Seaside Christmas

No, I'm not at the seaside. Given the recent weather in Britain, I am perhaps quite pleased not to be at our windblown coast. I just thought I would post a few pictures of my own Christmas tree, with some of my knitted sea creatures that I have made into decorations.

It might seem a bit strange to have sea creatures on your tree. When I created most of these patterns I did not intend them as Christmas ornaments. (The exception is the sand dollar, which was a special request for Christmas.) But the scallop shell, sand dollar, star and fish do all have symbolic a link to Christianity, so perhaps it does seem apt to find them on a tree at this time of year.

There are links to my patterns for all these creatures on ravelry in my left sidebar.

Hedgehogs

Another group of little presents, which I have made for my daughter to give to some of her friends for Christmas. They are knitted from Raynor Gellatly's Harry Hedgehog Pattern, which I found in her free patterns on ravelry, and they are very easy to make. 

I made some small ones following the pattern exactly, and larger ones by just increasing for two extra rows. I might have a go at making some even larger ones. I think they are really cute. She also gave one to her teacher and says it sits on his desk now, next to a ladybird.

Pohutukawa

I promised one more fairy, and here she is. She is called Pohutukawa, and is for my friend from New Zealand. My friend is not going home to New Zealand this year, so I am hoping she will remind her of home (in a good way) and not make her too sad.

She is the fairy of the pohutukawa tree (Metrosideros excelsa), which is known as the New Zealand Christmas tree. I had a lot of fun researching the flowers of New Zealand, before discovering her. She lives in this little red velvet bag.

Snowflake

This is Snowflake. I found the wool for her hair in the bottom of my stash. No idea where it came from, but it is just perfect for this vibrant girl. Her dress is much more blue than it looks in this picture.

She lives in this sparkly, embroidered bag. I love embroidering snowflakes, as you can quite legitimately make every one different.

The other fairies of my self-imposed Fairy Week are, Dandelion, Holly, Christmas Fairies and Lily.

There will be one more fairy, but since she is a gift for a friend I will not show her quite yet.

Lily

Meet Lily, the next of fairy of Fairy Week. She is a very special fairy, for a girl whose name you can probably work out. 

When I was asked to make her I started researching lilies. So many types: water lilies, lily of the valley, tiger lilies. In the end I decided to make a calla or arum lily. It is so distinctive and cannot be mistaken for any other flower. As well as the lily on her hat, she has a little lily to carry.

The other fairies so far are Dandelion, Holly, and the Christmas Fairies.

Who will tomorrow's fairy be?

Christmas Fairies

Here as promised are two fairies today. No flowers this time, they are simply Christmas Fairy Friends. I am going to put them in Etsy together, and have made and embroidered a slightly larger drawstring bag, which fits them both.

I'm still having problems with the light in my photographs. I really hate flash, so had to rush up to the top of the house to try and photograph them directly under the skylight. "Can't talk children, I've got to photograph fairies."

You can also see the other fairies in Fairy Week, Dandelion and Holly, and there will be more tomorrow.

Holly

So it is Day Two of my attempt to have a new fairy every day this week, and I am already slightly regretting my rash promise. Dandelion was yesterday's fairy. Holly is a much more Christmassy Fairy. She has holly leaves for wings, and some bright red berries on her hat.  

I sat up quite late last night doing the embroidery on her bag. The dupion silk has a lovely rough quality, and although once again the light is not good for photographs, I think my photos do show the real (not too brash) gold colour.

I really wanted to photograph her with a sprig of holly, and although there is a lovely holly tree with lots of berries in someone's garden in my road, I was too chicken to reach over and pick a sprig. My daughter was extremely embarrassed that I even considered doing this, so instead I hope her fluffy dressing gown gives a snowy background.

There will be no fairies on Sunday, but hopefully on Monday (light being suitable) there will be a duo.

Dandelion

Meet Dandelion. She is not very seasonal, I know, but I have some more fairies (some of whom are a bit more Christmassy), and am going to feature them all over the next week. Hopefully there will be a new one to see each day. I started off thinking I will make angels, but they have ended up being fairies again. 

My problem has been photographing them, as the light does not seem good before I go to work, or when I get back.

 

For some reason I keep humming Barry Manilow's Copacabana. Can't think why! She just looks like a bit of a show girl to me. She is off to Etsy later today, where I have had a bit of a run of sales on my fairies recently.