Knitter’s Yarn Ornament with Printable Labels

If you have one of those two-part, clear, plastic Christmas ornaments that you can fill yourself, then you’ve got a head start on making this knitter’s yarn ornament using yarn, needles and labels.

I’ve created free printable mini yarn skein labels which you can add to either purchased skeins or tiny homemade skeins of yarn that you can quickly make yourself from leftover yarn.

At Christmas, I always miss my mother-in-law, who faithfully knitted dozens of cotton dishcloths every year until she died. I made these labels in her memory because, when I read them, I can hear her laughing in my mind. She would’ve loved these!

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Project Instructions:

Notes on Miniature Yarn Skeins: I bought my first pack of tiny yarn skeins at Dollarama, a dollar store in Canada, so I think a similar product would be available elsewhere. If not, never fear, because it’s quick and easy to make your own.

Simply wind lightweight yarn around three fingers about 100 times or whatever you need to get the size that you want. Remove the yarn loops from your hand and then wind yarn a few times around the middle of skein where the label will go.

Assemble the Yarn Ornaments

You should know from the start that single-piece, globe-style, clear plastic ornaments are unsuitable for this project. I used a larger two-part plastic ornament for the yarn skeins with a knitting sample. The sample was actually knitted on plain finishing nails. If you know how to knit garter stitch, try it. I found that 8 or 9 cast-on stitches, and about four or five rows, was a good number for nails just slightly smaller than 2.75 inches.

I then used the nails as the “knitting needles” in this tiny diorama featuring a hand-knit swatch inside a two-part clear ball that was exactly 2.75 inches across.

1. For smaller, less complicated yarn ornaments, simply print the “Keep calm, carry yarn” label or the “Have Ewe Any Wool” label.
2. Either way, print the label of your choice (available below) then wrap it around the middle of a mini yarn skein. If using a skein that already has a label, remove that label first then fix the printable label in its place. Use a small tab of adhesive tape to secure the overlap at the back of the label.
3. Place the finished yarn skein into one half of the plastic ornament ball. If you’re adding the “knitting needles” and knitting swatch, poke the nails through the bottom of the skein, on an angle, so the knitting swatch is easily visible from the front of the ornament.
4. Set the second half of the plastic ball on top of the first, making sure that you don’t catch any stray yarn strands as you push it together. You should hear a slight snapping sound as the two pieces connect securely.
5. Thread a piece of jute string, or a piece of yarn matching the one inside, through the hole at the top. Make a looped hanger by tying the ends of the string or yarn together.

A Note on Copyright: You may use the free label images on this page for personal use only or for personal gift-giving, as described below. If you own a website, or you post on social media and wish to share these labels with others, go ahead under the following condtions: you must display only one image from this project along with a link back to this original page.

Free Printable Mini Yarn Skein Labels

With the fine print over, here we go.

To use the following printable labels: If you’re on an older desktop computer, right click on the label that you like and choose your preferred option of save, view in another tab or the instructions you are familiar with to print. For newer desktop computers, follow the procedure you normally would to print a web site image.

On a mobile device, press or tap on the screen image for options to save or download then print as you would normally print a similar image on your device.

The following labels are 1.02 inches high by 4.64 inches long. They fit around miniature yarn skeins, with some length adjustment being possible through the overlap at the back. I think the maximum diameter of the yarn skein should be no more than 1.5 inches but there is some flexibility to go smaller.

For best results, use your print menu to print out these labels as “original size”.

If you encounter issues, please explain the details in the comments section for help.

I hope these little knitter’s yarn ornaments bring moments of happiness to the person receiving them. That would be wonderful.

They obviously make great Christmas gifts for knitters. But these knit-lover’s ornaments are also fine as gifts for other special occasions. Why not make one as a token thank-you to someone who knitted you a gift? That would be kind, thoughtful, and meaningful to you both. Enjoy!