Tabletop Knitting Needle Ornament Tree

I haven’t done a lot of holiday decorating this year – keeping it simple, but I found this idea in an old Christmas decorating book and wanted to try it out. It is a non-permanent way to use your ornaments,  very easy, and can be done in many variations. It is perfect to place on a mantle, table, or just to accent your decor.   All you need for the basic version is a knitting needle and about 16-20 classic ball ornaments of varying size.   I found my color coordinated ornaments at Walmart.  They were $2.50 for a box of 10 -18 balls.

Here is the basic version.  The ornaments are just placed over the needle – largest ornaments on the bottom – smallest on top. I removed the metal ring from the top ornament and hid the tip of the needle by placing the ornament upside down over the tip.   The four bottom ornaments hold the tree up.  Super simple!

The bottom can be simply left alone, adorned with some greenery, or placed in an urn or planter.

I put this tree in my dining room using a collection of vintage ornaments. I left about 4″ of the needle empty so I could place an old-fashioned peaked tree topper over the tip of the needle for the finishing touch.

For this one, I added a star ornament on the top and made a coordinating tree stand from an empty spool of ribbon and some scrapbook paper.  The smaller one in the photo is the basic version.

Experiment with different style balls and your favorite colors.   Use all one color or try a different color for each size ball you add to the knitting needle or try four balls of varying sizes in each color. This will give you a spiral effect.

How to Make the Knitting Needle Ornament Tree

Supplies Needed:

A mix of round Christmas ornaments in 4 different sizes –for one tree you will need about 20 balls.  At least 4 of each size.

Knitting Needle – 14 inches long (tall tree)  Spray paint the needles if needed to match your ornaments.

Optional: Christmas tree peak topper or a star ornament, ribbon spool, spray paint, scrapbook paper, glue, spray paint, paper cutter

To make the ribbon spool tree stand: Spray the spool with spray paint to coordinate with your ornaments.  Cut scrapbook paper the width of the spool. You could use ribbon, but I like the more finished look of the paper on the spool.

Attach the paper with glue. I used Aleene’s Tacky Line Roll Adhesive.

Attach to the spool.

Thread the knitting needle up through the bottom of the spool.

If the spool has a large hole – you can stuff it with pieces of STYROFOAM to make sure the needle stays straight.

String four large Christmas ball ornaments (about 4” diameter) onto the needle, slipping the metal loops on the balls over the point of the needle. These four balls will form the base of the tree.  If you do not want to use the spool tree stand  and want to make the basic tree – the four balls when placed  squarely on a table will hold the needle upright.

Next string onto the needle four balls of a slightly smaller size. Each one will fit between two of the larger ones.  Then string on another four, slightly smaller, and finally four more again, slightly smaller, so that your tree has sixteen Christmas ball ornaments in all.  You can add more or less depending on the size of your balls.

The tip will look like this.

On top of the needle place a Christmas star ornament.  I found this one at Michaels.  It had a “spring” style attachment that I removed.  I used that existing hole to place the star on the top of the knitting needle.  I used an awl to make the hole a bit larger so it fit over the tip of the needle.

Another way to display the tree is to place the whole thing in or on top of a planter.

For the holidays I thought this one would look nice in my kitchen.  Adds some color and festivity to the space by my sink.

Trax, of course had to assist in the assembly of the trees. I tied a pretty coordinating ribbon around his neck in lieu of wanting to wring his neck because he is always getting in the way.   My daughter was shaking a ribbon in front of him to get his attention.  I think fuchsia is his color,  don’t you?

Subscribe & Connect With Me

I am linking to:

Centsational Girl   The Inspired Room   Between Naps on The Porch   The Girl Creative   C.R.A.F.T.   My Un Common Slice of Suburbia   Home Stories from A-Z   Tip Junkie   Coastal Charm   Today’s Creative Blog   Homework  Dittle Dattle  House of Hepworths    Under the Table and Dreaming  

Tagged as: Christmas Craft Projects, Christmas Decorations to make, Decorating Project step by step tutorial, Holiday DEcorating wiht ornaments, Ideas for Christmas