My favorite thing about this time of year is pulling out all of the decorations and ornaments that we have collected over the years. Many of our ornaments represent memories that we have made on our travels and milestones for our family. Some are handmade treasures, like the ones lovingly hand stitched every year by my mother-in-law for each of her grandchildren.

The boys love pulling out ornaments and saying, “Mommy made this.” or “This is my ornament that Grandma made for me.” Of course, I needed to design inkle band ornaments to add to our collection! I came up with two; a wreath and a snowflake.

What you will need for the wreath:

an inkle band 3/4” wide at least 30” long.
scissors
craft glue
thread
12″ of weft yarn
embroidery needle
beads (I used large glass seed beads from a big box craft store)

Step 1: Seal the edges of the inkle band with glue thread (see here).

Step 2: Fold a flat knot into the inkle band, leaving ½ an inch of a tail at the beginning.

Step 3: Repeat these steps 5 more times. Be sure to always fold in the same direction. You will have something like this:

Step 4: Make sure both tails are no wider than the width of the knots. Cut and secure to prevent from fraying.

Step 5: Insert the tails into the back of the first and last knot. Add glue to secure.

Step 6: Stitch or glue beads as ornaments. (I stitched them using weft yarn).

Step 7: Add a yarn bow and tie a piece of yarn or string to the ornament and you are finished!

Now for the Inkle Snowflake Ornament.

For the Inkle Snowflake Ornament you will need:

1/2″ wide inkle band at least 24″ long
3 pipe cleaners
-cut 6 pieces to 2 1/4″
-cut 12 pieces to 1 1/4″
1/4″ bell

Follow steps 1 through 3 for the Inkle Wreath Ornament.

Step 4: Make the branches. Fold 2 small pieces over each of the longer pipe cleaner pieces. Repeat 6 times.

Step 5: Add a small drop of glue to the bottom end of each branch. Insert a branch into each knot.

Step 6: Tie a bell to the center of each snowflake and add a string to hang.

It may not be cold outside (at least not here in the Sunshine State) but, I think I see snow!

I used very simple warping patterns for both projects, but can only imagine how fantastic they would look with fancier patterns! The wreath is woven with 10/2 perle cotton in both the warp and the weft using the following draft:

For the snowflake, I used size 2, Omega brand nylon crochet thread (both warp and weft) in white and white with silver thread (s) with this pattern:

The crochet nylon is available from online yarn store Creative Yarn Source and some big box craft stores sell it too. It comes in a large array of colors.

Ornaments can be made as large or small as you want by increasing or decreasing the width of the band.

No matter the width of the band, it will always take six knots to complete the shape. There must be some mathematical explanation for this, right? If you know, please share!

Happy holidays to you and your family! And as always –

warp, weave, and be happy! ~Jennifer