the tube over the glass jar and use the tail ends to sew a running stitch around the top of the piece, fitting it to the jar
- Place a tea light inside
- Optional: tie on holly (or other lovely festive things) with ribbon or string
You can find full details of the blog hop and the other blogs taking part here. If you like the look of the book, you can find it at the Handmade Christmas shop which includes lots of craft materials and gift ideas as well as ebooks and downloads. (You can also download a selection offree ebooks when you sign up for the newsletter!) If you haven't shopped with them before click the link below and use the code SCC525 to get a £5 discount on your first order over £25.
If you're visiting for the first time as part of the blog hop, it's lovely to have you here. Before you go, you might like to visit some of my other popular posts via the patterns/recipes and tips/tutes pages. Hope to see you again soon!
Super pretty. I had to really laugh in a "oh goodness me too" kind of way, at your idea of how christmas "should be". And, jars in the cupboard?! Snap and double snap. Mine have spilled out onto the floor and I'm telling myself every single one will surely be useful someday ...
ReplyDeleteI love your candle holder! What a great way to decorate the jars I have...
ReplyDeleteThat was nice handmade christmas decoration idea. Very creative indeed. Thanks for sharing it !! :)
ReplyDelete