Tuesday 27 September 2011

It's a baby!


The title is taken from one of my favourite Christmas story books Jesus' Christmas Party by Nicholas Allen. It has been turned into a Nativity play by thousands of schools, as it is such a good version of the story,  from a grumpy inn-keeper's point of view.
My sister-in-law introduced me to the story many, many years ago, as she is a teacher too. She works at a special needs unit attached to a main stream school, and last year asked me to knit a nativity for her class to use, so much of last autumn was spent working on that project. It was finished and given as a birthday present (stupidly I forgot to photograph it - but it was the Jean Greenhowe one.) The children loved it, but she was asked where was the donkey and the angel?
So for this year's birthday Sister-in-Law has a donkey, an angel and a sack to store them all in. The donkey was another Jean Greenhowe pattern I found to go with the Nativity set. The angel is using her pattern and my imagination.

The angel
If you want to knit one she is based on Joseph's figure - white body, cream sleeves and sash. Her hair is knitted in yellow using Josep's hair pattern.
The halo is made from double knit using two strands, cast on 50 stitches, 1 row purl, cast off knit wise. Join the ends together. This is so thick it will hold it's shape well and then can be attached to the back of the head to stand out. I attached mine to the sides as well to make it extra secure for the children.

I love this fabric
This is the fabric I used for the sack to story all the figures in, I just love the colours and the expressions.
Happy Birthday Sister-in-Law.

Jo x

3 comments:

Cuckoo said...

You are such a clever knitter! These are fabulous, Jo xxx

Caroline Lovis (Redneedle) said...

What a lovely idea I bet the children loved playing with them.

Unknown said...

I love story bags and what a great way to store them. The toys are so beautifully crafted - clever you!