Christmas and Craft Updates

I just have to show you two very special Christmas ornaments we received this year from my brother and SIL - and both were actually for our dog, Eco. The first one, a chocolate lab:

The second one, a squirrel! Isn't it adorable? I love his big bushy tail. What a unique ornament.

We have Eco so trained to the word squirrel that if we don't want her running outside and barking (crashing into a door if I don't open it fast enough), we just say the word "squee".

And here are two things that I made.

These litte chocolate ornaments are from a kit - I can't locate the card that came with it at the moment , but these ornaments look NOTHING like the photo. I don't think they look very good at all, and I don't necessarily think it was my craft skills to blame (not entirely anyway). Wait until I show you what they are supposed to look like!

And this little knitted bird called a "Chubby Chirp" - the pattern is from Danger Crafts  a very talented knitting designer, although I have to admit that I had troubles with the wings which start out with 8 stitches on double pointed needles, to be knit in the round. After about 8 failed attempts (including trying to do it with a crochet hook) I decided to do the first three rows as an i-cord instead of knitting in the round. It seems to have turned out about the same. I have never had a problem with knitting in the round on dpns before, but I've never tried with so few stitches. It just didn't look neat and I wasn't sure that I had not twisted it, which is glad I found advice from the book Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi* on how to start knitting in the round with only a couple of stitches.

I know the birdie appears crooked in this photo, but honestly, it's because he tilted just as I took the picture and I'm too lazy to set up my lightbox again to retake the photo.

And that's it for now. More tomorrow.

* I plan to knit  several items from this book soon, don't forget to return to see what I make!