High Fiber—Make No Missteek

The second steeked doll sweater is finished and on the model.

If you're just joining us or have otherwise missed the last two weeks, this sweater can be worn as a cardigan or a "pullover," and we're using steeks so we can knit in the round. This has the advantage of allowing us to work always on the right (public) side and always work knit stitches, which makes the resulting fabric more even. (You still have to purl for the ribbing.) The main purpose of this doll sweater is to give people an opportunity to make a steeked sweater, with all the steps included, without the commitment of a full-size garment. Steeks can be intimidating until you've done the process a few times. The pattern will be available for free.

We knit the sweater body in a tube up to the armholes, then bound off for the underarm and cast armhole steek stitches on in the next round. Then we worked the slightly larger tube up to the shoulders and joined the shoulders, either by grafting or by binding off and sewing the bound off edges together. Then we machine-sewed on each side of each steek, two rows of vertical machine stitching on each side.

Here's what the inside of the doll sweater looks like after machine-sewing within the steek, but close to the pattern stitches that aren't part of the steek (see last week's blog for photos of the steps up to here). I already trimmed the loose tails down to a manageable length before sewing.

Then we cut. (Good light, sharp scissors and a glass of wine if needed, are key.) We cut right down the middle of the steek. It doesn't have to be very exact. After the ribbing is finished, we will trim the steek facing down to just a little past the stitching, so any irregularities will be trimmed off.

In this case the shoulders have been grafted using Kitchener stitch. The next step is to make the neck opening. There are ways of shaping the opening while knitting and filling in the space with steek stitches, but we have just knit the tube to the top. We then measure and baste with contrast yarn where we plan to cut. 

Then we sew two rows of machine stitching about 1/8" apart, just outside the basting. After the neck is sewn, we can cut just outside the sewing. Then we pick up stitches with the ribbing yarn to knit the neck ribbing.

We work a few rows of ribbing and bind off. Then we pick up on one side of the steek for the button/buttonhole bands. Here you can see the center steek stitches. They show up as dark vertical rows of stitches. There are some breaks between the rows, because we had some rounds of knitting that were solid lighter color. Still, you can see the vertical rows pretty clearly. The arrow points to the leg of the stitch that's within the steek but right next to the pattern stitches of the motifs. We are going to pick up this left leg of the outermost vertical steek stitch row from bottom to top, and then a few stitches in the neck ribbing. (The stitch is shaped like a V.) 

When all the stitches are picked up, it will look like this on the outside.

It will look like this on the inside.

You can pick up the whole stitch instead of just one leg if you like, but it adds a little thickness, something we want to avoid when making tiny garments like doll sweaters.

After knitting the buttonhole band (or button band, if your doll is a boy), we do the same thing on the other side, picking up the corresponding leg of the vertical row of steek stitches, this time the right leg.

After the button/buttonhole bands are done, it's time to pick up the stitches for the sleeves. Here's what the inside looks like before picking up for the sleeves.

Those flaps you see are the armhole steeks. We are going to pick up stitches on the outside from the bottom of the armhole to the shoulder and back down the other side, picking up the outermost leg of the vertical row of steek stitches, just as we did for the button/buttonhole bands.

The sleeves are then worked in the round, with decreases according to the pattern, ending with ribbing. When changing colors, I just tie a loose knot. Then when the sleeve is done, I turn it inside out and retie the knots securely, and then cut off the tails. If your motifs have very long floats, and your doll has fingers that stick out, you might want to line the sleeve with nylon net or some other thin fabric, especially if you're giving the sweater to a small child.

The next step is to clean up the inside. Trim the steeks to just a couple of vertical rows of stitching on each side of the button/buttonhole bands and the sleeve steeks. For the neck opening, trim to 1/4". Fasten down all the steeks to the inside of the sweater, using blanket stitch, overcast or cross-stitch, or cover the steek edges with decorative ribbon or stretch lace binding. If you're lining the sleeves, do it now. 

Sew on the buttons and block. Then the lucky doll, like Gabi, above, is ready for a photo shoot. Next week I hope to be able to post a link to the pattern for this sweater.

After I finished Gabi's sweater, I started on the Hana pattern for Vroni. This will go to Hannah, who now lives with DGD2 in Wisconsin, for her birthday in May. I finished it on Saturday. It's a cute jumper/tunic with pockets for small items: crayons, tiny dolls, comb, hankie, rocks or shells.

In real life, we helped with a performance of fun music and poems Monday evening by taking the donations from the audience as people filed in. Felicia and Keith, who sing in our choir, donated their artistry for the cause.

The proceeds went to The Peace House, our local women's shelter. It was a fun evening with beautiful music from two talented singers, along with a lot of laughs. A friend we hadn't seen in years came to town for skiing, and we invited him and his wife (whom we had never met) to come along for the performance. We also had plans for snowshoeing and supper on Thursday.

We lucked out on the weather. Thursday was beautiful--for a change. The pups really enjoyed the outing, as did we all. The supper was good, although our guest had already had lasagne two nights in a row, and that's what we were having. The gentleman was an usher at our wedding 51 years ago, and his wife is a knitter (among other things), and we found we had a lot in common. 

The snowshoeing wore out the pups. Dusty could hardly move after our walk around the block the next day. He crashed with Rat for a snooze on the padded bench.

Dusty is 10 months old now, close to 20 lbs. and 16+ inches tall at the shoulder, so technically a standard, like Rocky, although from miniature stock. We expect him to be smaller than Rocky, but he's getting close.

In the meantime, Rocky seems to have more energy since starting his thyroid medication.

In other cuteness, Portland and environs are having their annual Rose City Yarn Crawl. I really wanted to go, but it would have cut into preparations for The Messiah Project. Maybe next year. In the meantime, DDIL2 and DGS3 (the youngest) popped in to some of the participating yarn shops.

I wouldn't be surprised if he were the first grandchild to learn to knit.

What's on my needles: Just cast on for Vroni's Fair Isle sweater, a test knit of the variation of the steeking project for the slimmer Götz dolls, like Hannah and Vroni.

What's on my Featherweight: Ready to sew the steeks for the next doll sweater.

What's on my loom: I still haven’t started anything with the leftover warp.

What's on my wheel: I have thrown a towel over Stanzi. I got tired of feeling guilty for not spinning. She will need a major oiling before I spin again.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to D. E. Stevenson’s Vittoria Cottage. Also listening to the choruses for The Messiah for the performance on April 9th. On the Kindle app, I’m still reading Dying to Read, The Cate Kinkaid Files Book #1.

What's in my wine glass: "Two-buck Chuck," Trader Joe's Charles Shaw Shiraz 2008 vintage. We accidentally opened one we were aging. Oops! Yum!

What's my tip of the week: You've probably heard that you should let the water continue to run after you've turned off your garbage disposal, but did you know that allowing the water to run before you turn on the disposal will allow the mechanism to work more thoroughly? 

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 were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Welcoming Vroni.

This is Vroni

More about Vroni later. The big project this week was the scarf that has been on my loom for nearly two years. The warp has been on the loom much longer. I used it to make a beige waffle-weave scarf for DS2, which I gave to him Christmas 2014. I changed the tie-up to weave a twill, then the loom was damaged. (I won't go into how that happened, but it took nearly 18 months to get it fixed.) If you've been reading my blog the last few weeks, you've seen renewed progress on it. Now it's done and ready to send to DD.

The edges aren't exactly straight. It was a little difficult with the odds and ends of yarn I was using, some of it hand-spun, but also I have been out of practice. I really need a temple (not a place to go to pray for more skill, but a device to keep the edges even).

I made some progress on the Impari Shawlette. It's a good project to take if you go out to eat or to a meeting. Or watching football, perhaps (more about that later). I would have finished more of it, and more of my "Sistine Chapel" quilt, except that I had a blessed event...of sorts.

As you may remember, Hannah went to live with Daphne, Daphne Jr. and the other Wisconsin dolls. Hannah is a Götz doll with a vinyl body, which is slimmer than the cloth-bodied Madame Alexander play dolls and American Girl dolls. She is even slimmer than the Tonner play dolls, which also have a vinyl body rather than cloth. Since Dolly (Madame Alexander) and Gabi (Tonner) are too plus-size to make good models for my sewing and knitting for Hannah, I was without a model in the correct size after Hannah's departure. So...I needed another Götz doll. My plan was to purchase a Vroni after Christmas, thinking the prices would go down. They didn't. They went up, and as you can see from the link, they are out-of-stock. Every place I had located one in the past was sold out. I was resigned to waiting, months perhaps.

Enter my hero, a doll owner in the Ravelry Götz Doll Lovers group, who had decided to clear out all but one of his dolls to make room for more yarn stash. He offered seven of his dolls for good prices, some of them in the lovely smocked dresses he had made for them. When I saw Vroni was among them, I snapped her up, because I knew that the seller kept his dolls in immaculate condition.

Vroni started her journey to me on Tuesday and arrived in the middle of a blizzard on Thursday. She hadn't seen snow for a long time, and never so much at once.

She made friends right away with Dolly and Gabi, who took this selfie of the three of them together.

Vroni arrived with only the lovely dress, a full slip and panties. After just making sweaters and hats for Gabi and Dolly to keep myself from feeling cold whenever I looked at them, I found myself with another almost skimpily clad doll standing around my fiber studio. Of course I needed to make her a sweater and hat as well. People had been talking about the free Kitty Cat sweater and hat pattern available from My Doll Best Friend. It looked like a fun and fairly quick knit, so I downloaded the pattern and picked a color to go with the smocking design, because of Vroni's limited wardrobe.

I knew I could use Palette (fingering weight) held double to get the thickness I needed for the pattern, and I had Semolina in my stash, so I CO. I found the denser knitting yielded by the 3.00mm needles hard to work on, but I was able to get gauge, and the sweater was soon done.

The sweater makes a good top to go with the jeggings I ordered for her back before Christmas. (You may remember that I ordered four pairs, two for Gabi and Dolly, another pair for Hannah, and this one.)

I wanted to save her gingham ribbons to go with her dress, so I got out some yellow ribbon and threaded it through her braids using a yarn needle.

Then I started on the hat. The pattern calls for larger needles for the hat, so it went quickly and easily.

The neckline is a little large for warmth, so she needs a scarf before she can go outdoors. I can make one easily from fleece, using the pattern I've used before for warm hats and scarves.

Monday we went snowshoeing, because the weather was nice for a couple of days. 

Dusty must have covered three times the distance the rest of us did.

No Worries is open again in its new location. DH and I went there on Tuesday for breakfast and then took the pups for a walk along the bicycle trail at nearby Gorgoza Park.

One nice thing about Dusty is he brings the ball back. Rocky just runs to the ball and points at it, or picks it up and "throws" it at Dusty.

I met Joanie at No Worries on Thursday. With all the snow and other stuff going on, Common Threads couldn't get a host. Ana brought her. It was fun to see her again, and we got some knitting done. The owner/manager is a friend of hers, and she knows all the wait staff. This was her first meal at the new location.

We've had more snow than I can remember ever in the mountains of Utah. Excess snow, followed by slight melting--not enough to get the snow to slide off the roof--worked together to create a dangerous situation for our house. We started getting cracks in the walls. DH spent several hours on each of three days up on the roof with rappelling gear to dig up and remove snow. The last day he worked up there was Sunday, coming in just in time to watch the Super Bowl game. That's when he discovered that the TV, which had worked earlier in the day, no longer had reception. Something must have happened to it while he was throwing snow and ice off the roof. We ended up having to watch the game on my iPad. We used the JBL Clip speaker for better sound. Whew!

What's on my needles: Still the Impari Shawlette. The March of the Fibres is still waiting in the wings. Still hand-quilting my “Sistine Chapel,” working on the first border.

What's on my Featherweight: Still waiting for a new assignment.

What's on my loom: The leftover warp from the Multi Scarf. I don’t know how much I have, so I don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet..

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is still set up with Full Circle spinning fiber but no progress again this week.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: (Besides the Super Bowl game.) Finished The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini. It was a good story. Then I listened to Frey by Melissa Wright. There was more violence for the amount of plot than I usually like, but the story was OK. Now I’m listening to Footsteps in the Dark, a mystery by Georgette Heyer. I’ve listened to it before, but it has been a long time. On the Kindle app, I finished Anna and Her Daughters by D. E. Stevenson. Now I’m reading The Housewife Assassin’s Deadly Dossier by Josie Brown. Not really into it yet.

What's in my wine glass: Crane Lake Malbec, again. One of our favorites.

What's my tip of the week: Natural peanut butter will not need stirring before using if you put it in the refrigerator within a few hours of grinding. If you buy the kind in the jar, and the oil has already risen to the top, you can turn the jar upside down for a few hours (or days), and sometimes the oil will go back into the ground peanuts in its attempt to return to the top, in this case the bottom of the jar. If it does that, put it into the refrigerator before the oil starts collecting at the bottom of the jar.

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 were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Sunny Days

This week started off with the usual activities, mostly indoor because we’ve been getting a lot of rain. Toward the end of the week, we noticed that Sunny seemed to be breathing harder than usual. By Saturday, it had worsened so much that we took her to the vet. An X-ray showed a lot of fluid in her chest, but not in her lungs. The vet sent us to an animal emergency hospital in Salt Lake. She was kept in an oxygen cage, while we discussed the possible diagnoses, none of which were very good. Saturday evening they put a drainage tube in and gave her a transfusion, and she was able to breath better. Sunday it became clear she probably wouldn’t make it through until Monday, so, with our permission, they went ahead with the surgery. She made it through surgery, although they had to resuscitate her four times. We lost her during the post-op period. We waged a hard battle to keep her with us physically, although I know she will be with us forever. Saying goodbye is hard.

I want to say a few words about Sunny, but first I want to thank all my friends and others who don't know me all that well for your thoughts and prayers. The outpouring of love and concern has been overwhelming. Thank you for being there for me, Sunny and my family. I think the prayers were answered, just not the way we had hoped. I believe it's because this is what was right for her.

Sunny was sassy from the time she was born. After she came to live with us, she ruled Rocky and tried to rule us. But only at home. Whenever we went anywhere, she would look up at me, and I could read her thoughts: "You can be the alpha for now."

It was that willingness to be well behaved while out and about that made her a good therapy dog. And she was good at it.

We visited Federal Heights Nursing Home for several years, sometimes entertaining a group of people in the rec room; sometimes visiting people in their rooms. She always knew which people needed kisses and which didn't want them. There was only one person she wanted to give kisses to who didn't want them, and that was a person who really wanted her kisses but was allergic to dog saliva. Sunny would sit with her back to the woman and look over her shoulder at her to prevent the tongue from coming out accidentally.

Several times patients who were anxiously awaiting pain medication found they didn't need it after Sunny sat with them for a while and accepted their stroking. One lady with Alzheimer's or dementia (I never received information on their diagnoses) used to yell at me when I came in, clearly believing I was someone from her past. I would put Sunny up on the bed, take the woman's hand and put it on Sunny's back. She would look at Sunny and start petting her. Then she would ask me my dog's name and say she was pretty and soft, or something else clearly connected with reality. Then she would drift off again, but for those few minutes she was living in the present. Another woman just out of a coma laughed when Sunny licked her fingers. There were many situations like that. Sunny loved her work, but would sleep the rest of the afternoon after we came home.

We also visited Camp Hobe and had planned to go again this year. She entertained the kids with her tricks and let them hug and pet her.

Sunny was athletic. She could run like the wind. 

She loved camping. 

Sunny was a great hiker and snowshoer.

She was an excellent mouser when we needed one. She was smarter than most people. She leaves behind a big hole in our lives.

I feel honored to have been her friend/mom/companion for 9 years and 8 months.

I'm glad we did everything we could to save her. At least we know we gave it our best shot.

My regular blog post will return next week.

Wow, What a Week!

The Spin-in finished on Monday.


My fiber was 4 oz. of hand-painted Polwarth wool roving from Greenwood Fiberworks in "Lavender Hedgerow."

I was really out of practice, so this was good for me. I worked on my long-draw, trying to do more long-draw and less modified long-draw. The Polwarth was nice to work with.

DGD1 started her new job at Park City Mountain Resort. They gave her the choice of skis or snowboard to use when she sweeps the slopes. That made her happy, because she prefers snowboarding to skiing, and she was able to pick up a used board from a friend for not too much money.

She has to be at work at 7:30 AM, and I've been getting up to make sure she's awake at 5:30 AM and help her get her breakfast and pack a lunch. I haven't been going back to bed, but on Sunday 5:30 was REALLY 4:30 AM. (How come we have to "spring forward" when it isn't even spring yet?) I took a half-hour nap after she left Sunday morning.

Getting up so early has given me more time to get things done.

At Common Threads this week, Karan was working on this cardigan: "Flying South," by Classic Elite. I like it so much, I've added it to my Ravelry queue.


I made a lot of progress on Pine Burr, finishing three blocks. Now half of the blocks are done.


The Brick cardigan is getting close to being finished. I have to put ribbing on the pockets, sew them down and make the front bands.

We finally got some snow. This is what it looked like coming off the roof, which explains why we don't let the pups out in the back at times like this.

The snowstorm followed by nice weather gave us an opportunity to go snowshoeing with the pups.

Sunday evenings are devoted to practice for The Messiah Project, which will be performed March 29th at The Eccles Theater in Park City.

What's on my needles: Brick Cardigan, finished the yoke. Also the second Martha Washington's Wreath appliqué block for my First Ladies quilt. Worked a bit on hand quilting my "Spring Flowers" quilt.

What's on my Featherweight: Pine Burr, ready to start block nine.

What's on my wheel: Full Circle spinning fiber in "Pigeon" I was spinning before the spin-in.

What's on my loom: Still some warp for another scarf, perhaps using the spinning from last weekend's spin-in, but still folded up.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Music from Park City's Messiah Project. Finished Zero Day by David Baldacci from Audible, one of their "Daily Deals," then The Source by J. D. Horn, and now reading another book from the bargain aisle, Only the Innocent, by Rachel Abbott. Still reading Beyond the Cliffs of Kerry by Amanda Hughes on the Kindle app.

What's in my wine glass: Flipflop Left Coast Pinot Noir. "Medium-bodied, structured Pinot Noir with bright cherry, sweet spice and a supple, velvety finish." (I'm not sure how the finish is "supple," but it was nice.

What's my tip of the week: When plying or winding hand-spun onto a niddy noddy, place the yarn source a long way away from where you're working. The twist will even out as it has a chance to escape the tension on the bobbin.

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 were harmed during the production of this blog post.

High Fiber--Family and Friends...and Birthday

What a Christmas it has been! How wonderful to have family around you with it's accompanying chaos!

Daphne's BSJ is perfect; just big enough to be able to last for a while, but still small enough to wear now! The quilt was a big hit, too! They loved the colors and the label with the photo of their little family.

I received a really special present from DH: pretty much the contents of my KP wish list!

It included some IDP patterns (he got all of them from my list), which he printed and placed in plastic sheet protectors, all ready to use), the Balkan Booties kit and some Zephyr size 17 tips, which completes my set! Not shown is The Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning by...Alden Amos! (It's on my bedside table.) If you can't find any of these items, let me know. There are too many to put a list with links here.

Before we opened presents, we went for a snowshoe. Can you find Daphne cozily sleeping?

DH is on the left, DD's family and DBIL on the right. The red heeler mix is Onslow, Rocky and Sunny's cousin by adoption. He belongs to DBIL and really enjoyed getting out in the snow. (They are both missing their pack leader.)

We had a nice Christmas dinner with salmon DH smoked on top of the stove, yams, broccoli, homemade bread from my bread machine but baked in the oven, salad and apple pie. We Skyped with DS2 and his SO early in the morning, as they are in Thailand right now. (BTW, they are engaged! Yippee!) In the evening, we Skyped with DS1.

As you may know, the 26th is my birthday. I had many wonderful internet well-wishes, and a wonderful day here. We went out to brunch at No Worries after church. I had some presents to open, including this bookmarker and st markers from a special friend who knows how much I'm into babies right now.

I got some other cards and presents from close friends. The photo below shows a sample.

I saved my new bag and spindle to open for my birthday. It will be my primary knitting bag, as soon as I get moved in and arrange my furniture. (It's huge!)

DH gave me the parts for a hackle, and a coupon for labor to put it together. Good deal!

DGD1 comes today. I will have more to report after she opens her presents!