Kaitlyn, a Christmas commission

Kaitlyn is a sweet little cat-eared Pocket Spirit, commissioned as a Christmas gift.  She was a lot of fun to make :-) 

Patterns for the doll, and her outfits, are available free here on the blog.  Look on the left sidebar for 'Links to Pocket Spirit Patterns.' 

I'm starting to run out of time!  Still have several Christmas gifts of my own to make, but I can't stop knitting :-)  I'm enjoying the heck out of learning something new.

Kaitlyn in her birthday suit :-)

BellaDonna Pocket Spirit

BellaDonna, a Pocket Spirit, is a commission for a friend.  It has been a bit since I've made a Pocket Spirit doll; coming back to them is like returning to an old friend.  I really love to make these little dolls :-)

She is Nightshade's sister; you can see Nightshade here.

Enjoy the crochet!

Bleu Faerie Finished!

Bleu is finished, wings and all.  Patterns for the basic doll, wire wings, and how to make a sweet dress from crochet lace are available on this blog.  Check out the left sidebar under Pocket Spirits.

Thinking even smaller Spirits are in the future :-)

Comfort and Joy; The Spirits of Christmas

May glad tidings of Comfort and Joy be yours this Christmas season,

And may the Spirit of Christmas remain in your heart all the year long!

 

Comfort (on the left) and Joy are all dressed up in their Holiday dresses, and ready for Santa to fill their stockings :-)

Their dresses have 'mock' smocking on the bodice, a crochet technique that uses Front Post Triple Crochet stitches to create a smocked look.  I love the look of smocking, and wanted to try to replicate it in crochet.  The post stitches can be a little fiddly if you've never tried them, so you might want to practice the stitch pattern with a larger yarn to get the hang of it.  The pattern for the dress is here:

Mock Smocking Dress Pattern

The stocking hat is crocheted in sportweight yarn (I used Lustersheen), and pattern is here:

Pocket Spirit Christmas hat

The Pocket Stockings are also crocheted in sportweight yarn.  They would make fun Christmas ornaments for a small tree, or the perfect stocking for your little dolls:

Pocket Stockings

Merry Christmas, my friends!  Have a happy Holy Day season, and a blessed New Year :-)

Hobbit Children

I first read The Lord of the Rings during a summer semester at college.   Since then I've probably re-read the trilogy 20 times, not including reading The Silmarillion,  The Hobbit, Lost Tales, and JRR Tolkien's letters.  It is my favorite book of literature; a story of courage, friendship, and ordinary people achieving the extraordinary. 

So when my latest Pocket Spirit got a curly hair style from some mohair boucle yarn I have, she told me in no uncertain terms that she was a Hobbit, and by jove, she was indeed :-)

So here meet Violet Willowdown and Rose Fernbrake, two dear Hobbit children.  I used the camisole pattern for the bodice of their dresses, and made their skirts from some lovely fabric that was a gift to me from Stepheny at Katie What Can You Do.  Stepheny has a delightful blog, and is a very dear person of great insight.

And this is Ivy Heathertoes, wearing another sweet combination of crochet and fabric.  The pattern for the bodice and dress is here:

Link Bodice and Dress

The fabric for Ivy's dress was another gift, this from the very talented dollmaker Kate Erbach.  If you'd like to see some of her amazing dolls, you can find them here at My Sister Kate

Violet, Ivy, and Rose say 'Have a lovely day!'

Crochet Lace for Dresses

I love crochet lace, and have many, many pattern books devoted to the subject. Crochet lace can make the loveliest little fairy dress, and so I decided to put together a tutorial to show you how to go from a simple length of crochet lace to a fairy dress :-)
Choose a pattern that would make a sweet dress, like the one above. Seven inches is about one-and-a-half times the waist measurement of the little Pocket Spirits.
Figure out how many stitches it takes to go around the waist, or where you want the dress to fit. These little dresses are short waisted, but you could make a dress with the skirt at the natural waist, or a dropped waist dress. Anyway, crochet a chain that will fit around the waist, not too tight or loose. For these dresses, made of size 8 perle cotton and a size 8 steel hook, 40 stitches was about right. Note: The chain is only used to give you an idea of how many sc stitches you need to work across the top of the lace to fit it to the doll.

Work 40 sc evenly along the top of the lace. If you end up with a few more stitches, or it seems too loose, work another row of sc and decrease a few stitches to get a nice fit.
The next row will be the armhole dividing row, and once you've got the armholes made, try the fit on your doll and see how you both like it :-)
At this point, you can embellish the dress as you like, long or short sleeves, picot edgings around the neckline, whatever!

A picture tutorial with more pictures and directions is available here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29184580@N04/sets/72157624472023381/

Enjoy the crochet!