Small DIY project: a nice set of balls - Cecilies candlestick!

I'm sorry for not being able to resist that pun in the headline. That's just me.

So, the other day my friend Cecilie posted this image on facebook, and since she always makes the most adorable things in crochet, I assumed it was something she had come up with herself. 

And right I was.

   

I think it looks great, and even though it is essentially an advent-candlestick (in Denmark we have a certain ritual with these: we light one candle, first sunday in advent, two the next, and so forth), and therfore a bit late to post here - it is also just pretty and festive, and a very doable little project. 

I could absolutely also see it with the balls in different red and pink hues, or perhaps in glittery yarn, yay!

I asked her how she had made it, and here are her instructions:

"This candlestick requires a bit of crochet skills, especially when it comes to crocheting a perfect sphere.

I used eight polystyrene balls of the good quality hobby kind you would use for dolls, sturdy decorations etc. (four 80 mm. diameter and four 60 mm. diameter), four metal candle holders, a stanley knife, yarn, crochet hook, a long ('dolls') needle, and, obviously, four candles! Use the quality kind, where the wax could be scratched off easily, if it should run into the yarn a bit.

Materials are widely available in hobby/crafting material shops, in DK they have all of it right here.

First, you'll need to cut a perfect slice of the bottoms on each of the large balls holding the candles, in order to stabilize them. To do that in an easy way, I found a small plastic container with a sharp edge in an appropriate size, and pressed it into the four balls - that gave me a precise line to cut from.

In these four large balls, you'll also need to cut out holes to squeeze the metal candleholders into  (make sure they are exactly on top, so the candles are in balance). I used the candleholders to press a marking line in the ball - same as before - before I cut out the hole.
 

When the hole is cut - don't make it too wide - press the metal candleholders in place (fasten with a bit of glue).

To do the crochet part, I did the small balls as a full cover, and the larger ones - from top towards bottom - starting around the metal candleholders. I did them free style, but there are many instructions to crochet a ball or a sphere out there. For the large balls I used a wool yarn and crochet hook no. 6, and for the small ones ordinary cotton yarn and hook no. 3.

A coat of base paint in the same color as the yarn, can be a good idea, especially if the yarn is dark, or if the yarn is of a thinner quality. Any kind of water based hobby paint will work.

When the balls are done, they are threaded together with some strong string, using the dolls needle -
and you don't necessarily need to tie them in a circle, you could also just have them in a curvy row.

Make sure that you use glues and paints that work on polystyrene.

Note that this is meant as a festive centrepiece or decoration, it is made of rather light materials, and should - of course - NEVER be moved around when the candles are lit, just as you should make sure to watch it, keep small kids at a distance and put out the candles before they reach the metal holders. 

Merry Christmas!"