Getting a Jump on Christmas

I am lucky to belong to a very active knitting guild. We have a lot of talented members who are generous with their time and talent — which makes it more fun for everyone. And with over 100 members, there is always a group ready and willing to participate in whatever comes down the pike -- including flights of knitting whimsey.

Two of our members — Kimberly & Michele — showed up at the guild Christmas party with The Cutest Holiday Purses Ever — snowman bags. They were definitely the most talked-about items of the night! So of course, those lucky members were recuited, um..., volunteered on the spot to lead a Snowman Purse knit-along as the January guild program.

The original pattern was published in the November 2006 issue of Creative Knitting, and back issues are not available. So the guild contacted the publisher, and received permission to make 25 copies of the pattern for use by our members for purposes of the knit-along.

We started off knitting together at our monthly project night, then continued as a knit-along on the guild Yahoo group. Most of us finished our snowmen by the February guild meeting, but there are a few more still in the works. I did not get a photo of the 15-or-so completed projects, but each was as individual as its creator, and each one had a personality all its own.

This is my freshly-knitted snowman before felting.

After felting.

Drying time: it's stuffed with plastic bags, shaped with rubberbands at the hatband and the scarf top.

Embellishing was the most fun. I found some faceted square buttons that I thought looked sorta like coal, and needlefelted the eyebrows and part of the mouth. The nose is a triangle — knitted, felted, rolled up, and stitched into a carrot shape. I used buttons to highlight the mouth, and a big button as the flap closure. I knit and felted some holly leaves and sewed them to the flap on either side of the buttonhole. I Fray-Chek'ed the edges of the buttonhole just to be safe.

And now it's ready and waiting for the holiday season to roll around again! (And there are a couple more of these cuties already in progress for gifts for deserving relatives.) :) BTW-- several of our group have come up with ideas for some fun variations of this pattern for other seasons -- a jack o'lantern, for instance. Or an Uncle Sam. Anyway, I don't think we've seen the last of whimsical holiday purses in our guild...