FitzBirch Crafts: Woolly Wreath

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Get ready to use up all your scraps of wool

I had a Christmas wreath that I cherished because it was my Grandmothers. It wasn't an old family heirloom or anything, it was plastic and only about 10 years old but I kept it for sentimental reasons. Unfortunately, a few Christmas's ago, it fell to pieces and thus the hunt for a new wreath for the front door began.

I fell in love with a 'Minties' wreath. Our iconic white and green lolly was glued around a wire which ends up looking inviting, festive and delicious. It looked great and I hung it up, stepped back to admire it and went to work. The Australian sun was not too kind to it and I came home to find a sticky, gooey mess running down my front door and making an even gooier mess on the step. This was a strictly indoors type of wreath.

Then I stumbled upon an idea for a woollen one - was there ever a better wreath for a knitter? In fact, it isn't even knitted.

Materials:

1 wire coat hanger that has been unwound and made to form a circle (see picture below)
Wool in various shades of Christmas
Wool sewing needle
Old pair of knitting needles that you feel you can part with.

The idea behind this wreath is to thread balls of wool over the wire to form a circle.

I started by winding the scraps of wool into different sized balls. Once you have finished winding, take a wool needle and thread the end of the wool back into the ball. It is best to do this once you have finished each ball. I stood up at one stage and 4 neatly wound balls fell to the floor, undoing about half and hours worth of winding.

I then arranged them loosely around the wire to get a festive looking arrangement and one-by-one, threaded them. I only hooked a small portion of the ball and did not try to go through the middle as they are too tightly wound plus I didn't want them in a neat little row. Once they are all in place it is just a simple matter of sewing a few of the loose balls into position to keep everything tight. I then sewed on the small glitter balls to give it a bit of sparkle, added a few knitted christmas stockings, popped in the old knitting needles (and I mean old) and it is ready to go.

Free Mini Christmas Stockings Pattern The cute little stockings look lovely and festive on the wreath but they can also be used as a decoration for the tree. Be warned .. it takes a lot of knitting to fill a 6ft Christmas tree. You might want to start soon.

This wreath fills the gap where my Grandmothers used to be and, I can't be too sure, but I think the set of knitting needles used to be hers. This one should stand the test of time - unless we have a plague of silverfish.