Getting ready for Christmas, so here is a small reindeer collection. 

I guess I officially have to admit to a new addiction in knitting the Animal Friends from Louise Crowther's  pattern book.  These are Noah The Horse, Amelia The Duck, Bella The Cat, Maisie The Pig and Dorothy The Mouse. I have finished the 5 that I love the most and I'm keeping these for myself! (I will knit new ones if someone requests it). They fit perfectly, sitting together on the picture ledge in the spare room. I leave the door open so I can see them everytime I walk by. As a special request I made these 2 for my sister in Holland. I'm not flying there myself just yet (hopefully next year!), but these friends are ready to travel in a few weeks with another family member. I know she will love them as much as I do!  These are Dorothy The Mouse and Tilly The Hare

I just wanted to do something different than the regular Little Cotton Rabbits. No matter how cute they are it sometimes becomes a little boring if you do them all the time. So on to a new challenge from the Knitted Animal Friends book by Louise Crowther. These animals are at least 2x as tall (about 45cm) as my regular bunnies, so quit a lot more work and yarn involved. But well worth it though! I had already made Holly the Hedgehog for my granddaughter a little while ago so I decided on Noah the Horse this time.  And boy, is he cute!! As soon as I posted the finished product I had a lot of positive comments. Already making a 2nd one. And I'm planning on making Amelia the Duck and Dorothy the Mouse for sure. And who knows which other ones. I'm having fun!

Only a couple of days to go before the start of the big soccer event Euro2021 (postponed from last year because of the pandemic). Of course I'm going to be cheering on the Orange team.  According to the entire Dutch population they'll need all the help they can get and they probably won't get far in the tournament.  So I made this Dutch Lion as a good luck mascot. Let's hope he is up for the job. No matter what happens I will be enjoying the games!

 It's close to Easter so I'm knitting bunnies, bunnies and more bunnies. Started early February because I figured I'd have lots of time and wouldn't be too stressed. At some point it got to be pretty hectic anyway but now (with about 2 weeks to go) I'm all caught up and things have relaxed a little. I did at least 40 and have a couple more to go but the end is in sight. I have so much fun doing this and it's great to get all the happy reactions, so it's all worth it. Hope everyone is going to have a Happy Easter (fingers crossed that it's the last one during a pandemic!) Here is a small sample of the production from this year and a link to the complete Bunny+ show

This buck was done on request as a Christmas gift, a challenging pattern but turned out very nice in the end! I actually liked him so much that I ended up making another for myself, in browns this time. I had this yarn for quite a while already and I ran out of the main colour (no chance of buying more because I don't even know what brand it was) so I decided to do the belly in cream and the legs in a little lighter brown. He looks very nice and I'm happy with the result. The pattern is White Buck from Claire Garland

Sadly it's not going to be a Christmas like other years.  The pandemic is not getting better yet (but vaccination has started!) so it's just a very small amount of people allowed to get together right now.  I finished my Christmas crafts and decorating,  I hope it's enough to make me feel festive despite everything.  We're looking forward to better times to come again in 2021