Toy Soldier Christmas Ornament - Knitted

Before the pattern, I'd like to send my Family's love and condolences to the Families suffering from the Oklahoma Tornado. We have cried for you here today, seeing such devastation and loss of beautiful lives. Our thoughts are with you all xxoo.
                                                                ***********


This is a  little Toy Soldier Christmas Ornament 11cm tall . One of the ornaments I'm making for the Ravelry Christmas Group KAL

Materials
Scraps of 8ply / DK yarn in Black, Red, White, Flesh and a small amount of yellow for his uniform decoration.
Stuffing
Piece of gold thread or whatever you prefer to hang him from.
Pair of 3.25mm knitting needles.

His body is worked in one piece with the seam up the back. The arms are knitted and sewn on separately.
Always leave a a reasonably long thread at the cast on, cast off and colour changes of your work, to use when sewing up.

Body - Make 1
With 3.25mm needles, cast on 16sts.
St st 14 rows Black
Change to Red
St st 9 rows
Next Row - Still with Red,  P2 tog to end - 8sts, this makes his neck.
Change to Flesh and K 1 row
Next Row - Increase purlwise in every stitch to end - 16sts.
St st 4 more rows in Flesh
Change to Black and st st 6 rows.
Thread the yarn back through the stitches on the needle, take off, gather tightly and fasten off, leaving enough yarn to sew him up.

Arms - Make 2
With 3.25mm needles and White, cast on 7sts.
St st 2 rows White
Change to Red and st st 10 rows.
Thread back through stitches on needle, gather tightly and fasten off.

Making Up
Sew in any threads you won't be using for sewing up.
With right side facing out, Start at the top of his head and sew down the back seam, using each colour thread, to sew up each colour as you go. Leave bottom of legs open for stuffing.

Stuff him, through the bottom opening. Don't over stuff him, you'll be sewing a line of stitching down the centre to divide his legs.It will be easier if his legs aren't too "fat" :-)
Oversew across the bottom seam, with the body seam running down the back.

Do all his body decorative stitching now before you attach his arms.

With Black yarn, sew a line of backstitching from the bottom, up the middle of his black trousers, pulling the stitches in to define his two legs. Stop about 1cm from the top of his trousers.

With White, sew a backstitch up the outside of each leg.

With Yellow, sew 4 long stitches across his Red coat.
Sew his chin strap on in black, and for his moustache either use a 1ply unravelled from your yarn or some embroidery cotton.
Start in the centre of his face, sew an upside down V to one side, thread back to the centre and do the other side the same.

And no eyes Yay we all hate doing eyes don't we lol.

Arms - they don't need stuffing, with right sides facing out, fold arm in half, sew down seam from the top and across his white gloves.
With the seam at the back, sew his arms to the body at the sides. I started stitching from about halfway up the red on the arm, around the top and back down halfway at the back, and left the rest of his arm loose.

Thread a hanging thread through the top of his hat and he's all done.
                                                          © Jennifer Stacey 2013

If you love Christmas Knitting, you might like these 2 Christmas Knitting Books. I haven't reviewed them but they caught my eye because the patterns make up a little display for the Mantlepiece or Christmas Table, with all the characters from the popular Christmas Story and Carol. Have a look :-)
Twas The Knits Before Christmas-Fiona Goble

I love this next one, I could see all the characters sitting on the Mantlepiece in line, waiting for each of the 12 days of Christmas to pass, or better still in a garland!
Twelve Knits Of Christmas Fiona-Goble

Thanks for visiting 

Jen

The Clock Tower Tour

Our Brisbane City Hall has undergone a major restoration, closing in  January 2010, so lasting just over 3 years! The City Hall reopened about a month ago.

The building built in the 1920's and opening in 1930 had severe concrete cancer and foundation problems, literally being built on a swamp.

The restoration was crucial, or else the whole building, steeped in Brisbane history and tradition, would have eventually been lost.

There is a 3 part documentary about the history and restoration of City Hall. It's called Soul Of Brisbane. The 3rd part aired on Channel 9 Saturday afternoon.

The first 2 episodes can be seen 

HERE - Episode 1

and HERE - Episode 2

The 3rd Episode won't be available until June, which annoyed me a little, because after a big morning at knit group at Yarn Over, then from there, a trip to WAC, then a stop to buy food for a Barbie that night...I nodded off on the lounge, and missed the end of it :-(.

But it still prompted us to go in Sunday for a look around. I won't bore you with all the pics, I'll put some up daily on my little Brisbane photo gadget thingy to the right.

I will show you the pics from the Clock Tower Tour. In all my 50 years, I've never gone up the Clock Tower! 

Leaving from the 3rd floor where the Museum of Brisbane is situated, the tickets are free, but you just need to secure one for the 15 minute session, as the lift only holds 8.

You can have a look at the Museum, while you wait.

The lift is the original lift from 1930, restored and overhauled... hopefully :-)

So this is the City Hall, and the Clock Tower,
The 1st photo above was taken from behind the clock faces. The lift stops halfway for a photo opportunity from the lift.
Once at the top, there is a flight of stairs to get to the viewing platform...

Here we are looking down at the city and the church we were married in, the Albert St Uniting.

Looking up to the pillars,

and the bells that toll every hour and chime every quarter. The large bell has names written inside it, from the workmen that worked on them over the past 80 years. The habit was eventually frowned upon and prohibited, as old "Larrikin" Brisbane became a bit more proper lol.

Likewise, the beautiful copper dome of the Auditorium had to be completely replaced during the restoration. Since the tower opened to visitors, people would throw coins down from the observation deck on to the dome and make a wish. With the softness of copper and the weight of a penny thrown from that height, there were dents all over the dome.

One more shot of the city. You don't get a great deal of time up there, less then 10 mins so start taking you photos as soon as you get there.

You'll have to do the tour, to find out the story about the very top copper piece on top of the Clock Tower.
When we left, Joel and I remembered to turn around and have a look at it, as we were walking up to the car, and we both said in unison - Oh yeah I see lol.
Jen.

Finders Keepers - Smoking Clog, Dress Up & Nice Rock Revisited

Smoking Clog

Picked this up today actually, didn't realise straight away that it's an ashtray, but an ashtray it is.

I don't smoke, but couldn't go past it (it was rather cheap), being quite large, about 7 inches long, and it has a Delft  marking on the back not unsimilar to my Dutch Tile here

Dress Up

One of my favourite Op Shop finds is this amazing Fancy Dress book. 

Published 1983, but I suppose we all dressed up in the 80's -  Adam Ant, Madonna...all those layers, all those frills!

My kids are so thankful I found it only recently, and not when they were 5 and then subjected them to unspeakable Dress Up Horror. Shame, they would have been the best dressed at Book Week.

The costumes here are just brilliant - future Grandkiddies look out!

Hannah

I don't know if writing this is helping me or not but -
Our beautiful girl Hannah was sadly put to sleep, late Tuesday. She would have turned 15 on the 22nd of June 2013.

She was a Fox Terrier / Border Collie X, but she was only a little bigger than a Foxy. Her whole life she was mistaken for a puppy because she was so damn cute! She loved playing ball, going for walks, Schmackos (a dog treat) and she loved us!

She would speak