My husband has been president of our local land and waterways conservancy organization.  Somehow I have become involved in planning the group’s annual banquet.  For the 2008 banquet, I made enough of these ornaments for each banquet attendee to have one.  I cut branches from trees around our house, put them in florist green stuff (Oasis) in a small basket weighed down with aquarium gravel.  Add some vinca, also from our yard, and voila!

The ornaments were designed by Lisa Runstrom and the pattern was published by Fiber Trends.  Each took about two hours to knit and used about 28 yards of leftover yarn.  They were machine felted.  To get them to hold their shape, I got foam pipe insulation tubes and put small sections in each base.  The “hole” in the side is needle-felted black wool.  A small twig is added as a perch.  The tie is handspun linen.