Alistair Wizard is finished.

His pointy hat and his pointy shoes are done.

The hat was a simple pattern, easy to follow. I embroidered most of the moons and stars before I sewed the back seam; this made it a lot easier. Then a last couple of stars over the seam completed it.

His pointy shoes were a little more problematic. The instructions were not clearly thought out and it took a little thinking to work out what was intended, but I got there.

Also finished are the accessories; his Ring of Power, his bracelet and his sandals (the instructions for which were rather badly written, or rushed).

Good grief, did Alistair's Cloak take a bit of knitting!

It was a large item; one and a half 100g balls of wool. It was also complicated in pattern.

The scoop at the back was a fairly simple number of turn rows. The book suggested using stitch markers; indeed they were very helpful in keeping track.

Then the front edgings were slipped on to stitch holders (or kept on the needles, as I did). They were then joined back to the main body of knitting just below the armholes. The rest of the cloak has been shaped gradually into the waist in the meantime.

The knitting was then divided into three again up to the shoulders, where most was cast off, and the collar extended to its centre back seam.

To the left is what I am aiming for - Alistair Wizard. Below is his current state.

I had problems with his hair piece - the pattern in the book was wrong, luckily the corrections published here sorted that.

The beard was another issue. The pattern asked for 26 stitches, but gave numbers that only added to 20. 26 were definitely needed for a fit