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Experiment with different style balls and your favorite colors. Use all one color or try a different color for each size ball you add to the knitting needle or try four balls of varying sizes in each color. This will give you a spiral effect.
How to Make the Knitting Needle Ornament Tree
Supplies Needed:
A mix of round Christmas ornaments in 4 different sizes –for one tree you will need about 20 balls. At least 4 of each size.
Knitting Needle – 14 inches long (tall tree) Spray paint the needles if needed to match your ornaments.
Optional: Christmas tree peak topper or a star ornament, ribbon spool, spray paint, scrapbook paper, glue, spray paint, paper cutter
To make the ribbon spool tree stand: Spray the spool with spray paint to coordinate with your ornaments. Cut scrapbook paper the width of the spool. You could use ribbon, but I like the more finished look of the paper on the spool.
Attach the paper with glue. I used Aleene’s Tacky Line Roll Adhesive.
Attach to the spool.
Thread the knitting needle up through the bottom of the spool.
If the spool has a large hole – you can stuff it with pieces of STYROFOAM to make sure the needle stays straight.
String four large Christmas ball ornaments (about 4” diameter) onto the needle, slipping the metal loops on the balls over the point of the needle. These four balls will form the base of the tree. If you do not want to use the spool tree stand and want to make the basic tree – the four balls when placed squarely on a table will hold the needle upright.
Next string onto the needle four balls of a slightly smaller size. Each one will fit between two of the larger ones. Then string on another four, slightly smaller, and finally four more again, slightly smaller, so that your tree has sixteen Christmas ball ornaments in all. You can add more or less depending on the size of your balls.
The tip will look like this.
On top of the needle place a Christmas star ornament. I found this one at Michaels. It had a “spring” style attachment that I removed. I used that existing hole to place the star on the top of the knitting needle. I used an awl to make the hole a bit larger so it fit over the tip of the needle.
Another way to display the tree is to place the whole thing in or on top of a planter.
