Beads turned out to be quite a challenge, not the least of which was finding suitable beads to begin with! Most of what I already had, had holes too small for yarn. But I've been playing with them anyway, here are a couple I made with what I had. I have also bought some craft beads with larger holes.
The one on the left has some crystals at the tips of the snowflakes, I'm not sure you can see it, but it sure catches the light. I'm not sure about the "hula skirt" of pearls on the right. It seemed like a good idea in my mind.
Not wanting to get slowed down too much by the bead dilemmas, I proceeded to knit these as well, from patterns in Arne and Carlos's book. The one on top is a "Christmas pig". It's a German thing, what can I say. It was in the book.
And working from a pattern I purchased thanks to a link from Blonde Knitter, I came up with these. We all love the mousie (left), but the bird (right) is not so convincing. In the yarn I used, we all think it looks more like a lamb.
My sister-in-law gave me another ornament pattern book for Christmas. She just went on a trip to Germany, so it's in German, but if you click on the row of pictures on this web page you'll get the idea. They're very different, less about color work and more about stitch patterns. Because many of them are lacy, they're worked over unbreakable metallic ornaments, not just stuffed. More ideas to explore. By next Christmas you may have to shovel your way around the house through the ornaments!
I'm off of work now until Jan. 2. Time to knit!
