That Festive Feeling

Well, it's official, it's December so that festive feeling is allowed to take control over the next month... or more!
And what does the 1st of December signal? Opening of the first door of an advent calendar usually. But no such luck for me, as I am calendar-less this year (if anybody wants to send me one feel free!) Little P was lucky enough to get one, but as she is allergic to dairy products (poor girl) she had to settle for a picture one. Which, in fairness is all I ever had as a child as I wasn't allergic to chocolate! She was ecstatic to open the first door, only problem was, she didn't want to stop... so up on the mantlepiece that went, out of reach of little hands!
But, alas do not fear, I did not go without a treat as, right on cue as usual, my package from Deramore's arrived, bursting open with colourful yarn! And it was totally fair to treat myself and stock up, as they had a good offer of 15% off aran weight yarn.... time to stock up Rico Creative Cotton!

In the package was Rico Essentials Cotton DK in Chocolate, much needed to finish my second reindeer. I wrote up my pattern after I finished the first prototype design, and began on another run-through to check it over. And the little guy had already found himself a home before I even made the first stitch, winner!

I ran out of the brown yarn frustratingly near to the end, but ordered some more and it was here the next day (great quick service from Deramore's!) So this afternoon, I sat down to finish him off. I made a couple of tweaks to the original pattern but it worked fine and I was pleased with the result. I also added so plastic pellets to the stuffing in the body to help him stand better. And as I'm feeling utterly festive, I also added a bell around his neck. Ding dong.
So the pattern is now typed up, looking pretty as a shiny PDF to download, please see top-right corner for a link to the page!
It is the first pattern I have properly written up, so please feel free to let me know if anything is a miss!

A frosty looking Ronald complete with bell...

Yes, that is the white stuff. Just a dusting this morning, but enough to get the little lady excited! It was the first time she's really seen it as she was far too young last year. All she kept saying was 'snoooo woooow'. Now I am actually looking forward to proper snow so I can take her out to play, but we never seem to get too much here, which is probably a good thing as it just causes chaos!

So now, back to the mystery Archer crochet-along by FreshStitches.... it has got me baffled. I'm nearly finished clue 3, and I literally have no idea what it can be. Thursday signals the release of the final clue, which we have been informed, contains no crochet, just assembly.... so I have all the pieces now, just got to figure out how to put them together. FreshStitches has done an amazing job with this, you would think it would be easy to tell what you are making when you have all the bits, but far from it. And I'm not alone... those in the Ravelry group seem to be in the same boat. I've seen some good interpretations but nothing that says 'yep, that's what it is!'

So I'm off to maybe squeeze in a bit of hooking before bed. Poor little P is under the weather again (I hate these winter germs!) and she has only just settled down, so I won't be far behind her tonight!

Until next time...