Rudolf

 I mentioned back in September that I had started on Rudolf.  He has been knitted entirely from yarn that DD and I already had (thanks to her for the oatmeal and red), except for the bells which Franney donated.  He is stuffed with the insides of an old pillow and his legs and neck are supported by some chenille sticks I found inserted into plastic straws acquired in a pub.  Therefore he has not broken my yarn diet at all.

Like the Tipsy Turkey I did last year (just realised he has not been put on this blog.  Will have to rectify that soon when I have transferred photos from CD saved from old computer to new one), he is done from an Alan Dart pattern.  I'm not so keen on the sewing up, but Alan Dart's patterns are so very clear for the knitting, that they are very easy to follow and make.

I'm pretty sure I positioned the nose as stated in the pattern, but may have put his mouth a bit low down.  This has given him a bit of a shy and/or snooty look, which I wasn't too sure about at first, but has grown on me, so I will not be unpicking his features.

Just one little comment about safety: As he has chenille sticks inside, which have wire down the middle, I would say this is a toy for adults/Christmas decoration and not suitable for children, especially little children.

Still here!

Just realised it's over a month since I posted to this blog.  This is partly because I don't want to do too many blogs without photos, as I think photos make posts more interesting, and partly because I don't want to put progress photos on here and haven't finished anything much lately.    I have three works in progress currently: a short-sleeved cardigan for myself, a pair of socks for DD and another baby cardi for SCBU.

The only recently finished objects are these two squares.  The story behind them is this:

At a recent knitting group meeting, a staff member of the pub we were in came up to us and said she had had a phone call from a lady who had some yarn she wanted rid of and if we were interested, we should phone back.  The lady had been a prolific knitter, but was now too ill to knit any more and unlikely to be able to ever again, so wanted her stash to go to anyone who would be able to make use of it.  One of our members went and collected the yarn and other stuff - about three large bin bags - and various people took yarn, etc at a swap and buy session we had a few days later.  (There's still quite a bit left taking up the member's house room!).  We decided it would be nice to express our thanks.  She said she didn't want anything for the yarn, just to know it had gone to a good home or homes, but we decided to give her a voucher and knit her a small lap blanket, mostly from her own yarn.  These two squares were my contribution, made from yarn from the lady's stash.  If I get a chance, I will post a photo of the completed article (assuming I get to see it before it's given to her). 

A rather sad story, but nice that some good will come of her stash at least and it won't just get chucked when she passes on.  I have taken quite a bit of acrylic DK for making blankets for SCBU.  Not sure what other people will do with what they have taken.