Little Drummer Boy- or not so little?

 This is the story of a little drummer boy in crochet who was made in China but who in the last week or so gained a slightly bigger brother... This is the brother? It is dedicated to a lady who asked me for a pattern , which I did not have at the time, but the other weekend I had a number of problems and ''issues'' and in order to escape and relax I took time out and made a drummer boy in crochet....
So: this is dedicated to Vi Anderson who wanted to make one?
But a wee bit of news first:

 First we spend an amazing ( a bit loud and noisy for me) at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park which will be in a later post. This fabulous leather embossed and locked diary came from there: very Harry Potter I thought.

 We have had a great many lovely fires in the past 10 days, most of which I have missed as I was in my study working or studying or hiding.

 Pippa is in dire need of grooming but she does look so cuddly when she's ''shaggy''?

 Lots of blonde curls on her legs.

 I'm she's not impressed by a camera this close and shifts slightly...

 Then a bit more...

 And a bit more, are you not going to give me  a treat then?

 Look at those eye brows!

 Last year's ''blue'' hyacinths from M&S have come back in the past few days and very rapidly too...ONE

 TWO

THREE!

 And a tiny wee robin, or two  were made for friends at work- see Ravelry for pattern.

 I almost made this gingerbread house, but Miss E is going to bake us a real one this year so I daren't?

 And I really want to crochet a nativity scene but haven't made my mind up which one yet- more later

 And the new Jaquie Lawson advent calendar had us joyfully making snowflakes again:

 Sorry, were you waiting? Shall we get started then?
You'll need DK wool or cotton and a  3mm and 3.5 mm hook, flesh and uniform colours in the yarn and toy stuffing: I used Sirdar snuggly in the flesh colour and the rest is  DK BONUS from Hayfield as I had it lying around.
You need: black, navy,red,white,flesh colour, beige, brown and Glitter yarn from TEXERE yarns or gold metallic crochet thread ( ochre or yellow at a pinch) and red, dark brown and black embroidery floss
www.texereyarns.co.uk or google them

 Here's the Chinese little drummer that I used to be inspired by...
I didn't count stitches and rows so mine ended up unique and a bit bigger?
LEGS AND BODY : from the boot upwards.
Start with black: ch 2, 6 dc in 2nd ch from hook.
R2: 1 dc in 1 dc  twice then 2dc in 1 dc, repeat to finish. so 8 dc in total.. can either spiral up or do a ss to close and mover up each row.
Now work 2 rows as 8dc in the black and change to navy blue.
3 rows as 8dc in navy.
 Now inc in the 3rd st around, so* 1 dc in 1dc then 2dc in the next dc and repeat from * to end. ( 12 sts)
work 4 rows as 12 dc and stop. put working loop on hold with a stitch holder. Break yarn and make the other leg.
When you have worked the second leg to the same extent: work 6 st of the current leg, then 12 sts of the first leg  starting with the working loop that was on hold- working in a large circle- and finish connecting them by working 6 sts of the second leg.
Now work 3 rows of 24 dc ( 24 sts).
Change to red: work 3 rows in red.
Change to white: work 1 row in white.
Change to red and work 1 row in red. ( 24 sts).
Now we start decreasing at the sides to create the sloped sides that allow room for the arms.

 Over the next 7 rows we decrease from 24 sts to 10 sts.
So work 11 dc as normal then dc2tog then the next 10 dc and dc 2 tog at the opposite side.
so you decrease across the stitches at the sides only, first row it's stitch 12 and 13 and stitch 24 and 1st from next row. then you repeat this on every pair of side stitches on every row.
Then you can stuff him right down from his boots to his neck.

 Now you can either make the head next or the arms? I made the head.
HEAD
With flesh colour: ch2( or do a magic ring) , work 6dc in 2nd dc from hook and pull tight so there's no hole.
R2: work 2dc in each dc so 12 sts.
R3: * Work 1dc, then 2dc in 1 dc, repeat around. ( 18 sts)
R4 : * Work 1dc in 1 dc twice then 2dc in 1 dc , repeat from * ( 24 sts)
R5-8 work  1dc in each dc: 24 sts.
r9: work 1dc on 1 dc for 3 sts then work 2dc in 4th st.( 30 sts)
r 10 -11: work 1 dc in each dc: 30 sts.
R 12 on wards doing the reverse of the rows 2-9
R 12: work 3 dc normal then work 2dctog, repeat around.
R 13-14 Work 24 dc
R 15 ( like row 4 in reverse) work 1 dc in 1 dc twice then work 2dctog and repeat around.( 18 sts)
Stuff the head and now keep stuffing slightly while you finish the head.
R16 - work 1 dc in 1dc, then 2dctog, repeat around.
R17: work dc 2 tog around and close, fasten off.

ARMS: these are quite tricky and I'm not convinced I got them quite right, but I had a go.

I used a 3mm hook for these and after the magic circle in flesh yarn: work 4 dc in a spiral for 3 rows increasing to 5 sts in row 3..

Then 1 row in red: 5 dc.

1 row in gold glitter yarn from Texere( a 4ply I think) increasing the stitches to 6 dc as you go.

then back to red and spiralling with 6 dc for 6 rows.

If you want a bicep you increase to 8dc in the next two rows or you leave it at 6 sts .

Then you decrease back to 4 dc over the next 4 rows. Fasten off , work in all ends except one long red end at the top of the arm. Stuff. Sew onto sides of body at the top and slightly down the shoulder/raglan crease at the back or they may stick out too much?

Sew head to body also.

 If you have a bare neck, crochet IN RED  a 23 ch and dc back across this, wrap it round the neck and sew in place as mandarin uniform collar.

Have fun embroidering the horizontal bands in gold across the centre of the chest.

See pictures, it's in ochre on the little chap but in gold on the larger Bro.

Now make the hat in navy by following the head pattern to row 14 : you should have a close-fitting navy tube for him to wear. Add as many rows as you think he needs to cover most of his head.

I think my hat is a little too short.

Crochet a strap from the glitter gold yarn with 3 mm hook: approx 18 ch and slip stitch back to the beginning.

Sew onto hat and sew hat onto head.

Now you can embroider the eyes and mouth.

 And a few days later, after we'd hung up our crocheted snowflakes......

 You'll need to finish by making the drum and stuff this and embroider it.
Follow head pattern to 12 dc in the beige wool.(UP TO ROW 2)
Working in the back loop only, work 12 dc.
work 1 row in dark brown( 12 dc)
work 4 rows in beige( 12 dc)
work 1 row in dark brown ( 12 dc)
work 1 row in beige and fasten off. Stuff.
Make lid by working the head up to row 2 again and sew it onto the stuffed drum.
Embroider with long diagonal stitches the sides of the drum connecting the lines into triangles and between the 2 rows of dark brown.
Make a strap from a chain worked with beige wool and brown embroidery floss held together and loop round the body and sew onto one hip.
Then sew the drum either onto the side of the hip on in front of the arm and hip to connect with the strap.
See pictures for the effect.

Ta DAH!!!! ONE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY COMPLETED?!

PS: dc is double crochet and is the ENGLISH term for sc if you are American?
dc2 tog: is where you work one dc until there are 2 loops on the hook, do not complete the stitch!
Then you start the next dc and when you have 3 loops on the hook you do a yarn over and pull through all 3 loops at once thus decreasing 1 dc . Effectively you have converted 2 dc s to a single dc and you can see this as the 2 top V'S are now showing as only ONE V. ? OK?
Please do let me know if you have a go at this? and share the pictures PLEASE?
I have used up an afternoon off to write this pattern. It's my wedding anniversary.