How to Knit A Christmas Ball Ornament.

I have shared my love of yarn and my love for patterns in past posts. So it should be no surprise to learn that I am often on the look out for new stitches to learn and new designs to make. Quite often I try to find ways to use up some of my yarn stash. This past fall the motivation came again to see if I could get a few more skeins out of my stash. I thought it was also a great chance to learn some new knitting skills. Specifically some new cable stitches. In my search on the Internet I discovered this great site for knit and crochet video tutorials called New Stitch a Day. The video project was created by a man and most of the videos are done by him as well. Which, let's be honest, is awesome. I soon discovered that besides the videos for new stitches he also makes video classes.

At Christmas they offered a free class, "Christmas Ball Ornaments" at their site Yarn Craft Academy and I could not pass it up. The video tutorial walked you through the whole process. It took just over 2 hours and it taught how to change colors and how to make a design. I did not have to use those skills this time, but now I have this awesome ornament.

Of course since I was using stash yarn, I did not exactly have what was recommended. I chose one of my Noro yarns, which was thicker then what they used, but I love how it turned out. This is a pattern that you knit flat and then seam up around a 3 inch Styrofoam ball. I had to use a 4 inch ball, but since it is such a cool, yet dark, self striping yarn I think it will be easier to see in the tree in the larger size. I have enough yarn left to do a second ornament.

Many blessings this ornamental evening.--Kate

P.S. I also bought a package of the yarn they recommended for the project. Once I get one worked up in that I will post an update.