Gnomes Part II - Old Man Eyebrows

 I've been stitching up dozens of little shirts for my gnome project, and after all that small tedious work it's time to stab something!

These are the heads for the gnomes, needle felted for maximum cute. I start out by needle felting a ball of skin colored wool roving (pale if you please, these are men of the far north!) into a roughly spherical shape. I make it a little more boxy and oval as I add details. At this stage it's not super densely packed.

I add the shaping of a face, first the indents for eyes, then the line of the mouth. Connect them with lines around the nose spot. I felted the sides down to make the cheeks round and full, and the brows fairly stuck-out. I then rolled up a very small ball and added that as a nose.

At that point it's time to add details - two little eyes in brown or green. A beard is made from Wensleydale curly locks in white or grey, and the shorter bits make some hair. The fluffy eyebrows are what make these little old men... well... old. (Sorry Dad, but you could shade your eyes with those brows of yours!)

There's no need for hair on top of the head, the tomté's wee red hat will cover it all, and keep them from being accidentally eaten by a friendly critter. Next step will be to put them all together with felted leggings, wee mittens, and leather boots! Stay tuned... same gnome time, same gnome channel.

I'm a Granny... Square Maker!

 After at least a month of crochet I finally turned a pile of random yarns into a pile of random squares. Fifty of them to be exact. Which gave me a huge sense of accomplishment, followed by the crushing realization that I need to assemble them to actually have a blanket. (Can't we teach the baby to do that itself?)

 I first had to find a properly neutral yarn to tie it all together,  the Sweet Grape from Malabrigo won out as the best choice. Then I edged each square in single crochet.

I laid out the squares in piles of five, trying not to clump similar colors too much. I'm just a little OCD, so it's best for me to not plan everything too closely, that way madness lies..

Then all the strips are stitched together...

Tadaaa! All those random brights and lovely purples blended into a wildly colored blanket. I expect I will use the rest of the Grape yarn to trim the outer edge in a double crochet or such.

Of course, just after taking this photo I spotted one last pile of five squares, the cat had been sleeping on them for a few days. So glad I didn't trim the blanket yet...

What's the biggest thing you've ever crocheted or knitted?