I decided to add this post to document the ornaments I made with all the bits and bobs I picked up along the C2C way. As we walked along the trail I tried to think of what kind of Christmas ornament I could make with sheep wool, pinecones and pebbles that I had carried from one coast to the other in my backpack. It wasn't until I got home that I settled on needle-felting backpacking gnomes.
I started off with some core wool to form the bodies of the little gnomes.
Then I began to add the sheep wool I had picked up in the shop in Grasmere. It came with a label saying which farm it came from and where it went to become the bag of wool I purchased.
Next came the hands
followed by noses and the little hats, with pinecone tips and walking sticks
backpacks were felted around the pebbles then felted onto the gnomes with straps
Finally, the beards went on
all their little backpacks and name tags
They were named from the hamlets we visited along the way.
I decided to felt a hare for Jo Anne as a memory of the epic undertaking we had completed, and a few little herdwick sheep that look like the sheep from which the wool came. All were tucked into little sacks I made with paint, stamped muslin pieces and more sticks to hold a Christmas greeting.
I also included a little card explaining the gnomes.
