How I knitted the Xmas tree

Two nights ago (Christmas Eve), instead of trimming a real tree as we used to do when my son was little, I knitted a tree.

See previous post O! Tannenbaum

I had been planning this tree ever since I got the used Brother KH-830 a few months ago. As many used machines do, this one came with stash, including an unusual tinsel-bearing yarn called Platina.

After patient use of Google Translate and Wikipedia, I have come to understand that Platina (Finnish for platinum) yarn, was manufactured by a company in Hyvinkää, which was founded in 1960 and stopped operations in 1991. Despite the alluring "tinsel," the yarn is very soft, and the glitter thread is apparently in a small enough amount so that the label can still claim "100% villaa" (wool). I love the little knitting machine icon in the corner of the skein band, so even though the yarn comes on a pull-skein, it is officially Kone-neulontalanka (machine knitting yarn). If any Finnish speakers read this and have any additions or corrections, I'd certainly appreciate it.

I knitted the tree using 170 needles on each bed of the Passap DM40: 6 technical rows of full needle rib, 10 of full cardigan (fisherman's rib), and one loose double-wrap, double-bed bind off. Next time I'll try to find an even looser bind off but not sure what that would be.... I attached the resulting knitted band to a cardboard cone with hot glue. It was my husband who suggested that I add beads. Unfortunately my bead collection was a bit lacking; I think I'll add brighter beads next year!

The tree stands about 9 inches tall, which means I didn't get to use much yarn. And I still have 6 untouched skeins of Platina left! Perhaps I'll knit a wreath next year or lots of  very sparkly socks.
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Edited to add:  I forgot to mention that I knitted one round of tubular at my largest stitch size before doing the double-wrap, double-bed bind off. It wasn't until I was about one fifth of the way finished with the bind off that I realized the bind off might not be loose enough, so I started making my bind off loops larger. Knitting the full cardigan stitch after the full needle rib is what creates the flare. A loose bind off needs to maintain this flare (and still look good.)

Last edited 27 Dec 2011