Faff Along with Sara, make knitted and crocheted Christmas decorations - #FaffAlong 2021

Are you ready to ‘Faff Along’ with me? Over the next few weeks join in with me whilst I faff about and make festive decorations using a range of crafting material all enclosed in our lovely Faff Along box. If you don’t have a box do not despair, I’m sure you have a few bits and pieces lying around you can use – it’s a good excuse to use up some stash!

The first faffing is with our two balls of Scheepjes 50g Catona. If you don’t have Catona you can use any cotton yarn – the cotton will be more rigid and hold its shape better. I have also used a gold thread, Anchor Metallise, which is perfect for this time of year. Everything looks better with a bit of gold on it.

My first Christmas make is a paper chain, I loved making these when I was a child and they are super simple too.

To Knit a Paper Chain

First Link - Using 4 ply cotton and a pair of 3.25 needles cast on 30 stitches

Knit 8 rows in garter stitch

Cast off

Join ends together to make a circle

Repeat as many times as you would like links, but don’t join them.  Thread the link through the first completed one, make a circle and join the ends.

To Crochet a Paper Chain

First Link - Using 4 ply cotton and 3.25 hook chain 27 and turn.

Skip first stitch and then dc in the rest of the chain – 26 dc.

Work four rows doing a dc in every stitch

Tie off work

Join ends together to make a circle

Repeat as many times as you would like links but don’t join the links. Thread the link through the first completed one, make a circle and join the ends.

Paper Chain Faffing

To properly faff you may want to embroider stars on the chain using gold thread. I also did blanket stitch around the edges in gold thread, it looks fabulous.

Each link weighs around 2 grammes so you could get, roughly, 25 links per ball.

Festive Stockings

As well as paper chains I also used the Catona to make Mini Christmas Stockings by Tanya Eberhardt from our free pattern page. These are my favourite make of the moment, I’m slightly hooked! They are the perfect size to hold a chocolate and look so cute.

To Faff I used the Anchor gold thread to top the stocking and embroidered stars on the side too. Do not stress about the pattern, three of mine are different sizes. I got so carried away watching ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ I forgot to count my rows. It’s fine I was just faffing!

Take a look at Sara's latest Faff Along videos on our Facebook page.