I checked my order status at Iplehouse this morning. I have a tracking number for my Naias. She may be here as early as tomorrow, depending upon how long she spends at customs.
No idea when I can get her to Nekokoi for her face-up, as this is looking like a particularly busy week. But pictures soon, I promise!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Out of dolly debt.
(Originally published this morning on my spinning blog. Oye.)
My Iplehouse Naias is paid off. I am just getting the basic doll, a wig, and a black turtleneck T-shirt. The fairy/naiad bits are cute, but they don’t suit the character I have in mind for her.
I also paid off this outfit I bought from Fourthborn. Pictures of the petticoat, crinoline and shoes are on my primary blog today. The blouse:
The crinoline, which I wanted as a pattern for future ones of my own design:
And the petticoat, pretty in its own right (although the commercial lace does not thrill me excessively), and also useful as a pattern.
I’ll try to remember to photograph the vest and the overskirt in the near future.
I bought more yarn for doll hats last night on my way home from work. Progress is slow but I think steady toward opening my Etsy shop.
My Iplehouse Naias is paid off. I am just getting the basic doll, a wig, and a black turtleneck T-shirt. The fairy/naiad bits are cute, but they don’t suit the character I have in mind for her.
I also paid off this outfit I bought from Fourthborn. Pictures of the petticoat, crinoline and shoes are on my primary blog today. The blouse:
The crinoline, which I wanted as a pattern for future ones of my own design:
And the petticoat, pretty in its own right (although the commercial lace does not thrill me excessively), and also useful as a pattern.
I’ll try to remember to photograph the vest and the overskirt in the near future.
I bought more yarn for doll hats last night on my way home from work. Progress is slow but I think steady toward opening my Etsy shop.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Neglected blog.
There has been way too much going on in non-doll life. I did finish the sweater for Chutzpah.
It has buttonholes on each side of the button band and laces up with silk ribbon from my stash.
I bought a DOC Bee-A from Nekokoi, who sent all sorts of clothing and shoes home with her. That’s Honor, in the red.
I have one payment remaining on an Iplehouse Naias, who will either be Hope or Charity when she arrives sometime after my birthday in mid-April. I am also severely tempted by both Erzulie (love that ladybug on her dress!) and Efreet, although I would like Efreet better if she were not so pouty.
And I am opening up an Etsy shop (soon). This is some of the yarn I ordered last week, when I was snowed/iced in.
Right now I have a dozen hats in three sizes, all knitted up from Noro Kureyon Sock in four colorways. And I need to reconstruct the pattern for Chutzpah’s sweater, because I’m not finding it in any of the usual places in Word. One of my friends in the doll world has suggested that I offer some items in non-wool fibers, hence the silk tweed (beige) and bamboo (lime green) you see above. The fuchsia is laceweight cashmere, because I couldn’t resist.
And now if you will all excuse me, I’m off to do some serious swatching.
It has buttonholes on each side of the button band and laces up with silk ribbon from my stash.
I bought a DOC Bee-A from Nekokoi, who sent all sorts of clothing and shoes home with her. That’s Honor, in the red.
I have one payment remaining on an Iplehouse Naias, who will either be Hope or Charity when she arrives sometime after my birthday in mid-April. I am also severely tempted by both Erzulie (love that ladybug on her dress!) and Efreet, although I would like Efreet better if she were not so pouty.
And I am opening up an Etsy shop (soon). This is some of the yarn I ordered last week, when I was snowed/iced in.
Right now I have a dozen hats in three sizes, all knitted up from Noro Kureyon Sock in four colorways. And I need to reconstruct the pattern for Chutzpah’s sweater, because I’m not finding it in any of the usual places in Word. One of my friends in the doll world has suggested that I offer some items in non-wool fibers, hence the silk tweed (beige) and bamboo (lime green) you see above. The fuchsia is laceweight cashmere, because I couldn’t resist.
And now if you will all excuse me, I’m off to do some serious swatching.
Friday, July 30, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, July 5, 2010
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!
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!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
“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.
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.
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