It is snowing in Canada again, millions of glittering snowflakes are whirling around and settling down in white banks. During Advent I am sitting in a cozy room and making Christmas gifts for the people I love. My mind is full of snowstorms outside the window, snow cowered mountain forests, fairy tales about Snow Queen and Christmases. My hands are stitching all this into every ball.

Balls like these are good not only as Christmas decorations and gifts, but also for experiments with embroidery on knitting. This ball is covered with knitting in two colours — white and colourful. The choice of the coloured yarn will set the mood, but the uniqueness will come from the embroidery. Every knitter creates the character of their ball as they choose the embroidery stitches and design. Do not try to copy exactly the balls pictured here, but use them as inspiration for your own.

You will need:
15 g of sock yarn (300–400m/100g) in at least two colours: one white and the other contrasting colour — solid, tonal or gradient.

1 ball (glass, plastic or foam) 7.5 cm (3 inches) in diameter (this pattern can be adjusted to ball in other sizes). Knitting and embroidery will significantly improve the durability of the ball inside it, therefore feel free to use a glass ornament for tree decoration. Choosing a plastic ball is safer if you will be sending it through the mail. If the ball is meant as a toy, the foam ball is the safest choice.

7 double point needles that will give a tight gauge using the chosen yarn (2–3 mm), same size crochet hook, a tapestry needle, and a progress keeper.
The sample ball is 7.5 cm in diameter, is knitted with 2.5 mm needles using white and dark green, blue and red Drops Alpaca yarn.