Christmas gifts

Let me begin by saying that I have never understood the craze that recently swept the nation, leading to meerkat-related items appearing in every shop, on every website and in people’s homes. Yes, they are cute little animals, but still I refuse to become obsessed with them.

So why did I make one? I was asked to, in a round-about sort of way.

Let me explain. Hubby and I have been regularly visiting a nice little bookshop in town that sells very cheap books. You never know what you’re going to find in there, so we go in from time to time (about once a week or so) to see what’s what. While visiting this lovely establishment, we have become quite friendly with the young lady who works there. Last week when we went in, she was drawing a picture of some meerkats for her partner’s grandmother, who loves meerkats, as a Christmas present. She had been into all the shops in town and couldn’t find anything even remotely related to the cute little critters, and so she was drawing a picture. I thought it was wonderful, but she was not happy with it at all. As we were leaving, she was stressing over the picture and so I suggested that I could crochet a meerkat for her to give to her partner’s grandmother. The look of unexpectant anticipation was a picture in itself and so I agreed that I would crochet a meerkat and bring it into the shop this week.

So off I went and bought some safety eyes (2 pairs just in case) and some yarn and then when we got home I downloaded a free pattern for a meerkat that looked rather lifelike. That pattern is available here. I crocheted frantically for two days and made this:

Not quite what I had in mind... — Not quite what I had in mind…

I am not sure if any creature on God’s Earth resembles this poor, deranged and deformed Womble, but if it does I feel nothing but sympathy for it.

So now I had a problem: five days to find another pattern or create one myself. I decided upon the latter and came up with this little chap:

Crochet meerkat designed by my good self — A meerkat!

I am so pleased with the results! He was quite photogenic so I took a few photos:

Well, as I am a kind soul who believes in sharing, I am writing up the notes I jotted down during my creative spurt and will be publishing the pattern here shortly – hopefully before the weekend is out! I will write a post to let you know he is available, and you will find a new tab at the top entitled Free Patterns.

So I took both the meerkat and the Womble into the bookshop and our new friend was enchanted! She asked if she might keep the Womble and named him “Mob”. Of course I agreed, and she assures me that when she goes to Italy next year, she will take photos of Mob at all the landmarks and we can see the photos upon her return! I can’t wait!

I like to hand-make a gift for each of my loved ones at Christmas, but this year I was a little stumped as to what to make for the men. However, when issue 12 of Simply Crochet landed on my doormat last month, my worries were dispelled as I found Joanne Scrace’s wonderful Solid as a Rock pattern for hat, scarf and mitts. Problem solved! I had to wait a few weeks to order the yarn, and then when I did so I mis-remembered how many skeins I needed and ordered six of each colour in stead of four. So when I had completed Ms Scrace’s pattern, I found myself with two surplus balls of each colour. What did I do? Well, I improvised of course! I used the granite stitch pattern to make a pair of socks for each of the men in my life. Wanna see some photos? Of course you do!