This is my longest ongoing knitting project and probably my favourite. Every year a few more figures arrive at the stable, and I'm almost there - just two shepherds and an ox to go.
A while back I thought I'd lost the donkey, so knitted another one, only to find the original in my daughter's My Little Pony House… and I'd forgotten how many sheep I'd made - a few have wandered out of shot (need another shepherd) - last year I found some fluffy white and brown yarn in a charity shop and got a bit carried away.
I used 'Knitivity' by Fiona Goble. Such a great book. The patterns are easy to follow and the knitting really isn't tricky. Probably the most time-consuming part is the robes, and you do need lots of different colours, which was never going to be a problem for me with my wool hoarding habit..
It's such a lovely thing to have - every year I forget quite how lovely, until we take the figures out of the box and set them on the hall table. Hopefully they'll be making an appearance for years to come.
I've a few old family Christmas decorations that are very dear to me - and who knows, maybe far into the future some small person will be asking his mum why Great Granny knitted so many sheep..