Bastelesel

The traditional colours for these little felt dwarfs are red and white. Today I’ll suggest some other felt colours and another felting wool colour too. Draw hoody along breaking line on chosen felt according to pattern , cut out and sew top with backstitch. To close cape insert a thread with running stitch just below the hood and leave about 4 inches on each side to be knotted later. Then turn cape, take a skein of wool (about 5-6 inches) and make a knot in the middle of it. Now turn one loose end, place it over the knot and place the little figure under the hood. Arrange “head” and “body” beneath the cape and then fix the threads hanging on both sides of it. If necessary the wool at the bottom of your little dwarf has to be trimmed. If you want to suspend it on a little branch you need to fix a thin thread at the tip of its hood. The hood may also be closed on its outside with a button hole stitch. I’ve taken a bright stitching yarn for this and also for the closure of that little cape. I left 0.4 to 0.7 inches hanging down from the knot so that it looks like a little shawl.

I chose a brown outfit for that little imp I made to demonstrate the how-to-instructions. It matches very well with my other accessories and it even forms a nice contrast with the dark brown of the cone. My demonstration cone is about 2 inches high and has a diameter of 1.5 inches. Accordingly I took a wooden ball of 0.8 inches. If you take smaller or bigger cones you should alter the size of the head ball too. It’s best to take a ball with a hole at least on one side so that you can fix the head on the tip of the cone. Before that cut a collar of the brown felt and fold it in the middle. With a very smal cut you’ll have a little hole to put it over the tip.
You’ll find a pattern for collar and jelly bag cap here. They have to be adapted to the size of head and cone too. Take the quadrant, turn it to a cap and fix the sides with glue. Then place some cotton with a bit of glue around the head and a little ball of it on the tip of the cap. Take a ribbon of about 4 inches length as a shawl and tie it round the cone just beneath the collar. You may paint a face but it’s not essential.

Christmas is approaching and with it the search for Christmas gifts. What about a knitting loom for children but for grown ups as well. Without any precognition it’ll enable you to knit shawls, cuffs, pockets for cell phones and headbands. On one website I even found an instruction for a shawl with plait pattern. The wool is stretched between pegs and stitching can be started. Most sets include the knitting board, a crochet hook and 1-2 sorts of wool. For the first rows however I used my thick darning needle to slip the yarn. It’s really quite easy and with a little help of grown ups even kids being 8 or 9 years old will manage to knit. A wonderful gift for Christmas to be enhanced with some nice wool. Even more successful will be to give it together with a knitted shawl or headband knitted in advance.