Knit a Nativity Set

I saw this wee Nativity Set on a great blog RunningJackKnits, it is amazing.

All of the patterns for the characters are on her blog, knit a wee Nativity set, Mary, Joseph, a donkey, dove and of course baby Jesus in a manger. Even if you are not going to knit it, go take a look at the patterns, the dove is thirty stitches.

Here is another Nativity scene to knit, this one with the full set of characters! Love it! Wow!

Very nice knitted Nativity scene pattern, entire  here, from women’s weekly. Includes the 3 wise men and their gifts. Love the little sheep also, I would have to make several of those!
Get crazy, if it looks like too much, try one character a year! This set of Holy character will go down in history of your family!!

The Crèche of the Poor

The paper crèche has a special place in the Nativity tradition. It was, at one time, the crèche of the poor. When, in 1782, Joseph II, Austrian emperor, placed a ban on crèches, the nativity set moved from churches, palaces and public places to families and their homes. Crèches, crafted from paper, became the Nativity representation for the poor, for the common people. This is not to say that there were no paper nativities before the Austrian emperor’s ban. Influenced by Baroque theater tradition, nobility and wealthy townspeople in Italy and Austria commissioned artists to paint Bible figures on paper, wood and tin as early as the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Famous names of this early history of the “paper nativity” were Martin Engelbrecht (1684-1756) and Albrecht Schmidt (1667-1744). Paper nativities of that period were produced as cut-out figures, based on woodcuts and engravings, and the coloring was done by women and children.