More Little People and Their Clothes

The French Back-to-school Cardigan for Lukas is done.

Here's Carter, modeling it with the shorts I made to go with it. I made it according to the pattern, but added in an extra increase row before stopping the increases at the front neck edge. I used Palette in Edamame. 

I also made some 3/4 length pants and a hat.

Now I'm working on a Fair Isle sweater for him, according to the pattern I designed as a first steeking project. I have the body almost ready for the steeks. 

I want to get the steeks done at least before we leave town with the trailer (probably June 1st), because I don't want to take the sewing machine along. I can finish it, and knit other projects for the dolls, but this will be the only project that requires the machine until I'm ready to start working on the wardrobe for the two dolls for Habitat for Humanity and my house block for them. I hope to be able to leave the clothes for Lukas in Oregon on our June visit so I don't have to mail them for Soren's birthday in July.

The colorway I'm using was inspired by the slimmer version of the design made by one of my online friends, Pam Elliott. Here it is as a pullover on her Hannah:

And as a cardigan on her Katie.

The colors are perfect for these two redheads, but I think it will look good on Lukas, too. I had to switch out two of the yarn colors because I didn't have them, but the overall color scheme is close. I also worked the colors in a slightly different order. It's fun playing with the colors.

I ordered a Katie for Daphne for Christmas. I wanted to be sure they didn't run out, as they aren't making this doll anymore. 

With the sewing (except for the steeks) done for Lukas, I cleaned up the dining room, where I had been sewing, because Dusty doesn't think he can go down the stairs, and I would have to watch him down there in the fiber studio anyway.

Common Threads met at Lynda's. She had finished a scarf made from some of the yarn she picked up at the Unraveled Sheep after our visit to the Utah Quilting and Sewing Marketplace a couple of weeks ago. They're closing down the end of this month, so there was a big sale.

I Lynda's scarf might be this pattern. The yarn has the sequins already attached.

We had a nice visit. Lynda made scones, and we had cut-up fruit and yoghurt.

I'm still sewing the binding on the Kaleidoscope quilt.

We had a break in the weather on Saturday, so we went back to Run-A-Muk Dog Park for another run (for the dogs) and stroll (for us) along the trail.

They had a lot of fun with the dogs they met along the way.

The rest of my business this week was pretty boring: annual physical, pneumonia shot, etc., but church on Sunday was fun, because we got to sing some pieces I had practiced before Sunday. (I do better with a little preparation.)

Sunday afternoon we went to the final opera of the season here. It was Don Giovanni. The music and the performances were outstanding, but the sets and costumes were in Film Noir style in black, white and grey. They were beautifully done, but the juxtaposition was distracting and jarring in connection with this opera, which was partly about class differences, an aspect that disappeared in a 1940s-'50s era US setting. (We had class differences then, but they didn't show up, either.)

What's on my needles: Fair Isle sweater for Lukas.

What's on my Featherweight: Waiting to sew the steeks for the Fair Isle sweater for Lukas.

What's on my loom: Still waiting.

What's on my wheel: Stanzi also still waiting.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Ties that Bind by Marie Bostwick. Some reviewers found it a little overly religious. I thought it was fitting, because one of the two main characters was a female pastor. Now Reading Dawn at Emberwilde by Sarah E. Ladd. On the Kindle app, I’m still reading Dying to Read, The Cate Kinkaid Files Book #1.

What's in my wine glass: Hardy's Shiraz, in the box. Nyeh.

What's my tip of the week: Have an old electric toothbrush brush? Don't throw it away. You can use it and your electric toothbrush to clean areas around your faucets and sink drains. Just don't forget to switch back to your designated toothbrush brush before you get ready to brush your teeth.

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.

A Crazy Busy Week

This week saw me back at hand-quilting my "Sistine Chapel." 

The design the "Delectable Pathways" design by Mary Sorensen I started several years ago. This week I managed to finish quilting the center panel and am now working my way down one of the side panels.

Since I decided to give the scarf I'm weaving to DD, and the loom is operational again, I decided I'd better spend a little time each day working on it. I managed to complete another 12".

The yarn and fabric I received for Christmas/birthday have been prepared, the yarn for knitting and the fabric pressed to the right size for my fabric stash.

Looking at my resident dolls has been making me cold because they have almost nothing to wear, so I decided to take part in a doll KAL (knit-along) on Ravelry in the Debonair Designs for Dolls group. The KAL is for the Polarscape design by Deb Denair.

Our contractor came on Thursday to install the cabinets in the hall leading to our master bath. We had a lot of snow, so DH was out early, blowing the driveway to make room for the contractor's truck and providing some entertainment for our neighbors' puppy. Watch is a poodle mix one month younger than Dusty, but still growing.

We had to move a bunch of stuff to clear the area where the cabinets would go, so it was a busy couple of days. One of the pieces, a side panel for the taller section, was the wrong side, so we still don't have that on, and we're waiting for a mirror with an oak frame that will go over the lower section.

This will provide storage for shoes and clothes. The other side of the hallway is taken up with closet with sliding doors.

For this week's cuteness, here's a photo of Zachary, making breakfast for Zachary Jr. and Hannah. He will be a good daddy someday. He's so happy to have his own doll.

What's on my needles: The Polarscape doll sweater, getting close to joining the sleeves to do the yoke.

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

What's on my loom: Progress on the scarf for DD. 

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is set up again with more Full Circle spinning fiber, no progress, however.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Agatha Raisin and Quiche of Death by M. C. Beaton, then The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George, both from Audible. I would describe the second book as a poetic emotional roller coaster, well written and full of sensory input. Finished Lord Haversham Takes Command by Heidi Ashworth on the Kindle app. There were a lot of grammar/typesetting errors, but the story was interesting. Nothing new started yet.

What's in my wine glass: Big House "Prohibition Red" 2015, by the box. It will probably take us a week to get through it. At least it doesn't go off in the box.

What's my tip of the week: Hand-quilting a quilt with long straight lines doesn't require drawing on the fabric, if your long straight lines are as far apart as a strip of masking tape. It's best to leave the tape off when you stop quilting, but I haven't had it leave any sticky residue so far. The same strip can be used several times. I've found that the quilting is smoother if you always sew in the same direction, rather than going up one row of stitches and down the next.

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.

The Pitter-patter of Little Patterns

I’ve published a pattern on Ravelry, the first I’ve actually uploaded myself.

It’s for a doll, hence the “little.” Here’s the back:

It took me longer to write the pattern and post it on Ravelry than it took to knit.

This was my prototype, which I knit flat except for the sleeves:

I realized after finishing the skirt that the sleeves needed to be finished before joining the body, if knitted flat. This is the back, showing why I decided to do my second one in the round.

The self-striping works out well in the round, but the seam is very obvious when knit flat. The pattern now has directions for knitting in the round (using your method of choice: dpns, two circulars or magic loop) and flat. Although I have written directions for knitting the whole project with straight needles, I have only knit the sleeves in the round. I guess I should try knitting the sleeves according to my directions to make sure they work out. Now I’m working on a knitted jacket to go with each dress. I’ll probably publish the pattern when I get done, now that I sort of know how to do it.

Common Threads met on Thursday at Karan’s. Lynda is working on a Baby Surprise Jacket (BSJ) for a friend’s baby.

Lynda is an experienced knitter, but she keeps remarking on how weird the BSJ is. Karan is making a scarf using cotton yarns in Easter colors.

The pattern is from from Vogue Knitting, Winter 2013/2014, the cover pattern.

Friday night we went to the ballet. Free tickets. Free tickets to the ballet is like a free kitten. You have to consider the additional expenses: gas, dinner out, parking, etc. Still, like a free kitten, the expense has its rewards.

Of course, no week would be quite complete without a trip to the emergency room. DGD1 dropped her hair dryer on her foot, ripping a gash in her little toe, requiring four stitches. Good news: I have my car back. Bad news: We have to drive her to work and pick her up.

What's on my needles:  Jacket to go with the dress. The Trickle Socks, waiting.

What's on my Featherweight: Still doll socks, tights and undies. Will start on Regency outfit for Dolly soon. (I know: promises, promises!)

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished The Watcher by Jo Robertson, a crime novel, another Audible “Deal of the Day.” Then read The Curiosity Keeper by Sarah Ladd. Now Listening to The Lady of Milkweed Manor by Julie Klassen. Still reading A View to Die For by Richard Houston on the Kindle app.

What's in my wine glass: Glen Ellen 2013 Merlot. Nice.

What's my tip of the week: Wear shoes while you're drying your hair.

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.

Fall Projects

The Pucker Up Socks are done:

I wore them to Common Threads on Thursday. It's nice to wear bright socks when it's cold and rainy outside. 

Georgette had finished this drop-stitch scarf, which Lynda is holding up. 

The sock sitting on Lynda's knee in the photo above is the one she's knitting from the yarn I brought her from Germany. Georgette is currently working on the Vertical Stripe Throw and Afghan. (Hers will be the afghan version.)

Julie is working on a long vest from Malabrigo, the same yarn I used for my Steampunk Shawlette.

And Karan brought this quilt to get opinions on hand-quilting designs.

Margareth is making this Fair Isle sweater. This is the back. It's Aspen by Marie Grace Smith.

He is also making herself a mink sweater. Yes, the yarn is actually mink.

Now that the socks are done, I've moved on to the Busy Bee Throw. I've crocheted more than half of the hexagons needed to make the throw. I love that I can keep a crochet hook and a ball of City Tweed in my purse to work on if I get tied up somewhere while I'm out. However, now that I'm actually making progress, I'm also working on it at home.

My fabric from Connecting Threads has arrived in Park City and should be delivered today. I'll post a photo of the yummy stuff along with the half a bolt Kona Snow fabric I bought from Julie. (She gets a discount because she owns a quilting business.)

Meanwhile, Sunny continues to lose weight slowly, in spite of the occasional treat from Daddy. It's a good thing he didn't teach her to beg...or Rocky, either.

Her diet has worked so well, I've recommended it to my friends who want to lose weight. Here it is: 1 1/4 C kibble a day (brand not important, but stay away from the really cheap stuff), and an occasional piece of carrot, banana, potato peel or other fresh fruit or vegetable. (If you catch a mouse, you can chew on it, but you have to spit it out when you're done, because it might have consumed poison before you caught it.) I guarantee you will lose weight if you follow this diet.

What's on my hook: Working on hexagons for the Busy Bee Throw.

What's on my Featherweight: First Ladies Quilt. Still.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce, based on Rumpelstilskin. Now listening to The Girl With All the Gifts by M. R. Carey. A new take on the zombie apocalypse, not something I usually choose, but the description of this intrigued me, and it was an Audible Deal of the Day, so I have it a try. I don't want to put it down. It sort of reminds me of some of Dean Koontz's novels. Finished Cut from the Same Cloth, by Kathleen Baldwin, from Kindle, the last of the "My Notorious Aunt" series. I want to read more from Baldwin. Now I have Miss Goldsleigh's Secret by Amylynn Bright on my Kindle app, good so far. I've been sticking to free books from Book Bub, and it's keeping me in reading. You can sign up to get daily mailings of eBooks that are free or very inexpensive in various categories. (You get to choose.) The books are available in various apps. I usually choose Kindle, because often the free book will give you the option to buy the WhisperSync version very inexpensively.

What's in my wine glass: A Pinot Grigio from Glen Ellen, vintage 2013. It doesn't keep well, so...drink up! 

What's my tip of the week: Children grow in length more than width. When making a sweater for a growing child, choosing a top-down pattern (starting at the neck and working down) makes it easier to lengthen the sleeves or even the torso by undoing the BO sts, picking them up as you go and adding yarn. Then you can knit a few extra inches to get more use out of your sweater. 

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.