Having sewn a little something for the rest of my family, I decided that I should make something for my dad too.  So I asked my nephew, Noah, what Dad’s favorite fish was for fishing.  He told me rainbow trout or arctic grayling.  So I chose grayling, and thanks to Google Images, here’s what I came up with.

pretty cool, right? 🙂

I’m sure you really want to make your own grayling so here are some tips.  Search for an image of a grayling to trace.  I found my color inspiration here but used a different shape from somewhere else for some reason.  Then use gray felt and thread for assembly (DMC 413 – dark pewter gray) plus these colors for the eye, gills, fin – 310 (black), the fin lines – 414 (dark steel gray), and the accent lines – 891 (dark carnation).  I had some nice wool felt leftover from a long-ago project and so Dad definitely got the nicest felt out of all the ornaments I made this year!

It can even bend its tail to swim!

See all your accent lines first and then put another plain gray grayling on the back and sew around the perimeter with a running stitch (after adding a hanging loop).

And if you turn it upside down, it’s a shark!

Ta da!  A grayling Christmas ornament!  I’m pretty proud of this little guy.  Too bad I don’t live in Alaska.  I could probably make a lot of money selling these!