This was a great challenge from the UK Freeformers, designed by bizzielizzie

I made four trees and they made perfect presents for my MIL’s birthday and Christmas gifts for my friends. (Still need to finish mine.)

These started with a cone shape and then a variation of a crocheted trimming pattern was worked into the free front loops.

Some of the branches needed blocking, to stop the curling, (acrylic yarns!). I cut a curved piece of sew-in interfacing, pinned the branches to it and used my handy little steamer from Lidl.

A set of 20 LEDs from Wilkinsons were pushed through the finished tree from the inside. These are powered by batteries so I had to add a pocket on the inside to hold them.

My trees were decorated with hand tied bows (stitched on individually), using a little gadget made by my friend, sequins and beads. I burnt the ends of the ribbon to stop it from fraying (that’s why the cooker lighter is there!) I did manage to crochet some beads onto the ends by dragging the thread through using a really small hook. It was very time consuming and only marginally better than sewing them by hand.

Prior to delivery, the trees were wrapped in clear cellophane and topped with a bow.

I adapted my tree pattern to make the decorations for presents.

Just wanted to say thank you for a really great challenge and I hope everyone has a really Happy Christmas.