All about the crafting!: Another Knit a Fantasy Story Update

My project is starting to look more and more like the little scene I had pictured. I still have a ways to go, but the basic framework is there.

The road is done, along with the pastures and the yard area in the lower left where I plan to make the gnome home. The river is finished, but I still need the lake and camping area in the lower right. The yard for the house will be in the upper right, but is only outlined right now. I have finished one of the three fields, still have the other two to go.

One friend asked me what the finished field was. I have no idea. Hay? Straw? Wheat? ...Whatever it is that turns yellow before harvest? (golden waves of grain is ringing a bell)

She is pretty sure that not having a clue makes me a terrible farmer, but since I'm also planning for lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, watermelons, squash, pumpkins and who only knows what else to be ready in the other fields at the same time I'm pretty sure this farm is not going to be accurate. Of course, once you have a gnome fishing off a pipe cleaner and yarn bridge with a bead bobber I think the claims to realism have all been shot to hell.

So anyway, that's how far the basic mat has gotten. I've also made progress on some of the 'extra bits' -

There are two trees and one shrub. The trees have knitted trunks (mainly garter stitch) that have been stretched over different sized/shaped frames of plastic canvas.

I made the bases larger for stability, and stitched loops of yarn to look like grass around the trunk area.

The treetops are pompoms I made and then hot glued to the tops of the trunks. The shrub is also just a pompom with a little glue shot through the center to make it more durable.

The house is going to be made with a frame of plastic canvas with a knit cover. The house siding look is from rows of stockinette separated by purl rows. The bottom will be open, the door will be a cut out section, and the windows are just going to be square or rectangular knit sections that I stitch onto the siding.

On my first attempt I overestimated how many stitches I would need to cast on for the cover. Guess I'm nit used to knitting so loosely and on larger needles. Instead of ripping back and restarting, I decided to make a new house frame for the larger playmat I'm going to make my nieces. Even though I still need to knit a smaller one to fit the original frame, I want to finish the decorating on this larger house first.

I've secured the knit cover to most of the frame after cutting out the door section. The climbing roses have been stitched on the one side, I'm considering the look of a chimney on the other side which is why the bottom of that is still loose. I still need to make a roof and the windows.

That's it for this update. While I have gotten a lot done, I'm starting to doubt whether I can get it finished in time for the mochimochi photo contest without abandoning all my other projects. Just in case I do run out of time, I've tried to take extra nice pictures of the tinies I knit last week.

From her Fall collection I made the tiny pumpkin. Cute and perfect timing, because I had wanted a pumpkin patch for the playmat. This one I tried to make look carved so it can sit outside the gnome home or the house when I'm finished.