Christmas egg

Are you looking for a way to be green, or environmentally correct, this season? How about recycling one holiday decoration for another? That's exactly what I decided to do when a friend of mine gave me a very large box of plastic Easter eggs in assorted colors and sizes. The picture above is an example of one of the large Easter eggs after it became a shiny new Christmas tree ornament. All you need is a little Needloff metallic cord, the Easter Egg pattern posted on this blog, and about 30 minutes. The egg is once again reborn (post 3-5-07)!!

From turkey to snowman

Michelle's Frosty Snowman Hat

My Tommy Turkey Hat

Did you know that a turkey can become a snowman? Well, Michelle Thomas, a member of the hottest new Yahoo Group Knifty Knitter Loom Knitting Group, shows us how. She took my Tommy Turkey pattern and with some creative changes morphed him into a Frosty Snowman hat. I was so impressed that I got Michelle's permission to post the picture along with her changes on my blog. Thanks Michelle for sharing what is sure to be the hit of the season for all the loom knitters. Now, here are Michelle's instructions:

Frosty Hat
(original Tommy Turkey Pattern by Brenda Myers. Adaption to Frosty by Michelle Thomas)

Materials needed

• Red or Green KK Loom
• KK Spool Loom
• White yarn (for face)
• Black yarn (for hat)
• Orange yarn (for nose)
• Color of your choice (for "scarf" and stripe on hat)
• Black buttons or beads (for eyes)
• Knitting tool
• Plastic yarn needle

Brim:

• E-wrap cast on
• E-wrap stitch 14 rows
• Bring first row up and place loops back on pegs. Knit off.

Face:

• Change to white
• E-wrap stitch 9 rows

Hat:

• Change to black
• E-wrap stitch 1 row
• Rib stitch (k1, p1, k1, p1 .... ) 8 rows
• Bring the loops from the first BLACK row back up onto the pegs (like when doing brim) and knit off
• Change to color that matches "scarf"
• E-wrap stitch 4 rows
• Change to black
• E-wrap stitch 9 rows

Bind off:

• Move loop on peg 1 to peg 2
• Move loop 3 to peg 4
• Move loop 5 to peg 6
• Keep moving odd loops to even pegs until you have all of them like that. Knit off
• E-wrap pegs with loops on them (go behind pegs without loops) Knit off
• Thread needle with working yarn and do a gathered bind off.

Nose:

• On small end of Spool Loom cast on in orange
• Purl 2 rows
• E-wrap stitch 4 rows
• Gathered bind off
• Pull yarn to inside of nose
• Attach purled end to center of face with orange yarn.

Eyes:
With black thread tie on 2 black buttons or beads.

Short row snowflake

Snowflakes were one of the things I really enjoyed making when I crocheted. However, I have neurological problems with my hands (mostly the left one) that has severely limited my ability to crochet. That is the primary reason that I started loom knitting about two years ago. Sadly, one of the first things I noticed is there is not a lot of knitted snowflake patterns available, so I thought I might as well create a few for the looms.

My first experiments with knitted snowflakes are outlined in a previous blog post, Snowflakes on the loom. Last year, I designed another snowflake pattern discussed in Loom knit snowflakes, a lesson in I-cord bind off. This year I decided (for now at least) to keep it simple with a little Short Row Snowflake.

The current snowflake is very basic, but it has many possibilities. The design can take on a whole new look just by relocating the points on the short rows, or by working a YO (yarn over) into the design to create a lacey look. The pattern is listed in my Pattern Box or by clicking here. If you decide to experiment with this basic pattern, be sure and let me see what you come up with.

It's time to make the ornaments!

Belle Angel

In case you haven't noticed, I love knitting small items and what fits into this category better than holiday ornaments? They are sort of like the microcosm of the knitting world. You can experiment with new techniques without the fear of making huge mistakes. It's much less stressful to frog something that took only a couple of hours to knit as compared to an item that took weeks to knit. Another advantage to making these miniature wonders is that you can really spread the love by giving more of your friends something you made yourself. Who says happiness doesn't come in small packages?

This fall I've been showing others how to spread the love by teaching ornament classes on the Yahoo LoomClass Group and the Beginning-LoomKnitting Group. The classes taught for LoomClass include three ornaments in each class. Bell Ornaments Class, which was taught a couple of week ago, featured Knifty Christmas Bells, Bright Bells, and a new pattern called Belle Angel. I made the first Belle Angel two years ago and wrote about it in this December 2006 post, but had never written the pattern until recently. The new Belle Angel (pictured above) is a little more sophisticated that her predecessor, but the original Belle holds a special place in my heart.

I-cord Ornaments, the second LoomClass ornament class, is currently in session. Ornaments for this class include Candy Canes, Mini-Christmas Wreaths and another new pattern called Bright Star. The little star is designed specifically for the 5-peg end of the Knifty Knitter Spool Loom.

Bright Star Ornament

The Lace Ornaments class, coming up on 11/30-12/06, is the last of the ornament classes for LoomClass. The ornaments taught in this class will be the Victorian Lace Ornament, Lacey Snowflake and a Basic Shortrow Snowflake. The first two patterns are already available, but the Basic Snowflake pattern will be posted the day before the class begins. In the meantime, I'll include a picture in this post.

Basic Shortrow Snowflake

The class I am teaching for the Beginning-LoomKnitting Group (11/24-28) is a Snowflake Angel. I'm very proud of the way this particular angel is designed. Her wings and skirt are all one piece with her arms woven into a row of mock crochet stitches in the wings. The pattern is located here and in the Pattern Box to the right. Here's a picture of my Snowflake Angel:

Snowflake Angel

One thing that both angels have in common is what I call a "picot cast on" at the beginning edge of the skirt. This is an a technique I've created for the looms that allows you to make a picot edge. I use a similar technique when binding off the wings on the Snowflake Angel. I will talk more about the picot technique in upcoming blog posts.