Last Minute Christmas Tree

When my Dad was still alive. we used to have a real Christmas tree. Ever since he died, we didn't. So when I went shopping a couple of days before Xmas last year and saw a packet of really small discounted baubles, I thought that I might as well knit a small tree. It took me less than an afternoon and the project got me a bit into a Christmas mood.
This Christmas tree is knitted sideways and in garter stitch. It is constructed with short rows and finished using a three-needle BO. Afterwards it is decorated with surface crochet and by sewing on baubles.

The instructions below are the knitting pattern for the tree on the left - the one with the baubles. The one I knitted is about 17 cm high. For the smaller trees on the right you can find the free pattern here.



This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.





Materials

• green yarn - I used (really) old DK weight yarn
• golden yarn
• small christmas baubles - the ones I used have a diameter of about 1.5 cm
• knitting needles that are slightly smaller than what the yarn calls for, I used 3 mm dpns
• a third needle for the three needle BO 
• scrap yarn for provisional CO
• a crochet hook for provisional CO and for the surface crochet
• a tapestry needle to sew on the baubles

Techniques & Notation

• Provisional Cast on (pCO): My favorite method for a provision CO is the crochet provisional CO - it is shown in this Youtube video by New Stitch a Day.
• Short rows with wrap and turn (w+t): as shown in this YouTube video by Very Pink Knits.
• Surface Crochet: Using a crochet hook, you make slip stitches through your knitted fabric. Here's a video and here's a tutorial that both explain surface crochet.
• Three Needle Bind Off: https://youtu.be/Ph93jWSzTa0
  The picture below shows how the piece looks before the three-needle BO.

Instructions

Do a provisional CO of 42 sts

With green yarn:
Setup row: k all
Ridge 1: k all, turn, sl1, k all
Ridge 2: k30, w+t, k to end
Ridge 3: k 10, w+t, k to end
Ridge 4: k 39, w+t, k to end
Ridge 5: k 5, w+t, k to end
Ridge 6: k 20, w+t, k to end
Ridge 7: k 10, w+t, k to end
Ridge 8: k 35, w+t, k to end
Ridge 9: k 25, w+t, k to end
Ridge 10: k 8, w+t, k to end
Ridge 11: k 15, w+t, k to end
Ridge 12: k 3, w+t, k to end
Ridge 13: k 22, w+t, k to end

Repeat ridges 1 to 13 four times.

Now you have a piece that looks like a piece of pizza.

Put the stitches from the provisional CO on a knitting needle. Hold the piece rights sides together and do a three needle bind off. Bind off 15 stitches with green yarn, and 15 stitches with white yarn. Afterwards, turn the piece right sides out. Use a pen or something similar to get into the top.

With golden yarn and crochet hook:
Starting from the lower edge work your way up with surface crochet in a spiral - until you reach the top of the tree.

If the yarn you used was rather soft, you might want to stabilize the tree. You can do this by cutting out a piece of paper or soft cardboard in the shape of a 90° pizza slice (similar to the tree before the three needle BO) and insert it into the tree.
The yarn I used was stiff enough that there wasn't any need for stabilization.

As a further decoration I put a small star on the top.