where on earth have I been?

It’s been a long time!  Sorry guys!  Well first Ben and I went away for two weeks, then a week after we got back we had our nephew and neices stay here for two weeks whilst parents went overseas, so that was busy but fun.  Then I’ve been catching up on stuff…

anyway, last week I made these:

just for a bit of fun and to dress up at our camp on the weekend.  What a hoot!  It took me four days to make both, but if I did them again there would be a couple of things I would do differently- the main one being that I would have started both helmets and the beard with foundationless chain instead of regular chain, especially for the beard, as that would have made it stretchier and easier to get on.  Also see how on Ben’s helmet the centre seam curves instead of going straight?  Well that was my fault- I thought I’d be clever and leave out what I thought was needless holes when the pattern said to skip a stitch, but it turned out that by doing that I would have been keeping the seam straight.  Anyway, it’s all a learning curve and a bit of fun, so never mind.

I used this pattern (unfortunately not free) for the helmets, plus I added some fluffy stuff around the horns.  It was a good pattern, and not hard to do.  I made the horns slightly longer, and for Ben’s helmet I did a few less rounds so it wasn’t as deep.

And then I used this free pattern for the beard.  But if you make it, start with foundationless chain is my recommendation!