Sometimes making an ornament is as simple as knitting a sock. Which, okay, is not necessarily that simple the first time you do it. Yet wouldn’t it be great to practice the first time on worsted weight yarn, with big needles, on a smaller version of the pattern before trying to do it with those tiny needles and tiny yarn?

If you do already knit socks, all I need to tell you for this ornament-knitting mini-tutorial is: knit a sock in worsted weight yarn, but don’t cast on that many stitches. (I cast on 24 on US #8 needles at a gauge of approximately 4-4.5 stitches per inch depending on which yarn I was using. Please don’t swatch for this though – the joy is that it’s gaugeless, because it doesn’t really matter what size your ornament is! Too big, you made a regular stocking. Too small, it’s just really really cute.) Don’t knit a very long leg or a very long foot. Forget using kitchener stitch unless you really love it. Use some of your cast on yarn to create a way to stick the ornament to the tree, or if you want, add some ribbon or something fancy.

You can see I find it rather addictive…and I like blending scraps of different yarns to see what color combinations I can create. I may incorporate some extra handspun into one or two. (There’s going to be a Hogwarts one coming up soon! And what about blue and white for a Hanukkah bush?)

So what if you don’t knit socks already? Well, knitty already has a handy tutorial on knitting a mini sock in order to learn how to make a sock, so I won’t replicate it here. Just be sure to use holiday colors, rather than random waste yarn, to knit your ornament!

The fun part of these is that you can use them as stocking stuffers or you can use them as gift bags, which can then be hung on the tree if you have one.

I’ll definitely have some of these at the McLean Holiday Crafts Show in December!