Sock to Sweater

Delilah's fabulous new sweater started out as a ladies' patterned sock. Some clever cutting and sewing and without too much time or fuss there is a new addition to her wardrobe.

Delilah's wearing new knee socks too, though you can barely see them, covered up as they are by the jeans. I made the little socks by adapting the same sewing pattern that I used for the tights I showed yesterday. She was tired of the Don Johnson, no socks look!

If I Had Known

If I had known how much fun I'd have creating clothing for a doll and posing her I'd have bought one years ago.

I sewed up 5 pairs of doll tights this afternoon. There's a black pair, a pink pair, a white pair and two grey pairs. One of the grey pairs will be given to my daughter for her doll, Ellowyne.

Now Delilah needs some new clothes to go with the tights. I have so many ideas whirring around in my head!

Delilah Has a Visitor

A gift of a matching, crocheted, linen bikini for Delilah's new friend, Ellowyne!

Move Over!

Move over weaving, sewing wants some space. I've been back sewing a bit lately but the kitchen table is just SO inconvenient! I'm tired of spending more time digging out, setting up and taking down my sewing equipment than it actually takes to sew something.

The floor loom has been pushed against the wall at one side of the small room so that there is space to set up some sewing equipment for a while. Juggling a multitude of hobbies really causes some space issues!

Say Hello To Delilah

Say hello to Delilah. She's the perfect knitters' friend. She never complains that a style doesn't suit her, that the colour is wrong, that the yarn is too scratchy, that the sweater is too warm. . . . or not warm enough. She's never demanding and always pleased when she gets something new.

She arrived today wearing her school uniform and was ever so grateful to change into her welcome home gift, a Daniel Bingham tunic style vest which I hand knit for her, and a coordinating pair of black, stretchy jeans.

Always quick to add her own personal touch she rooted through her bags and found her velvet tux jacket and school neck tie. Perfect!


Do say hello if you have the time. She's a friendly girl and she's such fun to knit and sew for that I have a feeling you'll be seeing a lot of her.

Tiny Time Gobbler

Sometimes a tiny project doesn't necessarily mean a quick project. It isn't when you are knitting laceweight yarn at 12 stitches to the inch on 1.5 mm needles (#00 American)!

This work in progress is the Daniel Bingham Tunic Vest for a 16" fashion doll.

A Shared Interest

My daughter and I have a recently acquired, common interest. You might even say it's become a bit of an obsession! We're having the greatest fun creating clothes for collector type dolls.

This is her doll, Ellowyne Wilde. The outfit Ellowyne is wearing was a bit of a shared endeavour. Kristy knit the awesome 1/4 scale sweater using a "human sized" sweater pattern scaled down by using much finer yarn and needles. But Ellowyne still needed some sort of pants to wear during her photo shoot so I quickly sewed up the stretchy "jeggings" (a jeans/leggings hybrid) using fabric scraps I had in my stash.



With any luck my doll will be arriving early next week. I just checked the tracker and she cleared customs late last night. Woo hoo!!

Barbie's Wedding Dress

A crocheted wedding dress for Barbie!

On a whim I joined a knit or crochet "along" on Ravelry. The theme is "Barbie wedding" and the idea is to start in May, but true to form I never waited for the official start. Truth is I've never been much for group participation like that and I always end up doing my own thing. I already had the pattern and the 10/2 tencel in my stash so I got started. It took longer than I expected, but less than a week.

I love the little details, all the way from a beaded and beribboned headdress with pale pink veil down to a tulle crinoline and cute little beaded garter. Great fun. I may have to do this again some day.


It's a bit too delicate for my 3 year old granddaughter, Kaylen, right now so I think I'll get a doll stand and put it on display in my craft room until she and her little sister are old enough to handle it with care.

Miralda Grows

Work on the handspun Miralda shawl slowly continues. I find that I'm working on it in spurts, between other projects and commitments.

Of course knitted lace never looks like much until then end when it is properly blocked. My camera is not picking up the true colour either, which is darker, has more variation and depth, and is more of an earthy, forest green.

Dummy!

I've been working on this little 1/4 scale dressmaker's dummy,

complete with a stand,

In preparation for knitting and sewing 1/4 scale clothes for a 16" fashion doll.

That's the plan anyway.

Pattern for the dress form was purchased at Lyn Warings website.

For the Challenge

The last few weeks I've noticed a change in the type of projects I've been choosing. It seems that I've lost the desire to make "things", and I've been focusing my creative energies on techniques I find to be a challenge. For instance, my daughter and I have been exploring the possibilities of knitting and designing in 1/4 scale.

Pencil and toothpick included for scale.

She purchased an Ellowyne Wilde fashion doll for a model, and now we are trying out various, ultra fine knitting needles and yarns to not just knit doll clothes, but to make them truly 1/4 scale garments. The swatch above is laceweight yarn knit on size 1.2mm needles (00-00 American). The gauge is 15 sts to the INCH! That's 60 stitches over 4", or the 1/4 scale equivalent of a heavy worsted. Wow, I wonder what I'd have to knit with to get the 1/4 scale equivalent of a fingering weight?!

Next up in the challenge department was an intarsia class I took at Fibres West over the weekend. It was taught by Vanessa Bentley. I've done intarsia before and hated it. I took the class to see if there were any little tips I was missing, something that would make it easier, less frustrating. To Vanessa's credit I think I could now learn to love it. . . . well, at least enjoy it for the challenge it is anyway, which is a good thing because I still have to do that argyle sock, (a form of intarsia), for the Level II Master Knitters certification.


And finally, while I was at Fibres West I stumbled upon this little gem of a book. "Knit One Below" by Elise Duvekot, is a book chock full of projects using the "knit one below" technique, something totally new to me. I've knit into the stitch below before, it's the basis of fisherman's rib, but this is a variant of that idea I've not explored before. I'm practising the technique using dishcloth cotton scraps I had on hand. Maybe the swatch will become a washcloth to tuck in my gym bag.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day, the perfect day to start a large, green project.

This will be the Miralda Triangular Shawl done in my handspun, hand dyed, 50/50 camel/silk laceweight. After searching Ravelry for hours for just the right pattern I ended up using one I have had all along in the "Knitted Lace of Estonia" by Nancy Bush. It was sitting right there in my personal crafting library.

Handspun For Barbie

This is the last Barbie outfit I had time to make before wrapping up Kaylen's birthday presents.

The fisherman's rib sweater and pants are hand knit from bits of yarn I had on hand. The pattern is "#2 White Sweater and Black Trousers", by Sticka till Barbie

The hat is a teeny, tiny version of a pattern meant for human sized heads, but which works equally well for dolls. "Lifestyle Top down Hats, No Swatch Needed", by Charisa Martin Cairn


I knit it up from a teeny, tiny ball of leftover handspun.

Barbie's Long Dress

Another Barbie outfit for Kaylen's upcoming third birthday.

This time a long, crocheted, strapless evening dress,

buttoned up the back,

with a warm, knitted, kid mohair wrap to go with it.

I hope she likes it. It should match the pink streaks in "Merliah's" (mermaid Barbie's) hair.

The pattern for the dress is Red Shell st Evening Gown by Lynne Sears
For the stole I cast on 12 sts on large needles and knit every row for 12 inches.

Barbie's New Figure

My oldest granddaughter's third birthday is in about a week and she has asked for the Mermaid Barbie . . . . . and Disney Pixar Colour Changer Cars. A little lady with quite the diverse interests!

I'm quite happy to get Kaylen her first Barbie. I received my first Barbie for my third birthday too. Gradually, over a period of many years, my mother made a huge box full of knitted Barbie clothes for my dolls. I was the envy of all my friends. When I got older and out grew my fascination with the fashion dolls I gave them all away. All the dolls and all those hand knit clothes to the first near stranger who expressed an interest in them. I can only imagine how crushed my mother had been, but at the time it seemed to me that the day when I would have children of my own (let alone grandchildren) seemed so far away.

In retrospect it's just as well that I gave those old doll clothes away to someone who could use them and love them back then because Barbie has changed a lot since I knew her. Back in my day Barbie had an overly large bust and an unrealistically tiny waist. Now her hips are wider, her waistline is thicker and her bust is smaller. The doll clothes patterns from my mother's old McCall's books don't fit this new version. I've had to hunt down new patterns.

This is the first of many outfits I will likely be making for not only Kaylen's dolls, but for her little sister Kenzie's dolls as well. I hope they enjoy them and have many happy hours playing together.

I did manage to hunt down the specific doll Kaylen requested, but the "Fashionista Barbie" in these pictures is mine and will live at my house. Grandma needs a doll of her own to fit and model the clothes as they are made.

The dress here is a version of #132 "Lilac Long Dress" by Sticka till Barbie. The hat is # A42 "White/Lilac Hat" also by Sticka till Barbie. Yarn used is oddments of leftover sock and fingering weight yarn.

Wisp of Ovation

I'm not geared for stress and deadlines, especially artificial imposed ones like the Knitting Olympics, so I didn't participate, but I admire those who did challenge themselves and worked tirelessly in pursuit of "gold". I knit during the Olympics, but not frantically, not continuously, and not deserving of any gold medals for accomplishing the near impossible.

This is "Wisp", from a free pattern by Cheryl Niamath.

I knit it from S.R. Kertzer Ovation on 5mm needles for a lofty, whisper light, cloud of a scarf/cowl/wrap. It's hard to believe that something that weighs only 1 ounce (less than 25 grams), could be so cuddly and warm.

BFL handspun

100g, Blue Faced Leicester handpainted roving received as a Christmas gift. Mmm, silky and soft.

Spun into a fingering weight 3ply.

Checkstand Bags

I did some sewing a while back but wanted to give the finished product a little test run before I made any comment on the pattern/process. These lined, cloth, grocery store checkstand bags have been used for several grocery trips now and I am happy to give them my official stamp of approval.

They are made by first deconstructing one of the store's regular, plastic, checkstand bags to get a pattern. How could you possibly get a better fit hey? The cashiers don't complain about these ones falling off their bagging stands like they do the store's own, reusable, nonwoven cloth bags. The baggers quite like them and I've had some nice comments about them.

Best of all these bags are completely washable. The cashiers in my community are occasionally overheard complaining about customers who come in with bags covered in dog hair or smelling of cat pee. Ewwww! I don't blame them. In the customer's defence though, the first time you wash those "nonwoven cloth bags" they get all limp and fall apart.

I've been looking for a better solution for quite some time now. Thanks to a discussion on a message board on Ravelry I found this tutorial: Singlet Style Shopping Bag.


When the shopping is done you can fold them neatly back into their self pocket, pop them into the trunk of your car, and they are there ready when you need them again.

Perfect.

I made 6 of them for about $12 using material found at a thrift store. If you want to give it a try look for sturdy but light weight fabric so that your bags don't end up too bulky. And be sure that it is fabric that won't need ironing! Just sayin'.

Aeolian Shawl Debut

Pattern: Aeolian Shawl by Elizabeth Freeman

Yarn: Alpaca with a Twist Fino purchased at Chilliwack Wool and Craft Shop.

The yarn was originally more of a blue-violet colour like grape drink, but I overdyed it with red and a small touch of black to get this colourway which I call "Black Cherry".

It's a little smaller than I expected, but I love it worn more as a shoulder shawl anyway.