Winter 2014

This winter has been relentless and bitter; beloved friends and family with serious illness, and cold and snow with no end in sight.  It has been nearly impossible to muster the positive energy for dollmaking, or making anything at all.  This is the worst of the winter blues.

But today I have finally completed a doll from a free pattern courtesy of Fiona McDonald.  The pattern is available on Ravely, and here is a link:

Babes Little Sister

You need to register with Ravelry, but it is free and well worth it!  The doll, like all of Fiona's patterns, is easy to make and makes up beautifully.  Mine is 17 inches tall with a nine inch waist...about the same size as an American Girl doll, but two inches more slender.

Meet Patience;  she has needed that quality as much as I have these past few weeks.  But I'm happy we both perservered; she is a delight!

Here is hoping the coming weeks bring us the promise of spring, of life after death, and health for all of those we love.

Rose is ready for Christmas!

I have always thought that union suits, those red one-piece undergarments worn in the 1800's, were pretty cute on dolls.  Probably a pain to wear in real life, but dolls live uncomplicated lives and enjoy looking cute :-)

So I knitted up a red union suit for Rose to wear for Christmas, and topped it off with a Santa cap.  Here is the pattern:

Travel doll union suit with Santa cap

We also had a lot of fun knitting up some other Christmas treats.  The stockings are made from a free pattern available on Jean Greenhowe's site; scroll down a bit, they are toward the bottom of the page:

Jean Greenhowe Christmas Stockings

The teddy's and rabbit are from a free pattern from Little Cotton Rabbits:

Teddy and Rabbit

And the blanket was a free pattern from Jennifer Jackson on Ravelry (you need to register, but it is free!)

Doll Blanket

All of these are quick and easy to knit, and the dolls and young (or old) girls in your life will love them :-)

Rose and I wish you a Merry Christmas, and Happy Holydays!

Happy Holy Days!

We had our first snow of the season Thursday night and Friday, and it left a sparkling six inches of snow, which is blindingly bright this morning.  Yesterday seemed the perfect day to get out the Christmas decorations and put up the tree (or trees, this year!).   I also got outside and took a few pictures of the lovely, virgin snow.

Whatever your spiritual persuason, I hope you  enjoy the spirit of goodwill that this season celebrates.  Without that, there isn't much point to the celebration.  Maybe fewer gifts, more hugs, donations to your local food pantry, or shoveling the neighbor's walkway of snow.  Be easy on yourself, and meet each day with Joy.

My very best wishes for all of you this Holy Day season :-)

Beth

Just in time for Creative Black Friday!

Just in time for Creative Black Friday; the Friday after Thanksgiving where we all stay home and make something special for someone we love :-)  For Ivy, my latest Travel Doll from Fiona's Travel Doll pattern, a new dress with a knit seed stitch bodice and hem.

Travel doll seed stitch dress

If you are at a loss for what to make someone for Christmas, there are many, many sites with free knit and crochet patterns.  Starting with Ravelry, all you need to do is register (free!) and you have access to literally thousands of free patterns for dolls, toys, wearables, you name it.   Many low cost patterns as well.

Lionbrand yarns is another great site for free patterns.

1500 Free Amigurumi Patterns is actually now 2000 free patterns, and a great site.

Crochet Pattern Central  and Knitting Pattern Central are also great sources for free patterns.

So make yourself a cup of your favorite hot beverage, put a Christmas CD in the player, get out some yarn and the tools of your choice (needle or hook), and enjoy the day!

Rose's Jumper....or more adventures in knitting in the round

I made Rose a white camisole, and as I looked at it, I thought it would make a sweet blouse, if only it had sleeves.  But, I hate setting in sleeves; and thought that knitting in the round (ugh!) would be too hard.  As I pondered, weak and weary, I decided to give knitting in the round another try.

So, with the camisole finished, I picked up the necessary stitches around the armhole with a crochet hook and placed them on three double point needles, and knitted away.  And low and behold, the sleeves turned out pretty good :-)

The blouse begged for a sweet jumper, and the jumper begged for some embellishement when it was finished.  So, a simple knit jumper (with a touch of crochet around the upper edge and shoulder straps), with simple lazy daisy flowers.  To be clear, only the sleeves of the blouse are knitted in the round; the rest of the knitting is done flat and seamed.   Maybe a future outfit will be knit entirely in the round.  And, for those who prefer this, both blouse and jumper would be easy enough to convert to double points.

Travel doll blouse and jumper dress

Rose is from Fiona McDonald's free Travel Doll pattern, available on Ravelry.  You'll find a link to the doll pattern on the left sidebar of this blog, along with some outfits to make for her and her traveling companions.

Jasmyn's Chinese jacket and skirt

I love paper doll books.  They are a wonderful source of inspiration for costume design for any era or culture.  Dover Publications has hundreds of titles for paper dolls, from Ancient Egypt to Steampunk to Contemporary Thrift Store :-)

For Jasmyn's Asian inspired outfit, I used the paper doll book shown above to find a style we both liked.  The jacket is simple to knit, with a very little bit of crochet for the collar and trim.  The skirt is also very simple.  Here is the pattern:

Travel Doll Chinese Costume

This outfit is for Fiona McDonald's free Travel Doll pattern.   The doll is tremendous fun; come join us!

Jasmyn

I go through periods where I can't seem to stop making dolls...obviously this is one of those periods :-)  Jasmyn is another doll from Fiona's wonderful free Travel Doll pattern, available on Ravelry.  She will have an Asian themed outfit, I hope, if I can pull it off in knit. 

This doll is the perfect, perfect doll to make for gifting at Christmas.  She is quick to knit, classy, has a lovely long and lanky silhouette; a great canvas for doll creation.

I'm pretty sure there will be more dolls and outfits coming.

Move-able head for knit dolls

I love making dolls with move-able heads.  It is a technique I learned from the cloth doll making community, and have applied to crochet dolls.  It is a technique that works well with crochet; crochet creates a sturdy fabric that is perfect for three dimensional objects like dolls.

Will this work with knitted dolls?  The answer is yes, if you stabilize the neck.  I used Fiona McDonald's travel doll to work out the details, and have a picture tutorial of the process on my photo share site, ipernity.  Here is a link to the tutorial:

Knit doll head joint tutorial

And for completeness sake, here is the link for the tutorial for crochet dolls:

Crochet doll head joint tutorial

You may need to alter your pattern to create the doll head and torso separately.  Give it a try!  You're sure to be pleased with the result :-)

New knits for Fiona McDonald's Travel Doll

In case you couldn't tell, I'm having a great time knitting up outfits for this perfectly sized knit doll.  She now has a pair of slim pants, short skirt, and cardigan sweater.  All very simple to knit.

You can see in the bottom right picture that Columbine's trousseau is growing :-)

Knit Cardigan Sweater

Knit pants and skirt

Keep warm, and knit up a storm!