A grandmother is entitled to knit Christmas gifts for her grandbabies – even if she has a rather ambitious load of knitting going already.  That said, I confess that I have added a duck to my Christmas knitting list.

My 18-month-old grand-daughter Gwen loves ducks.  She would like me to sing “Old MacDonald” non-stop – with nothing but ducks going “quack, quack” here and “quack, quack” there.  If I start to sing anything else, she looks me straight in the eye and says, “E-I-E-I-O Guck.”

So, since I am knitting a llama for her older brother, I will be knitting a duck for her.  The llama is my own improvised design, but I thought that there are probably some good duck patterns out there and why re-invent the wheel –er, duck?  So, I went on Ravelry and typed in “Toy Duck” in patterns and was rewarded with a veritable flock of ducks – personalities ranging from the goofy to the serene. 

I chose to follow up Mette Buchreitz’s “Ducks” because they looked realistic – and there are 2 sizes (mummy duck and duckling).  She sells the pattern through Etsy (knittingmette.etsy.com).  While I was waiting for the pattern to be emailed to me, I raided out Pelagia Fiber Arts stash for ducky yarns – and came up with  yellows, peaches, and oranges in a variety of textures. 

I now have the pattern in hand and the yarn all good to go.  But I am holding back because I could probably knit up a duck on Christmas Eve (in front of the recipient!) and really need to get my other projects done first.

So, that is about all I have to say about the duck.  Which is too bad because the only knitted gifts I can write about are the duck and llama (since Max and Gwen don’t read!).  I could write about Cape Christmas, but it is waiting in the wings while I work on that-about-which-I-cannot-speak.  And the Christmas Candy Tam, well, there has been enough mohair-rhapsody for a while!

The blog may be limited to llama parts for a while.  Hmm.

Well, sooo, maybe there is a reason to start the duck before Christmas Eve after all!