Okay, first of all, I feel like this post is going to be a little bit of a buzz kill and boring after the last 7 days! They seemed so much more exciting to me that today’s Day 8 post, but it is what it is, but please check my other days because many are very fun! This is a stash busting day for sure! I feel like I need a good hot tub soak after today. Ha!
If this is your first stop on my 12 Days of Christmas blog extravaganza make sure you go back and see all of these days with FREE patterns for Christmas – stockings, trees, gnomes, decorations and more:
All of these post have a different pattern and fun information. I am working hard to make a new blog post with a new pattern each day for all 12 days. Unless something drastic happens, check back here each day and see all the fun, holiday goodness. I have an idea for the next few days and am hoping for the time to make a HUGE finale!! So, check back with me and see what is next.
UPDATE: Get the ridiculously low priced 12 Days of Christmas Pattern in a Downloadable PDF right here. You can ALL 12 Days of Christmas for one super low price. Merry Christmas! (Etsy only right now – I will try to get this over on Ravelry soon)
These patterns are intended for personal use only. This pattern -and all my patterns- are offered for free or a small fee to help support my family so please do not redistribute, sell, copy or use them in any way not in accordance with fairness.
You may sell products made from this pattern, but please give me credit as the designer. Please do not use my photos as your own work, but you may use my photos to reference back to my blog, Etsy, Pinterest, IG or FB, but please link back to me.
If you find any problems with this pattern please let me know and if you have any problems with any of it feel free to message me and ask for support.
Kristi Bergin-Smith and The Burgundy Basket, 2019. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to me, Kristi Bergin-Smith and The Burgundy Basket with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
And because I don’t want you to be too bored today, Pepper my Polar Bear FREE pattern is perfect for Christmas! So, check him out.
And, earlier this month I designed a Frosty Inspired Snowman that is also perfect for Christmas! So, check him out as well. He’s also a Free pattern with PDF option.
This post does contain affiliate links. I will get a small percentage from any purchase made through my page here, but your price remains the same. I appreciate any purchase made through my page as I can continue to offer free patterns here on my blog. These are a few of my favorite things.
I want to say thank you for all who stop by to support my patterns and my blog. I have chosen to NOT do ads on my blog (with the exception of my affiliate links) and offer FREE patterns, but please – if you love my patterns and want to say a little thank you- or just have some good small business karma support points- a purchase now and then or a visit to any of my affiliate links really helps. It keeps this blog going so I can continue to offer free patterns for all to enjoy. I also purchase a pattern now and then or visit an affiliate link from my favorite blogs and designers. Thank you
Okay, so, this part of my 12 Days of Christmas patterns really isn’t going to be so much of a pattern exactly – it’s gonna be a “use your stash” talk and “keep it simple” talk. I don’t even have a cool blog picture to attach today. If I had my tree up I would have taken a cool blog picture.
Many times, I find myself looking at all the amazing, intricate and complicated projects and forget the simple things. I personally like big crochet – have you seen my giant Farm Animal Series? They are from 22-30” and massive! So, when I think about stopping for a minute and just switch to something simple, I sometimes feel that it’s inadequate – so, I have to remind myself to stop it. Really though – I know we all have a stash to work through.
I often score huge bags/baskets/bundles of yarn and in those lots I will sometimes have yarn like in the below picture – and honestly – I don’t like this yarn. I have no idea really what it’s meant to be for. You can’t make clothes/hats/scarves etc. because the metallic part is itchy and the other one that has no metallic filament (bottom of picture) works up weird – the colors don’t play right. And, I am into way different colors than these for Christmas – as you can probably tell from my other patterns.
So, back to it – these 12-days of Christmas patterns were written to DE-STASH all of my Christmas stash that I’ve been hoarding for a few years probably. So, when I looked at all of this above, the only thing I could even think to do with it all was to make some old-fashioned Christmas garland – so, I did! I made 4 to be exact. I will add some pictures and let you know what I did, but it’s super easy and you can do it mindlessly while watching your favorite show.
I know that I can’t be the only one with some old, ugly Christmas yarn needing a good use. You can even do these with scrap yarns. Okay, let’s start with Garland #1:
For the first garland, I grabbed the green and red metallic, my big bucket of pony beads (don’t know where these came from or why I have them – they are just part of my stash that needs to go) and my yarn needle (use a soft bendy one for this is you have it).
I threaded onto both strands held together 250 pony beads. Get them all on and move them down your strands. The most tedious part of the project is constantly having to pull more yarn to work with through, but it goes pretty fast once you get started and as your beads get used it gets easier.
I used my L/8mm hook, but please use whichever size you want/need to get it to look like you want and not be difficult.
For this first one I just chained 10 and pulled up a bead, chained 10, pulled up a bead and repeated. I did this all the way down for all of my 250 beads. It actually turned out quite pretty. It’s really long too, so you can fold it in half to double the thickness and twist or add some knots down the length to keep it that way. And Voila! One garland down.
Although I am not a fan of the two above yarns individually, I really do love them together and with the beads. If I had my tree put up already I would photo there – but, we are Thanksgiving tree-putter-uppers.
Okay, now onto Garland #2:
For this second garland, I grabbed these two skeins I had and held them together and used my L/8mm hook again. I just did simple back and forth rows. I have a big bag of (stash) pompoms and I think I am going to attach them to this garland, but that part isn’t finished yet. This would be a good one for kids to “decorate” – I started with a chain 5 and did 4 hdc in each row. I just worked until I ran out of yarn. Now, this is the best part – when I finished working I had 114” of a big giant belt (ha!) – but, I took it to my ironing board and steamed and then stretched it all along the length – steam, stretch, steam, stretch. I was not worried about ruining this yarn because it’s garland…it made my “belt” long and skinny and I ended up with 160” for almost no extra work!
Now, I don’t think I am done with this – like I said I am going to attach something to it I think. I did go down and put some knots in the length. This piece would be fun to add some leftover ribbon to – even some led lights and ribbons. You are only limited by your stash and imagination.
For Garland #3 I grabbed these bits of leftovers:
I – again – holding these two strands (it really does make an ugly or boring strand better) threaded them with this bowl of pearly white beads from my stash (and, again, I don’t know why I have them and am just relieved to get knocking them out!) – I threaded the whole bowl. I don’t even know how many it was.
This one actually has a sort of pattern and it’s my FAVORITE! – I love how this one turned out.
I grabbed my J/6mm hook for these two strands. I started with a chain 10 and then did a half double crochet (hdc) back down/up the chain, then I did this repeat: (chain 25, slip on 3 beads, hdc in the 3rd chain from the hook and in the next 13-15 chains)* – you get this fun dangly piece with all these fun little curls all over it.
Garland #4 is so boring that I almost didn’t even include it, but then I remembered that it’s garland and sometimes things are boring (ha!) – so, I was kind of tired of beads and garland by the time I got down to the end of my stash. I had run out of the green yarn from garland #3 above, but still had a bunch of white beads on my other strand and plenty of it left so I just chained 20, slipped up a bead and repeated until I finally – finally! – ran out of almost my entire stash from the first photo above. I only have some colored beads and two small balls of christmas yarn leftover. Hallelujah!
So, anyway, this piece was so long! I fold it in half and tied it in knot going down (a faux popcorn stitch!). What a stash-busting relief!
Okay, so, Day 8 is done!! Please come back and check out my last 4 days. <3
I’d love to see all your creations so tag me @theburgundybasket on IG
