This is a book review of Scandinavian-Style Christmas Knits: Ornaments and Decorations for a Nordic Holiday
What You Need to Know About This Knitting Pattern Book:
Author: Thea Rytter
Publisher: Trafalgar Square Books
Copyright Date: I’m reviewing the English-language translation of this book, which has a copyright date of 2022. The book was originally published in 2020 in the Danish language with a title of Strikket julepynt.
ISBN 13: 978-1646011438
ISBN 10: 1646011430
Book Format: This book is available in a softcover format with perfect binding.
Number of Pages: 80, but the last 3 pages are mostly blank, with space for you to write pattern notes if you are so inclined. There are 77 pages of actual content.
The Focus of This Book:
This book is all about giving you knitting patterns for making Christmas tree ornaments and decorations for your home; these projects are also gift-worthy, so you could make them for any of your friends and family, too.
Knitting Projects Included in This Book:
1. Plump Christmas Star Ornaments
You can use this lovely pattern to crank out star-shaped Christmas ornaments for everyone on your gift list. This clever pattern makes use of decreases for the shaping. You can choose between two star sizes: 4 inches or 11 ¾ inches. The author also includes instructions for making a knitted star you can use as a topper for your Christmas tree.
2. Soft Heart Ornaments
You can use these super cute heart shapes as individual Christmas tree ornaments as intended. It would also be possible to make a bunch of them to transform into a mobile. These would be a good candidate for embellishing with beads; the hearts are pictured both ways, and both variations are lovely.
3. Trumpet Christmas Ornament
Use a glittering metallic gold or brass-colored yarn to make adorable Christmas ornaments that resemble trumpets. Maybe you could play your favorite Christmas album featuring orchestra music, like Handel’s Messiah, to put you in a festive mood while you knit.
4. Christmas Balls
These are so pretty and sophisticated! You get a couple of variations including a stockinette stitch Christmas ball and a garter stitch Christmas ball. The photos show a bead-embellished ball, too, and that variation is delightful.
5. Pennant
You can make a pennant to drape across your tree instead of (or in addition to) tinsel, or you can make pennants for decorating your windows at Christmastime.
6. Mini Christmas Stockings – Ornaments or Christmas Decorations
There are so many ways you can use these cute mini Christmas stockings. They make fantastic Christmas ornaments, and you can also string a bunch of them together to make a bunting or banner. They’d be cute to give to a little girl for her dolls, too.
7. Pine Cone Christmas Tree Ornaments or Decorations
These cute knitted pine cones are ideal to use as Christmas tree ornaments. It’s also possible to arrange them in bowls on a table or mantelpiece, or hang them from your windows as festive decorations, too.
8. Knitted Acorns
These cute little knitted acorns make lovely wreath decorations or Christmas tree ornaments. This book doesn’t include any squirrel amigurumi patterns, but if you happen to have one of those, it could be really cute to knit your toy squirrels an acorn stash using this pattern.
9. Knitted Mushrooms
These would make cute and novel Christmas ornaments, but you could also use them to create a woodland-themed vignette under your Christmas tree. There are 4 different mushroom knitting patterns included, and you’ll need white glass beads if you want to make them look exactly as pictured in the photos.
10. Leaves
There are many creative ways you could use these leaves. As pictured in the book, they’ll make your giftwrap look super sophisticated and festive. Another idea: you could combine these leaves with knitted mushrooms, pine cones and acorns to put under the Christmas tree. If you want to put together a cute terrarium to give as a gift to a friend, that’s another idea you could try.
11. Forest Floor Wreath
Yet another idea for using your mushrooms, leaves, and acorns: You can combine all these little projects and use them to create a Forest Floor Wreath.
12. Mini Skeins
This is an adorable giftwrap idea.You can make these using bits of leftover yarn.
The Best Things About This Book
These projects are all lovely and appealing. They look like they’d be reasonably quick to knit; we all know there’s no such thing as instant gratification when it comes to knitting, but these projects look like they’d be worth the relatively small investment of time it’ll take you to make them.
With quite a few of these patterns, it would be worth knitting multiples of them. You could decorate an entire Christmas tree, or multiple Christmas trees, using these ideas. Or you could knit small ornaments to give to neighbors, co-workers, or casual acquaintances that you want to give gifts to but you don’t want to invest the time it would take to make a bigger project for them.
The book’s photography is also appealing, and the projects are presented beautifully. The styling in the book is straightforward, and it was done well.
I really appreciate that the projects in this book are made using eco-friendly, sustainable yarn choices. The suggested yarn for all these patterns is Krea Deluxe Organic Wool 1, but the author also recommends using scrap yarn if you happen to have it.
Other Observations About This Book
In addition to the usual knitting supplies like yarn and knitting needles, you’ll also need additional materials like pipe cleaners, cardboard, Styrofoam balls, or bonsai wire to complete some of these projects. You’ll also need some stuffing material like poly fiberfill, cotton filling, carded wool, or (if all else fails), yarn scraps.
Embellishing your projects is optional, but the embellishments really do make the designs look amazing. If you want to embellish, you’ll need some beads, embroidery floss, beading thread, and a beading needle.
The projects in this book are lovely and worthwhile, but I would not describe them as being particularly unusual. If you already own other knitting pattern books featuring Christmas ornament designs, you might already have some similar patterns in your stash already. If you are looking for unique, quirky, or out-of-the-ordinary Christmas designs, I recommend taking a look at Jorid Linvik’s Big Book of Christmas Knits, too. Both books are charming, and both have outstanding projects to offer you — but if you already have a huge stash of Christmas patterns, Jorid’s book is likelier to give you patterns that will be totally fresh and new to you.
I haven’t yet attempted to knit any of these projects, so I’m not going to comment on the pattern instructions yet; I will update again once I’ve had a chance to knit a few of these pretties.
Conclusion
I recommend this book to knitters who celebrate Christmas and want to make an abundance of festive decorations for their own homes or to give as gifts. This book will be best appreciated by knitters who want un-fussy, straightforward silhouettes to work on — basic stars, basic round ornaments, small stockings, etc. You’ll get the best value out of this book if you want to make bunches and bunches of Christmas decorations or ornaments.
Where to Buy This Book:
Click or tap here to shop for Scandinavian-Style Christmas Knits at Amazon.
Reviewed By Amy Solovay
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About Your Book Reviewer: Amy Solovay is a real person who has a background in textile design. She has been crocheting and crafting since childhood, and knitting since she was a teenager. She holds a degree in textile design from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising and is a former instructor at California Design College, where she taught surface design, trend forecasting, and apparel marketing classes to fashion design majors. Amy worked in the textile industry for about a decade; during that time, she held various job titles ranging from circular knit designer to director of design. She then transitioned to a career in freelance writing.
Nowadays, Amy uses online platforms to teach digital courses to craft pattern designers, content creators and influencers all over the world. If you’re an artist, crafter or DIY enthusiast who is interested in earning income from your creative work, you’re invited to visit Crafterprise.com to learn more about monetizing the arts, craft(s) and / or DIY projects you do.
Find More Festive Christmas Craft Pattern Books:
Find More Excellent Danish Knitting Pattern Books
Trafalgar Square Books has several specialties. One of them is publishing interesting knitting books and craft books that originated in Europe. They’ve published multiple valuable knitting books that bring Denmark’s rich knitting history into the present and make it accessible to contemporary knitters from all over the world.
This page was last updated on 10-11-2024.