Frankie's Knitted Stuff
The last in this series of patterns and the fourth gingerbread decoration is a Christmas tree. It is about 10 cm / 4" tall and 9 cm / 31/2" wide and, like the other three decorations, can be embroidered or ‘iced’ with knitting. The tree is knitted in ginger DK weight yarn on 3.25 mm needles. Tension: 13 stitches and 26 rows = 5 cm / 2"2, in garter stitch. You will need about 5g of ginger yarn for one tree, 10g for both versions. If you are making the iced tree you will also need about 3 - 4g of cream 4 ply. I used Sirdar Country Style DK (155 m / 50g), shade 611, Butterscotch for my trees and Sirdar Country Style 4 ply (226m / 50g), shade 411, Cream for the icing.
The Embroidered Tree
Cast on one stitch and knit into the front and back of it (2 sts). Next row: Kf&b, K to end. Repeat this row until you have 11 stitches on your needle. Next row: Cast off 3 sts, K to end (8 sts). Next row: Cast off 3 sts, K to end (5 sts). Next row: Kf&b, K to end. Repeat this row until you are back up to 17 stitches. Next row: Cast off 4 sts, K to end (13 sts). Next row: Cast off 4 sts, K to end (9 sts). Next row: Kf&b, K to end. Repeat this row until you have 23 stitches on your needle. Next row: Cast off 9 sts, K to end (14 sts). Next row: Cast off 9 sts, K to end (5 sts). Knit six rows for the trunk. Cast off. Darn in the ends along the edges of the tree. Knit another tree to match. Embroidering the Tree
This is done with cream DK yarn. I used Sirdar Country Style DK, shade 411. Embroider straight stitches on the tree as shown in the picture. Work a stitch parallel with each side of the bottom section, another one in the middle and one each side of the middle stitch. Do the same for the middle section; the top of the tree has just three stitches. Once you have embroidered both trees in the same way, you can sew them together. Hold them with the wrong sides facing and oversew all round the edge, stuffing lightly before closing the seam. Using cream yarn, sew right through the centre of the tree a few times to pull it in. Then add two 18 mm / 34"" cream buttons, one on each side.
The Iced Tree
For this version you will need to knit two ginger trees following the pattern above. Then knit two more, this time using cream 4 ply yarn and 2.25 mm / US size 1 needles. Tension: 16 stitches and 32 rows = 5 cm / 2"2 in garter stitch. Using cream thread, sew the cream trees to the ginger ones, stretching them to fit evenly. Then sew the two trees together and stuff them.
Use green yarn to pull the centre of the tree tight and then add two 15 mm / %" green buttons. Finally, add tiny red heart and star buttons to the edges of the tree as shown, sewing them on with red thread. My red hearts and stars came in a 'Dress It Up pack called ‘Christmas Garland'.
A Gingerbread Garland
Now that you have knitted all four decorations, you might like to turn them into a garland, rather than hanging them separately. I joined mine together vertically to make two garlands, one of the embroidered decorations and one of the iced ones. I joined the embroidered decorations with lengths of I cord, worked on 3.25 mm double pointed needles with the ginger yarn. Between each decoration the lengths are 10 rows on four stitches (4 cm). The hanging loop is 30 rows on three stitches (10 cm). The iced decorations are joined by crochet chains, worked on a 4.5 mm hook with the ginger yarn held doubled. The hanging loop is 20 chain and those between the decorations are 5 chains long. As you can see, I threaded four red and green pony beads on each of these. I added two more chains (10 and 8 chains) at the bottom with two more pony beads on each.
Abbreviations
st / sts stitch / stitches K knit kf&b knit into the front and back of the stitch Frankie Brown, 2014. My patterns are for personal use only and should not be used to knit items for sale. Please do not use them for teaching purposes without my permission.
