Sunday, April 27, 2014

SQUIRREL!

I'm going stir crazy when it comes to my knitting. I have such grand aspirations only to be grounded by the fact that I owe people knits. And of course, I taunt myself with ravelry. But these? These might not wait. If you are a member, then you know that you have a page of suggested things based on your searches and what you've made/queued. These popped up on mine:

Copyright belongs to Knitted Toy Box

Copyright belongs to Knitted Toy Box


How cute are these?? The pattern for Elsa is here and Anna is here. I was sucked into the Frozen world, Let It Go wanders through my head along with the ice harvesters chanting from the beginning. But I was so very impressed with these patterns. Not only are they offered for free, but they are well written. I am knit fangirling here, and I have no shame. These are sorely tempting me away from my work and if I had all the yarn? There would be no stopping me from casting on for them RIGHT MEOW! Ahem. So. In conclusion, I want all the yarn for these adorable dolls and I need them now. kthnxbye ;) (that would only work if Hubs read the blog).

In other news, I'm also torturing myself over socks. I have yet to complete a pair of socks, but I want some nonetheless. I get distracted by the time I finish one sock, so I end up with a loner just languishing. I should make a Dobby clothesline and just pin them all up. That would give me an excuse to keep making just one, right? Right? From the looks of my floor, though, I'm not lucky enough to have a house elf anyways.

I'm also working on a shawl, the Vortex Shawl, which is going slow. Steady, but slow, mostly because my yarn choice is meh. Was that on my list? Of course not. Several hats got bumped for that. Which is why I REALLY need to finish, to prove I had a good reason for reshuffling. After all, who doesn't bargain with themselves?

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

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.