It's the holiday season and it's a season I love to celebrate, particularly with a Christmas Tree. Unfortunately, I live in a small apartment and getting a "real" Christmas tree is ... well, simply put, a pain in the butt - there's needles everywhere, we live in a warmer climate (well, compared to much of the Northern Hemisphere) so, the tree itself doesn't last long (and needles drop if you even look at it because to keep the tree hydrated enough is nearly impossible), and to top if off, because we live in an apartment, disposing our tree is an even bigger pain in the butt because not only do we need to cut it up, we can't put it in our dumpster and we need to take it elsewhere to dump it.
So, I've been coveting "other" types of trees. I'm sure you must be asking: Why not simply get an artificial tree? Simply put: 1) If I'm not going to get a real tree (because I love the smell of it), why get a tree at all and 2) (more importantly) I live in a small apartment - where am I going to store a whole tree for the rest of the year?! Plus, I live in a moist, warm climate - how am I going to store a whole tree and keep it from molding or being a home for bugs when it's in storage? So you must be asking: Wait ... if you're unwilling to get an artificial tree, what "other" types of trees are you coveting??? These "other" trees that I've been coveting are: ceramic trees (both lighted and unlighted ones) and of course: "crafted" ones - specifically crocheted and knitted ones. Etsy has been a great source of "window" shopping for ceramic trees and in the end, while I enjoyed the search, I could not realistically store all the trees I coveted (back to the issue of: where am I going to store these tress during the rest of the year). Many of the crochet trees I've seen are usually very small and meant to be ornaments on the tree, not a stand alone tree (or it would be a very mini tree!). Thankfully, I had come across someone's Instagram post where they had knitted a grove of (pine) trees (aka a matsubayashi (松林))! Eureka! I think I found my solution! So, off to Ravelry I went and while I had found several Christmas tree patterns, I decided that I would start with these trees: Winter Fir Trees, Purled Christmas Tree, Natal, and Silver Bell Tree. Having knitted trees would be easier for me to keep as I figured that I wouldn't need to stuff them. Plus, I already have a white ceramic tree and a lot of mystery cream yarn - perfect for making a grove of trees!😉😁🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄
So, I started with the Winter Fir Trees, particularly its Bobble tree (a bottom up tree) since Hubs seemed to like it so much. I mostly followed the pattern but made the following changes:
- I didn't make a base for it because I wanted to light it up and I wanted my tree to be collapsible to store after the holidays.
- How I made the bobbles: Since I recently made Winter Friend for my niece, I liked how those bobbles turned out and used that method instead.
- R51: instead of just knitting it, I did another round of R3.
For my next tree, Purled Christmas Tree (a top down tree), I wanted to do a tall thinner tree but as I was knitting the "tall tree", my tree simply wasn't coming out the way that tree looked in the picture so, I ripped back to where I had 9 sts and instead of K 4 rows, I just knitted 1 row after the increase row and purled 4 rows thereafter. My tree looks much more like the picture now. However, since it was a bit tedious to do, I ended up making a much shorter tree than I had originally anticipated: I only made it up to the 30 sts mark before I bound off. Here's how my tree turned out:
For my next tree, I decided that I would try the Silver Bell Tree (another bottom up tree). Right off the bat, I modified the bottom by only doing 2 rows of 2x2 ribbing then knitting the remaining rows of the base as I didn't want too much of the ribbing to show on the tree. Then I changed it up by adding an additional 2 purl rows for R 4 & 5. Then did 5 K rows and 1 P row before decreasing. Then I alternated the double purl rows and single purl rows, keeping to the structure of the tree (and instruction rows). On Row 47, I purled that row before doing the final decrease row starting on Row 48 instead and ended with the final decrease row in Row 54. I did add one more decrease (to 3 sts) on Row 55 as I wanted a more pointier top. Here's how my tree turned out:
For my next tree, I decided to try the Natal (another top down tree) as it had an interesting herring bone stitch. So, I started by thinking I could be smart with 3 sts (instead of 6 sts) to have a pointier top but, it came out odd. So, I ripped it out and casted on again, this time following the directions. However, I was simply struggling with it on my US 4.5mm needles. So, I ripped it out again and switched to my US 5.5mm needles and made sure I had a very loose hold on my yarn. Nevertheless, my "tree" was not coming out properly: Instead of looking like a tree, it looked more like an odd witch's hat:
Clearly, either I was not understanding the pattern or it just wasn't for me. So, I simply gave up on this tree and frogged it.
So, I decided that I would try Cozy Christmas Trees (all bottom up trees) as I really loved all 3 trees shown in this pattern. I started with the Medium tree. I pretty much followed the pattern and simply added 2 more rows at the end to make a pointer top. Here's how it came out:
I've already tested my trees with a flashlight and all I need to do (now) is to find the perfect low votive, tea light, fairy lights, aka basically some kind of light to put in it to light it up.
Happy Christmas, all! ⛄⛄⛄❄️❄️❄️🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄
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