I am done with the lower half of sleeve #1 for Chutzpah. I knitted the sweater body in one piece from the hem up to the underarm. All of those stitches are threaded onto lifelines (in this case, a doubled strand of Gütermann silk sewing thread): one for each front, one for each underarm, and one for the back.



Now I am knitting both sleeves to the same point and will join them on, then knit raglan decreases up to the neck. Once I get both sleeves added, but before I complete the decreases, I will have to decide: is this a cardigan, opening in the front like the first two doll sweaters I have made and using beads for buttons? Or is it a mock pullover, opening in the back and using snaps or Velcro or ribbon threaded through eyelets to close?



In the meantime, it has been fun to work on a sleeve that, when I reached the underarm, was about about the width of a quarter. I am working the sleeve over 24 stitches, slipping the first stitch (without knitting it) at the beginning of each row to make a nice, neat edge. And the sleeve is one-third the width of the body. So each three-row pattern repeat takes as long as one row on the body. Which didn’t take long at all.

I still wish these needles were pointier on the end. I think that if I were knitting on needles the size that normal people use (i.e. size 5 or larger for a human-sized sweater), these would be sufficiently pointy. But at this gauge I am getting split stitches here and there because the end of the needle just noses at the yarn instead of sliding under it.

There are two itty-bitty lifelines, three stitches wide, at the edge of each sleeve.

Time to cast on for sleeve #2.

Oh dear!

I’ve discovered a website that sells tiaras.

I also found this little cutie. You know me; I like happy dolls. It comes from having five daughters and all the attendant estrogen-fueled drama.

Here is another picture of Chutzpah and the new Shekhawati-style chest, bought at World Market last Wednesday night.



[I really try to limit the doll pictures on my primary blog; less crazy-making for my two oldest human kids.]

In other doll news, I am up to the armpits on Chutzpah’s sweater and need to insert a lifeline while I figure out what to do about the sleeves, the front shaping, and other minor details.

I am knitting this one on 00000 needles. It is slow going and extremely frustrating if I drop a stitch, but the fabric I am getting is worth all the trouble. You will have to take my word on this, however, as I am not a good-enough photographer to give you a visual.

Faith is sulking because I did not make her sweater first.

Chutzpah, Before and After

I’ve already shown her off, over on my Facebook page and on my primary blog. Here are before and after pictures. Perching on the sugar packets, in Eliza R. Snow ringlets, the day she arrived.



In a flower bed, at the Temple. I’d already started playing with her hair.



With her hair all teased out.



Watching fireworks last night.



I’ve finished knitting socks for one of my friends at church. Now it’s time to start swatching for sweaters for Faith and Chutzpah. Woohoo!

“Intolerable Cruelty”

No, not the movie featuring George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones. I fell in love with this skirt when it was published in Knitty in Fall 2006, a few months after I had resumed knitting. But I couldn’t justify making it for myself, for several reasons. One: my derriere stopped being cute a couple of decades ago, and this skirt draws attention to the wearer’s callipygous qualities. Or lack thereof.

Two: I dress modestly, and while this skirt more than adequately covers the essentials, it also emphasizes them (see “One”, above). I considered making the skirt longer and working the ribbon loops at or just above the back of the knee, thereby satisfying my love of decoration while remaining true to my standards. But in the end I just sighed and left it off my queue.

Three: knitted skirts gang aft agley. They can warp and twist from an improperly balanced yarn, sag from the weight of the yarn, become rump-sprung.

Behold the solution:



I knitted size L in approximately 1/3 scale. Yesterday I went to The French Knot and special-ordered some handpainted silk ribbon for the lacing, but this will work for now. I used all but a golf-ball-sized remnant of a full skein of Elsebeth Lavold’s Hempathy. The ribbing was knitted using size 000 needles, the body on 00’s. I tried working the ruffle, but the yarn was too stiff at this scale, so I opted for a ribbed hem instead. When I finish (i.e., design and make) the silk dupioni blouse that will go with this, I’ll take a picture of Celeste in her new finery. I have another ball of this yarn. It might wind up as a jacket. Lovely yarn, only the tiniest bit splitty.

Saturday’s Doll Meet-up

In no particular order. I loved the tulle underskirt and the lace overskirt on this costume.



That brunette seemed to be saying, “You want me to what?”

I am starting to connect faces to screen names, and also to their respective dolls. The people who sat with us at the table behind these dolls, owned them.



These guys were sitting just to their left, my right.



The blonde doll with the anime-style ponytails, sitting there in the back, belongs to Mel-Mel-Chan, wife of Full Metal Squishy, who is LDS.



I don’t remember which doll was his. Panning a little to the right, we get this bunch.



And continuing around the table, the back of the doll with the lavender hair and red shirt. I don’t even try to figure out which dolls are male and which are female. Because most of the male sculpts look effeminate to me.



Love that red dress with the black lace trim. Swinging almost all the way around the table to the left again, we see these characters.



Another shot of the first bunch. The little guy on the left is wearing a Ken-as-Legolas costume.



Somehow I am not buying Barbie as Galadriel, if they made such a costume. Nekokoi would know...

And here you have her mini-me, with green hair but without a face-up. I promise, she is wearing shorts with her T-shirt and hoodie and flip-flops. And little Faith in her denim jumper and long-sleeved T-shirt that Rorek made.



(Naturally, I think we saved the best for last.)

Best time yet at the doll meet :)

Although one of us overindulged on milkshakes. Somebody brought miniature margarita glasses, and the dolls had quite a party on one of the tables. Celeste flopped back, and her wig flew off. It was just too good of an opportunity to miss.



Here they are at home, gathered together for storytime.



We are going to have to do something about the big girls’ wigs, which keep slip-slidin’ away. Here is a close-up of the three of them. Blessing looks just stunned to have a little sister in her lap.



Rorek made three new shirts for Faith, and a little denim jumper. But those will have to wait for another day. It’s naptime for Ms. Ravelled.

Dolly bits are in customs?

Or possibly have cleared customs. So maybe they will arrive at Nekokoi’s work today? And if not today, then Monday. Woohoo! No more bald, blind dolly!

I need to finish Celeste’s sweater so that I can start one for Faith. I am almost done with the waist ribbing and will then get to engineer sufficient room for her [ahem!] abundance.

But first I need to go work out, so that my brain will work.

Stealth Dolly!

Faith is here, a month sooner than I had expected her. Nekokoi texted me at work to say we had a mystery box from SOOM. No drama, no announcement, just a box with three dolls in it, each of them in perfect condition and with no missing parts.

I am much mollified, sufficiently so that I went to SOOM’s website a few minutes ago and checked out the new monthly doll. I like the faun ears much better on the teenies than on Amber herself. And the little stubby antlers are so cute. But no, not tempted. The next doll will probably be my DOB HoHo/Arie, to be known as Hope. And Charity will probably be DOB’s Libra; her little face reminds me so much of Rorek’s when she was a child.

I have Faith’s human head on her body, here at home, so I can make her something suitable to wear. Nekokoi has the hoofie bits and the uni-baby face. We will probably be ordering eyes and wigs tonight and finalizing which colors I want for her faceup and body blushing. I may even spring for undies for my three girls. Blessing is a little tired of going commando. Celeste doesn’t seem to mind in the slightest; she is flopped down on the couch waiting for me to finish her sweater, and every time I look, her skirt seems to have hiked up a bit higher. I have no idea what kind of personality or behaviors Faith will reveal. I would like to encourage modesty all around.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled knitting...