55 Christmas Balls

The original plan was to have these done shortly before Christmas. Okay, so I'm a little ahead of schedule!

Last night, I finished the last ball, Thirteenth Day Kari. I'm kind of surprised at how quickly this project went, although, like many projects, I did tend to tackle it in bursts. Once i had the main pattern down pat, I could almost do these in my sleep. The main thing I needed to know was what row the contrasting yarn started on, and then I could just take off. The last one I did was finished in just a few hours. As I wrapped this up, I thought about all the possibilities for making one's own designs that would fit inside this format.

I have my favorites. The snowflake patterns from the beginning of the set still captivate me. I find myself drawn to the ones with traditional patterns and motifs over the ones with figurative themes -- although that squirrel is darned cute.

I'm glad I used beads rather than gluing on the crystals. One summer of storage in a hot Texas garage, and I would have had a box of ornaments sitting on a bed of rattly sequins. But I do think that maybe I overdid them a bit on a few of the designs. Towards the end of the project I found myself wanting to use them less and less. Still, I can't wait to see if they sparkle as much as I hope they will once they are on a tree with lots of lights.

I used the examples in the book when determining what colors to use. Hence the red and white (plus green in one instance). I've always liked the idea of a limited palette for decorating a tree, and I thought, "here's my chance." Jeff suggested I do some of them in a navy or dark green color, which I agree would look nice -- and some day I may get around to doing that. I'm not averse to the idea. In fact, there is a picture of a tree with 1300 julekuler on it in many colors that looks quite fabulous. For now, 55 is a nice number.

Thanks for following along as I made these. I can highly recommend them as a project. Now all that remains is one more set of pictures, but those will have to wait for later in the year. Martha was kind to point out that there are similar Advent and Easter projects designed by Arne & Carlos and some of the designs look really cool. I probably didn't need to know about this!