This and That

I have a bagful of knitting to show you!

I purchased this yarn at my LYS this afternoon. It is Classic Elite: Moorland. I would like to make a shawl for church, and I wear a lot of brown and green so this lovely heathered color will be perfect! Quite versatile I think.

My cousin mailed me the "Juneberry Shawl", I think that's the pattern I'll use with this lovely yarn.

My "Bleeding Hearts Stole" has progressed some since I last showed it to you. I realized once I got going on it that it was not realistic to try and get it done in such a short time. So I am taking my time on it, just doing a few rows here and there. This pattern has lace work on both the right side AND wrong side rows. Consequently it ends up being a little bit of a headache after awhile. I'm used to have the wrong side of the row to relax from patterning. I want to make the stole shorter than the pattern requires, but I'm not sure if I have enough yardage. I'll probably order another skein just to make sure. I can't wait until the stole is finished and I can block it! It's so much fun to see it transform from a scrunched up bit of knitting, into a lovely, lacy garment.

And lastly my reversible dolls! They are from the "Itty Bitty Toys" book. I've been wanting to make one of the reversible patterns for awhile now and finally did this past weekend. Aren't they SO cute!? I will probably keep this first reversible for my self. I used handspun yarn for the multi-colored doll shown above.

Don't you just love her hair? It's so wild. It stands out every which way when she is turned right side out.

And one last photo, to demonstrated how the reversible works. Very nifty I must say. This was a fun side project to work on over the weekend. Now I'll have to try out some of the animal reversibles.

I need to head to the kitchen now and make supper, stir fry chicken and veggies.

You all take care, and I'll be back with you soon, Lord willing!

I

A Bit Of Christmas Knitting

Recently we were able to go on a short, but lovely, family vacation. I'll have to share the photos with you some other time.

The place that we stayed was absolutely chock full of antiques and beautiful pieces of furniture, perfect for doing photo shoots. I was wishing I had brought a whole suitcase of knitted items to photograph! The area was a blogger's dream come true.

I also received a new camera for Christmas, which was wonderful! Now I can share a few projects with you and, Lord willing, keep things updated better.

I made this lovely little scarf as a Christmas gift for my Mother. It is made with handspun angora/merino yarn. In fact it is one of the earlier yarns that I ever spun. I was saving it for something special. Unfortunately I can't tell you where I got the pattern from, I don't even remember where it is from! It was a copy I had floating about in my pattern binders.

It's a VERY soft scarf, and I was quite pleased with the way it turned out.

I only have one picture of this shawl, and it's not a very good one at that. This pattern I found on ravelry. It is the "Age of Brass and Steam" Kerchief. I only used about 230yds worsted, handspun, merino yarn. It is a fairly simple shawl, it worked up in two days. Personally I wouldn't mind making this one for myself, but with twice as much yarn so it ended up a lot longer. This, however, was a perfect size for the little lady who received it. She had been dropping hints that this yarn would make a nice shawl for her.

I also made two more pairs of the "Sweet Fern Mitts" from the Knitter;s book of Wool. I didn't photograph the other. This pair here was for my Mother. I also made some lovely blue ones for my sister. I have several other gifts waiting for their photo shoot, originally I wasn't planning on doing a Christmas knitting post, it just kind of happened. And I wasn't completely prepared. Just hang in there, and one of these days I'll post the rest of my gift knitting.

I'm very excited, & pleased to introduce you to...... Jillian! She was by far the most fun gift to make, although I loved making them all. Jillian is the little rabbit out of the "Last Minute Knitted Gifts". I really wanted to make her, but was unsure what yarn to use for her body. So I had the slightly crazy idea of carding together alpaca & white angora rabbit fur, and then spinning it up on my top whorl drop spindle.

Yes.

Well, it was rather ambitious. But thankfully I had enough time to accomplish the spinning as well as the knitting before Christmas day. And she was well received by her new mommy. :)

Jillian is SO soft and fuzzy, and completely adorable. I want to make another rabbit just like her for myself. In fact, almost everyone who has seen her wants one! Her ears are made out of angora yarn. Her facial features are embroidered on with embroidery floss.

And I thought Jillian need accessories, so I made her several little shawls. Since then her wardrobe has been increased with both blankets and more shawls. She is quite the well dressed rabbit!

And I'll leave you with a close up of that sweet, little face!

Until next time, my friends!

Introducing......Brown-Eyed Susan Columbine!!!!

Isn't she sweet? Such a little lady and sitting so prim and proper in the tree. I made Susan for my sister's birthday. She is made with the same pattern that I made Edith Iris with last year. I don't know where my sister's come up with these creative names but they certainly keep life interesting! Susan is the shortened version of her lovely name.

As a note: she is made out of muslin, cotton fabric, cotton stuffing, embroidery floss, and alpaca yarn.

Up-close detail of her skirt and lace. I didn't have a pattern for the dress. The magazine that the doll came out of had a dress with un-hemmed edges that wasn't meant to come off at all. So I designed this fun dress that comes off and has lots of ruffles making it full and gorgeous. My sisters have pointed out to me that despite the fact that their dolls dresses can come off, there is no need at present because they have nothing to change in to. This was a very broad hint that the poor dolls need a wardrobe. So we'll see what can be done about that in the future

Susan has learned to sit quietly in the grass without staining her ruffles.

But the steps are by far the safest place out of doors for a little lady.

She is already a well read doll, and enjoys the Bobbsey Twin Series very much.

And I couldn't resist this shot to show you how Susan managed to climb in to her prim and proper pose earlier pictured. :) Good thing she has long arms and legs, it makes tree climbing SO much easier!

Free Pattern: Petite Dolls

Here are the results from an evening of fiddling around with yarn. This is one pattern I am very excited to share with you! But before we jump into it let me say that my giveaway is still going on until the 4th of May. So if you have not entered it and want to, please do so!

Okay. Introducing............Petite Dolls!!!

Isn't she adorable? I chose specifically not to put faces on them. I'll stop gabbing now and we can get to the pattern.....

1 Petite Doll
Materials: -2 dpn size US 5
-worsted weight yarn, color A & B. A few yards each. ( I used scraps of Patons Classic Wool.)
- Natural Cotton Batting

With color A cast on 20 stitches, leaving a 7 inch tail. Work in stockinette stitch until piece measures 2 1/2 inches.

Attatch color B and end off color A. Weave in tails on wrong side of work.
Work in stockinette stitch until color B measures 1 1/4 inches.
Cut yarn, leaving a 16" tail. Do NOT bind off.



Cut a 12 inch piece of color B yarn. Using a running stitch, stitch across first row of color B skipping every other stitch.

Leave tails hanging on either side of work.

Using a yarn needle, run the 16 inch tail through all 20 live stitches, slipping them off the needle.

Pull on yarn tail to cinch tightly, forming top of head.

Seam up back of the head, pausing at the color change. Stuff head firmly with natural cotton stuffing.

Take tails from each end of the running stitch and pull tightly to cinch the neck. Tie ends in a knot and clip short so they will be hidden in the doll's body.

Finish seaming up the back and end off. Stuff body with natural cotton stuffing.

Legs: Make 2

Cast on 3 stitches and make a 1 1/4 inch I-cord. Bind off.

The leg was so tiny that I didn't know where to put all my tails. In the end I knotted the cast on tail at the "toes" and then ran it up through the leg. I knotted the two tails at the top of the leg and cut them short. Later they will be hidden in the body.

Arms: Make 2

Same as for legs only work until piece measure 2 1/2 before binding off.

Deal with tails in same manner as legs only after knotting tails at the top of leg tuck one back down in the arm and clip. I leave the bind off tail long to use later for stitching the arms on to the body.

Using 7 inch tail from cast on, start stitching the bottom of the doll closed. I stitched from the middle and worked toward the left making sure to pierce through the legs.

I then came back towards the middle, whipstitching the edge and then stitching through the legs again.

Work to the right, and then back to the middle. End off and bury the tail deep inside the doll.

Stitch arms to body using tails.

You can use the same tail to stitch both arms to the body. When you are finished with one arm run the yarn through the neck and use it to stitch the other arm on. Remember to hide all tails in the body.

And your Petite Person is finished!

I hope you have enjoyed this pattern as much as I have!

Feel free to share it with a friend as well. I let a few adults see these Petite Dolls before putting them up on the blog as a free pattern. They absolutely loved them! The Petite Dolls have also been "child-approved" The first few I made have already had many adventures and are much loved.

If something did not make sense in this tutorial please let me know and I will try my best to be more clear.

I would love to know what you thought of my pattern!

Let me know what if you blog about my dolls, or post on ravelry, I would love to see everyones creations!