Monday 4 December 2017

Tiny Dutch Christmas Elf Clogs


I decided to make some new Christmas decorations for my tree. What could be more cute than some tiny pairs of elf shoes? 


In The Netherlands at Christmas, children leave a shoe out by the fireplace or sometimes a windowsill. They also believe that if they leave some hay and carrots in their shoes for Sinterklass's horse, they will be left some sweets or small presents. I am not Dutch, but this seems like such a lovely tradition that I thought I would make  some very tiny elf clogs, to contain sweets or nuts on the tree. My daughter tells me that her German friend leaves a boot on the front doorstep for Saint Nicholas to fill, even though she lives in England.





I am posting about this today because we are very close to the days, 5th/6thDecember when St. Nicholas's Day is celebrated. (Although in some countries it is celebrated on 19th December.)



 
The pattern is available on ravelry, Etsy, and will be on LoveKnitting. They are an easy knit, all in garter stitch, and with one small seam to sew.



I apologise for the huge number of photos. I have rather got a bit carried away with making these little shoes. I also wanted to show them before and after they have been decorated. They are such a quick make, but also great fun to decorate. I have embroidered with wool, and added some beads. I am sure they could be zhuzhed up in other ways. I would love to see what other people do with them.


I've taken most of these photographs at the front of my house, where I have a fir tree. Lots of curious looks from passers-by. So my only problem now is when I do put them on the Christmas tree (we don't have it yet as my husband like to leave it closer to the day), how to I stop one very greedy labrador getting to them. 

In fact the whole dog/Christmas thing is a bit of a worry. We don't go to town with decorations, but do always have a tree in the living room, with gifts around it. I would love any tips on how to do Christmas with a dog who will eat anything and everything. I suspect the answer is, "carefully".


 

7 comments:

  1. What a sweet idea.
    When we were growing up our dog was VERY greedy and we just had a small tree on a coffee table to get it up out of her way.
    My friend shared a photos of broken baubles just today with the caption "bloomin' dogs!"
    Good Luck!

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  2. So cute and look a fun pattern. Now dogs that eat everything! this is a hard one as so far Shiloh has found bits on the floor that we could not see, eaten then and made himself sick but will he learn? NO. We keep the sitting room door shut if we are not in there, that way the temptation is not in his eye line

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  3. Such a cute idea! I am Dutch and these would have been fun for my (now grown-up) kids to find hanging around the house in the morning.

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  4. Those are very cute and I love learning new traditions!

    Cindy

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  5. Those are so cute! As a parent of a dog who has grabbed and eaten a pizza out of the oven (the door was open long enough for me to turn around to grab pan holders,) a whole roast chicken off the counter, a whole roast off the stove top, more bags of bread than I can count off the top of the refrigerator (she LOVES carbs!) and multiple bowls of fruit and/or nuts (which she doesn't eat, she just chews and spits out)... I've learned that we do not decorate with food. When I make the elf shoes (and I will because they are adorable) they will be stuffed with cotton balls or balls of tin foil... and hung on the tree. We've also learned, after having our dear sweet little fur baby chew a hole through the closet door to get to her Christmas gifts, her gifts now stay in the spare refrigerator out in the garage until she's gone to bed Christmas Eve. Late that night, I take them out of the fridge to 'thaw' and we bring them into the house Christmas morning. Ah, the things we put up with for the ones we love.

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  6. They are too cute! I'm totally checking out the pattern because my daughter is going to want a few of these for her dolls. Thank you for sharing at The Really Crafty link Party. Pinned!

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  7. Those are so cute!! My dog is pretty good at leaving things alone if they're far enough our of his reach. Like, he'd stare at the tree, but not knock it over. Now if they were close enough to get to, he's totally pull them down.

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