Okay, I know it's not anywhere near Christmas, but...

I wanted to show you the Christmas Tree Angel I made. I got the general idea from a magazine somewhere. I don't remember which magazine, but that's okay, because I only used it as inspiration. I designed this myself. If there's enough interest, I'll refine the pattern and publish it.

The basic design started with a knitted tube; I used a light worsted weight yarn. I did some decreasing for the shoulders, and she does have a neck; you just can't see it well from the angle at which I took the picture. Then I increased for the base of the head, knitted even for a few rows, then rapidly decreased for the top of the head. Then I picked up stitches around the "waist" and started the over-skirt. The basic tube is just barely covered by the skirt. At the top of the skirt, there's only one purl stitch between each cable. I increased one stitch between each cable on the same round where I did the cable crossings. But when I was getting near the bottom of the skirt, I increased two stitches between each cable, which gives it that lovely flare at the bottom. The arms are I-cords. The hair is just attached using the "latch hook" technique that we all learned as kids, then I unplied the yarn to make it wavy. The belt is a crochet chain of fun fur, as is the halo. The wings were fun fur carried along with the plain yarn, to make them more dense than just fun fur alone. The smile was just backstitched on, and the eyes are drawn on, though I did consider using tiny beads for the eyes. And finally, I knitted a little piece with thin yarn on size 1 needles. And I transferred the live stitches to toothpicks, for the angel's needles; I used a dot of clear glue to keep the stitches from sliding off the needles.

I have plans for all sorts of Christmas decorations; this is just the first. I think one of our trees will be decorated with only handmade ornaments: knitted, felted, sewn, or otherwise handmade. I'm starting early, so I can get them all done. I think the next think I'll figure out will be a knitted garland of colorful "lights"...