The Dolls, yet again.

What can I tell you?  I'm obsessed with sewing.  It's not my fault.  Blame Miss P, who started me on the downward spiral of sewing.

This is all I want to do.  Forget meals. That's why eggs and yogurt were invented.  Laundry?  Hah!  Errands?  Only if they include a quilt shop or Joanne's.  Straightening up my mess?  Are you serious here?  Whatever is the point of it?  I'll only make more of a mess tomorrow.

So, here are the latest dolls and their clothing.  His Most Royal Hubboness, He who shops at rummage sales, found 2 AG dolls, both with "hair cuts".  One of them is Kit; I'm not sure who the other one is, but she's lovely.  2 dolls for a total of $15!

Kit, on the left, is wearing an outfit from the last post, but this time embellished with a teensy weensy yo yo.  And the unknown AG doll has a yo yo on the top of her little dress.

Here are the 3 "embellished" ladies.

So, now I spend my time looking at patterns for the gals.  And I'm also getting ready to actually attempt to sew a knitting project bag.  Given that it's a bunch of straight lines, it should be much easier than  little armholes and such.

And I'm seriously thinking of starting to do some patchwork.  My poor knitting and crocheting are languishing.  But looking at all the fabric colors makes me want to dye yarn.  I'm thinking of a summer collection in Bambi, merino and bamboo.  Maybe bright summery looks, with the bamboo, which doesn't take the dye, to soften the colors.  Hmmmmm.  I need an 8 day week and a 30 hour day.  The more I play, the more I want to play.

Wall-to-wall books - In your dreams!  Making the little outfits is more than enough.  I'm not particularly good at this.  Yeah, they look fine on the outside, but turn them over and we have a mess.

Dolly Friday

I'm having such a grand time sewing these AG doll clothes.  Not that I'm a great sewer, but these little items don't have to be perfect, and anyhow, I'm an expert on ripping out.  I'm so used to it with knitting design, that it doesn't even bother me any more.

So here are the girls in their new outfits.  Most of these have been made twice:  the first time I ripped, and then almost got it right the second time.  tee hee.

This skirt was a pain in the neck to do.  I used a pattern that called for charm squares (5" squares), and I bought a package at Joanne's.  Some of the squares were not square, and it drove me batty.  Plus there were cut with a pinking shears, which also did not make me happy.  So I had to attach them to each other, then do a bit of ruffling (which I kind of like), and sew all those seams.  I'm not fond of how it wants to stick out at the end of the first tier.  I'd like to do something like this again, but either do it with my own 5" blocks, or just use large strips of fabric.  I was smart enough to measure each finished strip, so I can do this again.  The top was kind of odd to do, but all in all, it seems to work, and The Principessa will like it, I hope.  And if she doesn't, I'll take it back and give it to Miss P.  Between the 2 kids, somebody will like something. 

I loved doing the little halter top and skirt. That's the one on the left. I used some batik also from Joannes, and the pieces were fun and easy to do.  I may not have actually ripped this one the first time.  This one will go to Miss P.  I want to do one in pinks for the Principessa, since she is at that stage of loving pink.  Miss P has moved past pink and onto maybe greens?  I don't know.  Again, if it doesn't please her, I'll take it back and give it to the Principessa.

Aren't these cute?  The tops are done with that little top from the first outfit I made, and the skirts are miniskirts from somebody's pattern.  The left on is for Miss P, and the right one for the Principessa.  I got both outfits out of 2 fat quarters.  I love fat quarters.  Inexpensive, and fun and enough yardage for lots of things.  I think the fabric came from a wonderful quilt shop on the Cape - Heartbeat Quilts.  An amazing shop with more fabric that you can begin to imagine.  A bit pricey, but wonderful stuff.

This last little outfit is a combo of 2 patterns.  The top is from Liberty Jane, and I do not like the fit.  It is awkward to get on and way too tight at the bottom.  So tight that I can't get it over the skirt.  Plus turning under the edge at the armhole (on the right) was a huge pain in the butt.  With these little 1/4" seams, there not much space for cutting, so I had to seriously fudge.  I think the pattern would work well in a knit, but I suspect that the bottom would still be very tight to put on.  I'm going to add a bit onto each side of the pattern to get it to fit better.  But I don't know what to do about that armhole.  I do love almost all the Liberty Jane patterns, so I think this was me trying to work a woven into a knitted pattern.  Oh well, I bought the fabric at Joanne's, and I know there is more out there.  I kinda like the way the top looks with the little ruffle on the skirt, but to really work, the top needs to be worn outside and it doesn't fit over the skirt.  Grumble grumble.  Whatever.  I can give the skirt to a kid, but they will scream with frustration with the top.

And that's the story, Morning Glory.

Whoops, I didn't tell you all about this year's trip to Cape Cod.  I'll post that another time.  It was beyond wonderful.  I could go back in an instant.  And I'll tell you all about The Platinum Pebble Inn.  I'm in love.

Scrabblequeen - We knitters are experts at ripping, aren't we.  After you do it over and over, it ceases to be a pain and just becomes part of the project.  Sounds good, doesn't it?

Wall-to-wall books   - I'm having such fun doing this.  Now I'm looking into a bit of quilting, maybe a log cabin.  Also going to find fabric for a sock project bag and a large tote.  I need my head examined.  Clearly I'm on the road to ruin here.


Wall-to-wall books - Me too.  Now to get the courage to actually make a block!  I'm such a scaredy cat.

Henya - Thank you.

An exercise in humility.

I can knit almost anything I want with my eyes closed and my hands tied behind my back.  It's that easy for me.  Yep, I frog plenty, but almost always because I'm designing and don't like what I'm doing.  And I'm getting better at crochet.  OK, I'm pretty good at flat pieces; haven't ventured forth into sweaters and such, and I suspect that may be a challenge for me because I don't think in crochet terms, I think in knitting.  But I can crochet lots of patterns.

And many years ago I was an ace embroiderer.  Hardanger, cut work, canvas work, I could do it all.

And I say this in all modesty:  you have to know what you are good at.  And I'm good at all of those nice yarny/thready hand-worked crafts.

And then there is sewing.  Gah!  What can I say?  I haven't sewn a garment in over 20 years, maybe even 25 years.  The last time I used a sewing machine was maybe 15-20 years ago when I went through my Fair Isle phase and steeked everything.

So last Saturday we went into Stroudsburg, PA to the Pocono Sewing and Vac Shop and I bought a little, portable Janome.  Fine.  Good.  I can do this, right?

At first my goal was to try piecing.  I have no desire to do actual quilting, at least not at this time, or probably forever.  But I adore patchwork quilts and I want to try something out there.  And hey, it's mostly sewing a straight line, unless you are doing curves, and that's beyond me at the moment.

And then, in a moment of total lunacy, I bought some AG doll patterns online, and the rest is history.  So far I've made one outfit:  a reversible wrap skirt and a top from a Liberty Jane pattern.  It's taken me at least 4 hours per pattern to make each garment.  You have to see me in action to watch me try to figure out the pattern.  I can't read instructions.  Well, I can, but have no patience for it.  Yes.  Well.  Uh huh.  Go figure this out without reading the instructions, ruth.

The humility part?  I now totally understand how a beginning knitter feels.  What I can do without a thought, is not so simple for the beginner or for someone who is learning a new technique.  I feel so clumsy and so dopey, and I'm so grateful that I actually made 2 pieces of clothing and didn't sew my fingers together or jam up the machine more than twice.  I have learned how to thread the needle many times; how to put in the bobbin also a few times.  When and how not to do a little zigzag.  1/4 inch seam is not a 1/2 inch seam.  Yup, I've learned that.  Sewing velcro on is not all that hard, but getting the 2 pieces to meet is another story.  Cutting out with a scissors is not too painful, but learning the rotary cutter is another story.  Oh, I am such a novice at this.  I have laughed so much at myself today.  It's a riot to watch me in action.

But I did it.  Not terribly well.  Those velcro pieces are not lined up, but Miss P can figure it out.

Look, Ma, I did it.  Notice that the top goes with the skirt.  Did you see that little ribbon that goes around the neck?

Reversible skirt.  Whoo hoo.  Notice that the velcro part is hidden in the back.  What, I'm going to show you the mismatched stuff?  No way.

OK, the top stitching on the bottom of the top has a bit of a wave to it.  But it could be much worse.

Doesn't Josefina look cute?  I'm exhausted.  I could have run a marathon for how tired I am.  Clearly this is a major lesson in humility, but it is such fun.  No, not the humility part, the sewing part, goofs, velcro and all.

So now I'm thinking that I ought to dye some yarn to match the many fat quarters I bought and make little cardigans or hats or a bolero.

If I were a drinking woman, I have a large swig right about now. 

So what should I do next?

Linda W - Can't you just see that?  And we'd all walk down the street together in our finery.

The Yarnarian Chats.

I haven't been blogging much the last few weeks, but I have been busy.  Lots of dyeing for the Light & Dark Lace Club, pattern revision and such, working out some ideas for Roxanne's shipment way off in April, etc, etc.

I decided that I needed to somehow get my sweater mojo back, so I started playing with ideas by making outfits for the American Girl Doll.  These are not the nicest knits, far from it, but they have become a great place to noodle around with ideas.   So here's a mini-dress/tunic/skating dress that I did the other day.  When you look at it, you'll see immediately a major design flaw.  I wanted to decrease the skirt between lace patterns, so I did a bit of k1,p1 ribbing and then decreased within it.  Bad move.  I should have done either reverse stockinette or garter and decreased within it.  So now I know.  And the dopey thing is that I knew it was wrong as I was doing it, but I just wanted to keep going and see what happens and after blocking whether it would improve.  Nope.  Ah well, Miss P won't care, and I do love the shaping of the little tunic.  I particularly like the garter border on the skirt and the waviness of the edge.  Cute.  I also like the square neck.  It goes over the doll's head very easily.  I used Knit Picks Palette which knits and blocks so nicely, and it softens up considerable after washing.  I will do another one, only top down, and longer.

The tunic is totally without seams.  The shoulders use a 3 needle bind-off and the sleeves are picked up and knit downwards.  I used garter stitch to set off various design components.  I do this a lot because I really like it.  I used on ball, and have plenty left over.  How can you go wrong with a tunic that costs $1.99?

So now I've started a sweater for me.  Gasp!  Shock!  Amazement!  This is also out of Palette.  It will not be very warm because it's loosely knitted and Palette is a 2-ply fingering wt. yarn, but it's so easy on my hands and it just zooms along.  I can actually knit this much faster than a heavier wt yarn.  Lots of lace and I may change the lace pattern as i go up the sweater.  I'm going to do a square neckline and pick up the sleeves and work downward as usual.  Because the body of the sweater goes up, and the sleeves go down, I may use a different sleeve pattern.  I'm very used to this, and I like it.  By the time I get to the sleeves, I'll be so bored with the pattern that I will be happy to do something else.  Or maybe whatever I do further up the sweater body, I'll also do on the sleeves.  If it doesn't look dopey. 

A bit of note on the yarn:  This is how yarn used to feel before merino got into our hands:  woolly and not as soft as merino.  I love this kind of yarn; it's what I've knit with all my life.  It washes well, wears like iron, doesn't itch me, although I do wear a turtleneck or a blouse underneath sweaters.  Not to say anything at all against merino.  I love merino, but it's nice to work on something else for a change.  This yarn is not Shetland, which is probably my all-time favorite yarn, but it's very pleasant, unbelievably cheap, and good quality and yardage.  Now I want to dig through my stock of Shetland and see if I have enough of any one color for a sweater.  Wool!  The best fiber out there.

The Yarnarian Surfaces Again.

I've been busy dyeing up for the July Fiber Barista sock club, and now I'm finished with the dyeing part. Being a notorious procrastinator and also terrified that something could come between me and the dyeing, I did this early. I know me, unfortunately. Much to my surprise, the dyeing was very pleasant, and I learned that I can do a large lot (for me, not for my fellow Baristas) efficiently and enjoyably. Who knows what that will lead to.

I don't do wholesale because it is a lot of work, and hey, I am retired; I don't want to work that hard. BUT, I'd do it if a certain Loopy Ewe wanted me. It would feed my ego. However they don't, and my ego is just fine. Of course I've never even contacted them, so you can see that I'm on the fence here. Eh, it's much more fun doing this on a small basis.

Knitting news: working and working, and frogging, and working some more. One set of pics only, that of the little American Girl Doll skirt. I bought a pattern from Malfrid Gausel and it is so cute.
It's this one, Lilly. I started the skirt in an old Tofutsies yarn I had hanging around, and had to frog it because my gauge and the designer's gauge were not in sync. So, I redesigned it for me, and here is the final result.






I know, 4 pics of a doll skirt, but it is enchanting. What's next is a white little sweater with trim from the skirt. At this point, I'm on my own, I'm not using the original pattern at all.

Off to violet and purple and turquoise and yellow and rose and who knows what else.

itsJUSTme-wendy - Thanks. Do you know that at the end I had around 300 stitches?

KV - It's an adaption of a pattern and I think I'm be violating copyright to sell it, but isn't it adorable?

Henya - Clearly we are on the same wave length. She looks so cute in her skirt!

The Yarnarian Knits Another MIllieLillie Top!

Here it is. It was going to be a dress but I got bored, so I turned it into a tunic instead. Ah the wonders of doing your own designs.

I find the fit a bit difficult to put on the doll. It goes on easily if the arms are up in the air, but I won't do another top-down raglan; just fiddly for a little kid.

The yarn is an ancient Trekking that's been in my stash for years, and was waiting for the proper moment. I have lots and lots left over, too.




merrilymarylee - The "girls" are addictive. All mine, except for the ugly one in this little tunic, were bought at garage sales. The Hubbo's an expert at stuff!