After making the Victorian Lace ornaments, I had some of the metallic colored Needloft Craft Cord left over. To me, the colors of the metallic cord are reminicent of the 40's vintage Shiny Brite ornaments. So with this in mind, I designed a little bell that is not only super quick to make, but has two different styles of rims. Last year I wrote a pattern for Knifty Christmas Bells, but this bell is even quicker, easier and more fun to make than the Knifty Bell. Very similar in design to the little Halloween ghost, Boo-Ella, the Shiny Bright Bell is made from the top down using the drawstring cast on, nine rows of flat knit stitch, one row of e-wrap stitch, and your choice of two styles of rims.
The first style rim, the fastest of the two, is the garter stitch rim which is made by alternating the last three rows with purl & flat knit stitches, then finished with a basic flat panel bind off. You can also add a little variety by using a contrasting color cord to create a stripe. The gold bell pictured on the left has a red cord added on rows 6-8 for the stripe.
The second style rim uses the I-cord bind off to create a little flare. You can vary the number of stitches in the I-cord to suit your taste. The white bell pictured on the right was made using Needloft white/silver and a 3 stitch I-cord edge. This style is not only good for holiday ornaments, but when done in white it makes a very nice wedding decoration.
The free pattern is located here and in the Pattern Box on the right sidebar.
