Christmas in July - Project Yarnway update

Still participating in The Project Yarnway Challenge over on Ravely.  July's challenge is "to create a design that you will be glad to have on hand this holiday season. Whether that means something that is fast to make and will appeal to many different people, something very special you will be glad you have made ahead of time, something decorative (or useful!) for the festivities, or a little something for yourself…is up to you"

I went for fast.  After the beach cover up in June, I only had fast left in me.

I came up with a simple star shape to be felted.  This is knit flat, in garter, with no seaming until the felting is complete and you whip the two pieces together with thread.  The thread sinks into the felt so it doesn't even have to be neat.
Here's the original knit piece pre-felting:

I knit two of these out of some Brown Sheep Company Lamb's Pride Bulky that I had in my stash (thanks Mom), hand felted both in the sink and stitched them together with some stuffing in between.  Added a little knit cap, some eyes, and then needle felted on some of the fiberfill stuffing for a beard.  Now, all along, I was going for a "Folksy Santa," but after adding the eyes -he came out looking more like one of those little Japanese dolls.  So here he is -

Santamigurumi  

He was a really fast, easy and fun knit.  He's about 7"across after felting.  Going to work on some different options for the beard, as not everyone has access to needle felting tools.  Also going to try him in different yarn weights because I think he might be even cuter if he was fairly small. 

The runway voting is open from August 1-15 on ravelry here.  Check it out - there are always amazing designs posted on both the professional and the amateur runways.

I'll be working up the pattern for this guy, getting it test knit and edited in the next week or so.   

And a plug for Brown Sheep Company.  They are based in Nebraska, and have announced that they are improving their waste water management system and will be reusing 90% of their waste water for production.  Still looking for additional information on their progress, and what kind of improvement this represents over their former practices - but hey, at least they are recognizing the issue.