Whew!

It has been a crazy week! The first rug has moved along quickly. This was Tuesday:

By Friday the first rug was done, except for cutting from the warp and finishing the edges. I needed to leave some space between the edge of the first rug and that of the second to allow for a short fringe, so I wove in a few inches of the warp yarn before weaving the edge of the second rug. (You can fill this space with a strip of cardboard or some lease sticks, but I'm using waste yarn, which can be recycled into a dishrag if I choose.)

Here's where I was as of Sunday (yesterday, if you're reading this the day it posts). The arrow points to the place in the cloth where the first rug stopped. You can see it winding around the cloth roller. The little colored bows are my 10" markers. I already have another 10" on the second rug. I'll tie a string around the edge threads of the warp to mark 10"

I plan to make some rugs for the trailer, too. I just need to measure how big they can be. I think this warp is too wide.

You may remember I was finishing up my Brioche Shawl Feathers shawl last week. Monday I finished the bind off and weaving in the ends. I gave her a nice bath and set up the blocking mats on the dining room table. (I had thought that my work table would be big enough, but she "grew" some with washing, as superwash yarn sometimes does.) I found it convenient to use the parts of the edge where the stitches increase to make points, rather than having to bend over the blocking mats all day putting in an infinitesimal number of pins for a smooth curve. I rather like the effect.

This photo reminded someone of Ruth Bader Ginsberg's "dissent" collars. I should have knit it in black and white! However, I find the colors pleasing and the yarn soft and warm. The I-cord upper edge ended up about the right length, but the depth from center to edge was more than the pattern indicated, which means my gauge was probably off. Not really any surprise, as I tend to knit loosely, and I didn't do a gauge swatch (for a shawl, which doesn't have to fit). I'm pretty sure this is why I ran out of yarn.

I decided to cast on for a dress for Pippa (although it will probably go to Daphne for her Rebekah). I wanted to participate in a KAL on Ravelry featuring patterns by this designer. We're using the first six designs currently shown on the website.

It turned out a little long. I think it's because I knit loosely and I didn't bother to do a gauge swatch. (A doll dress makes a great gauge swatch, I think.) I didn't have enough green buttons for the dress, so I decided to use pink and make it a design feature.

I added the extra button at the bottom in the 75th row, worked one more row of border/hem and then BO in purl. Details for the project are here.

I had a box of our daughter's doll clothes I need to go through. I had planned for us to do it last Christmas, but, as you know, our Christmas visit didn't happen. I have been going through them and I noticed that some of them (the ones made for her Fisher Price My Friend dolls) seemed to be close to Pippa's size. Sure enough, some of the items fit. The hat is big enough for the larger Happy Kidz, but the hoodie was a perfect fit.

I found this pattern and this one for the dolls among my sewing patterns. The hoodie wasn't included, but I think I may have used a blouse or shirt pattern with the hood from the cape, and improvised the pocket. This dress, which I think was in the McCall's pattern, was almost perfect. (It needs pressing, but I wanted to be sure it would fit before going to the trouble.)

The bodice front is a perfect fit. The only issue is the back, which is too big. That means I would only have one pattern piece to modify.

It's amazing the dress fits as well as it does, considering that this is the doll it was designed for. (Photo from here.)

As you can see, the Fisher Price Mandy doll has almost no shoulders, and the head is quite large, which makes the shoulders appear even smaller. Pippa and the other Little Kidz dolls are bigger in the shoulders than other dolls currently being produced in their size range. The hats fit the larger Happy Kidz dolls quite well, as you can see from this photo I took for this Friday's story.

Some of the shoes fit, too, and I've been using them for Pippa. 

What's the plan for all these doll clothes, you might ask? I plan to go through them and see what fits a doll Daphne has, wash and/or iron anything that needs it and send them all to her, although I might keep the brown "straw" hat for now. Maybe she can wheedle it out of me when she's here at Christmas, but I think I have some temporary use for it. There were also duplicate pairs of shoes that fit. I may be able to use some of the patterns with some minor modifications. Some of the clothes may not be worth rehabilitating. We will decide that when our daughter is here.

When this "care package" goes off, I will have to tuck in something for Zachary's dolls, too.

Yes, boys do play with dolls, especially when a car just the right size shows up. 

These are Lukas and Matthias (sp?) in a car belonging to our honorary granddaughter, Elsie. Johan thought it was fun to let the two dolls drive/ride. Today is his birthday!

Rocky needed some attention this week. The pups went to the groomer on Wednesday, and when I picked them up, Rocky was so tired he had trouble walking. That evening, he got hung up in the dog door and injured himself. The next day his hind end kept giving out. We were afraid he might have dislocated his hip again or perhaps had nerve damage, so we took him to the emergency vet. The diagnosis was that it was either arthritis combined with some soft-tissue damage or a mild slipped disc. Because of his advanced age, the emergency vet didn't recommend doing X-rays or an MRI, the only way to be sure. He said that if it was a slipped disc, it wasn't too severe and, a dog as old as Rocky was not a good candidate for major surgery. The treatment is the same: pain and anti-inflammatory medications, and restricted activity. As I write this, he seems much steadier on his feet, but I now have two more medications to give him, in addition to his thyroid and blood-pressure pills and his eye drops. He still sleeps a lot.

Rocky also has a growth on his lip that needs to be removed, and it's scheduled for Thursday. The pre-op blood work showed his liver and kidneys are working well. The vet said Rocky had good genes. This is minor surgery, and they will clean his teeth again while he's sedated. I always worry when he has to be sedated, but he should come through this fine. Rocky will be 17 years old on August 31st.

We're going to have to work out something else for grooming. Perhaps the groomer can do the process in stages, rather than all at once, or maybe I'll need to replace the clippers I gave away when we left Park City and do Rocky at home.

Where's my blog: If you have been following my blog and want to continue following, I recommend you go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Um...I haven't decided yet.

What's on my loom: Still two rag rugs.

What's on my sewing machine: Its cover, but I plan to make another doll bathing suit or two.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. A little more progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: "Lightning." Pippa is disappointed that she can't go to the beach. Mandy explains the danger of lightning, and the dolls make a pretend visit to the beach instead.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Listening to Florence Grace by Tracy Rees. I enjoyed her Amy Snow, but this is entirely different. It's also very interesting.

What's in my wine glass: Tuscana Sauvignon Blanc, 2020. Very nice. I'm enjoying the white wines in the warmer weather.

What's my tip of the week: I knead my bread on the counter above my dishwasher with the door slightly ajar. Any bits of flour that fall of the edge of the counter fall into the dishwasher. When I'm done with the kneading, I can open the dishwasher a little more and scrape the leftover flour into it. When it runs again, it will clean it all up. (It's so much easier than wiping it off the floor, although that might give one motivation to wash the floor.)

Where's my book: Mariah: Stories from the Doll's Storybook is available from Amazon worldwide. Also available from BookBaby, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers. (If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy directly from Book Baby. Royalties go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment, and Book Baby doesn't take an additional cut. That means that half of the cost of the book goes to our chosen charity. The three stories in the book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. The stories (and links to them) are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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