Easter Gift Goodness

I'm a sucker for knitting new projects instead of what I intended. I had already knitted a dress and capelet for Bugs doll. But then I got it into my head to further spoil this offspring of mine, and make a Kiki themed dress. By Kiki, i mean Kiki's Delivery Service by Studio Ghibli. I have most of the outfit, all I'm lacking is the broomstick (which is what I'll be doing today. Starting with the dress, I used the Raglan Banded Dress by ABC Knitting Patterns. I had to do a bit of fudging with the skirt to make it work, I was silly and removed the stitch markers after the top part when you needed them for increases. I'll update when I can get pictures on the doll, I had to do this on the sly and didn't get a chance to try it on. Here is a back view, I was one short of those cute flower buttons so I had to make due.

Then I had to make shoes. Walmart, Kmart, and Target all have their own versions of AG dolls (and they are all more reasonably priced). The shoes and clothes are sometimes hit or miss, I've had good luck with the shoes from Walmart. I found a pair of pink mary janes for a buck or two, can't remember exactly. But, they were bright pink. Enter nailpolish. 

In progress, used Avon in Ruby Red Slippers. Took about three coats to make it all even

Finished shoes, black is Wet and Wild Black. Even the bottoms were pink, it was kind of glaring against all the red.

She also needed a Jiji. I tried a pattern before, but I couldn't adapt it worth a crap. So I went to a fallback, Tabitha the Destash Kitty (free ravelry download). I've used this before, kicking myself for not thinking of using it in the first place. His eyes are slightly off center, it's hard to attach two buttons at once, if I was smart I'd have done the white then the black ones. Eh, too late now, it was too much of a fuss the first time. He's cute, and that's what counts.

For the broomstick, I'm using these instructions from Natural Suburbia.  I snagged some straw from my parents, already have dowels, and some hemp to make it look tied. To keep it secure, I'm going to hot glue the straw in layers so I hopefully have nice full bristles. I've been busy otherwise, I made a shawl for a birthday gift, working on a baby blanket, hats, instead of all the stuff I really should be doing. I even sewed a doll tutu, ever try and sew tulle? Almost as bad as stitching satin.

I was bad and bought new yarn. Three balls of Crystal Palace Fjord, three of Bernat Mosaic, and one of fingering weight yarn. The last is a mystery, it was all rolled up, havent the foggiest of what it's even made of. But it is gorgeous, shades of red. I even lucked out and found a set of 5 dpns  size 1, in metal. Know what that means? SOCKS! I haven't finished a set, ever, but I still want to make more. I'm such a project whore, I start one and drop it when the shiny new one comes along. Ravelry is my dealer, and I refuse to go to AA meetings. Once I actually finish something, I'll post more. I know you are all DYING to see my half done hat and almost turned heels.