Knitter's Almanac, August

EZ designed her Christmas decorations while she was camping (I nearly typed 'on a camping holiday', but I am of the conviction that camping, when done properly, with a tent and no facilities, isn't a holiday) one August, so that is where they appear in the Almanac, under the heading Christmas Fiddle Faddle in the Wilds. I started knitting some of these last December, but didn't get enough done in time and now I can't find them anyway, so I've started over again. They're fun to do because they're so quick and because they're tiny, you don't have a great mass of warm wool on your lap. They require next to no concentration so they can be executed while you’re sitting round the campfire or lazing on the beach.

EZ just gives instructions for stars, but after I had done a couple in white yarn I realized that they should be snowflakes, so I added another 11 stitches for the extra point. The aqua ones are Rowan's Kid Classic, in a discontinued colour that I've forgotten the name of, but it's very icy. I can't decide if they should five points or six. Are they stars or snowflakes? The tiny snowflake is a white sock yarn speckled with red and blue and yellow. The fluffy blue snowflake is La Gran Mohair. The red stars are Lorna’s Laces Worsted in Bittersweet. The huge fluffy white snowflakes are a mohair yarn which I found in my stash and can't really remember much about, but I just love the result. I'm going to make a lot more of those. I don't have any Kidsilk Haze in an appropriate colour but I think it would make fab snowflakes too.

You could felt these. I didn’t bother: I just pinned them to my ironing board and blasted them with steam.

For some unfathomable reason I enjoy doing the stars and snowflakes much more than I enjoy doing the Christmas trees. Maybe I'm just not that into green. If you can find a green yarn tweeded with red, they look like Christmas trees which have been decorated, which is cool. Maybe if I find a good yarn I'll do more trees, but for just now I'm sticking to snowflakes. Huge fluffy ones.

And next I’m going to try the Angel.