Needle felting Christmas decorations

My fluffy little creations!  Including Gay Pride Santa, who is fabulous.

Hooray! It is the first Christmas post of this year, and I have discovered a new craft!  And it's the Simplest yet!

NEEDLE FELTING.

Beginning the pomander, on sponge, with official needle

All you need is some sponge, one or four of the official felting needles, and the right fluffy wool (available relatively expensively, compared to knitting wool) on the internet in various places and many many colours.  (P.S.  you can even use cat hair.  Seriously, google it.)

THEN YOU STAB IT UNTIL IT LOOKS AWESOME.

Behold!

Adding more layers of colour is easy

GAY PRIDE SANTA!  PENGUIN!  BIRDIE!  MARY MOTHER OF JESUS!  A STAR! A POMANDER!

All of these lovely things are so easy to make it's not true - just wrap the wool into shape and stab it until it sticks.  The more you stab, the denser the material becomes and the less pliable.  You would not believe how small a tuft you need for making eyes or dots with - just a few hairs, seriously.

Base for Mary - body cylinder, white head and cloak

I am going to put threads on these beauties and give them to people as Christmas decorations, but you could make toys, a Nativity scene, beads, decorations for clothes and accessories, anything you want.  I love this craft.  It is the best thing.

Finished Mary, with arms, white 'hands' and yellow halo

I'm off to do some more...

Aran Cardigan Progress

I've been raring through this pattern, after a few rookie errors with the left front the right front was easy.

Someone (who shall remain anonymous) slurred this blog recently by claiming that it is no longer quite devoted to 'simple' things.  I think they think that cable jumpers are complicated.  Allow me to disagree.  When I have finished this, I will show you these stitches, and you will see how amazingly simple knitting a jumper like this is compared to how it looks.  Admittedly, it does look pretty complicated and awesome.

Aran Style Cardigan Pattern

Ravelry is a lovely thing - a knitting and crochet online community, where you can find thousands of free patterns.  I managed to find this one after I went looking for an aran jumper.  My favourite pair of cable jumpers which my mother made me are both fraying at the cuffs and being mothed at the seams.  I needed a replacement, and fast - faster than Mum could make me one and post it from 6000 miles away.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/aidez

To (hopefully) avoid moth damage, this jumper is made using acrylic super-bulky wool, purchased as usual at Kemps Wool Shop (link in the sidebar).

As long as you have the dexterity to stop yourself dropping the stitches, cable knitting is an insanely easy way of making your knitting projects look super-professional and difficult looking, and creating chunky, funky patterns.  I'm very happy with the way the back of this turned out, and have started on the left front now.

I learned a number of new stitches from this pattern, and from the comments on it from the lady who designed it.  When I've finished the jumper I'll swatch up again and show you my favourites in detail.  For now - onward!