Elijah -- December 2007

So the bag's not my fourth finished item of 2007 (it is meandering along, about halfway there I reckon), but I have something else to show you instead.

Last year my Christmas project (Christmas being the only time of year, really, where I have several days for uninterrupted knitting -- I do love coming home to the family fold at this time of year!) was a pair of raspberry cabled socks, and the year before it was rainbow ones (my first pair, no less). But this year, I made this little fellow.

I LOVE HIM. Unfortunately, much as I want to, I can't keep him because he's not for me -- he is a Christmas present for my goddaughter (she of the alphabet blanket -- in lovely serendipity I had just enough of that same yarn left over to make Elijah, and I have been keeping it ever since the blanket until I found an appropriate way of using it up, hurrah!).

The pattern is just brilliant (Ysolda, if you see this, you are a wonder!) and making him has been so tremendously satisfying. Each section is completed as you go, so he literally grows under your fingertips and once done, no finishing! My whole family has enjoyed watching him take shape: head, body, a leg here, an arm there. The ears were the most fun but the whole thing was lovely to make. There is a good chance that I will make another one.

Until I have to give him up, though, I'm going to have fun with him while I can.