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!'

Thanksgiving, 2010

The good thing about growing older is realizing how much you have to be thankful for.

I hope all of you take time to pause for a moment and count the blessings in your life.  There is grief and joy in every life; may we have the strength to endure the grief, and the gratitude to acknowledge the joy.

Victorian Pocket Spirits

The works-in-progress from a couple weeks ago are now clad in their Victorian finery.  The pattern for all of these delightful little dresses is an Annie Potter Presents leaflet entitled "Victorian Darlings."   To fit the Pocket Spirits I used size 20 crochet cotton or size 8 perle cotton and a size 7 crochet hook for the dresses.  The sweet little boots were crocheted just as the pattern called for, with size 10 crochet cotton.  This pattern book is out of print, but if you do a Google search, you may come up with some used copies that are available.

Abby and Meghan

Felicia

Catherine and Bearable

Rebekah

Felicia in her nightgown

I did work out a couple of patterns specifically for the Pocket Spirits.  The nightgown above is one of them; you can download the pattern here:

Victorian Nightgown

Felicia in camisole and pantaloons

And also a pattern for a Victorian camisole and pantaloons.  I'm sure these patterns look familiar to you, but the instructions are now specifically for the Pocket Spirit size dolls.  

Pocket Spirit Camisole

These dresses also fit the 16cm BJD dolls, such as Lati Yellow and Fairyland Puki Fee.  For the long sleeved dresses you might want to crochet the sleeves a bit longer than the pattern calls for.  

Rebekah says "Have a lovely day!"

Images of late fall

Bicycling in our old home town of Columbus, Indiana over the weekend.  It was mild and breezy, with that touch of melancholy that comes with late fall. 

Winter may be with us soon...but the sun was shining on this day.

A Simple and inexpensive doll bed YOU can make

Just in time for Christmas :-)  Here is a picture tutorial for making a very simple and inexpensive doll bed for your favorite girl.  The bed requires no woodworking skills (I certainly don't have any), and uses inexpensive wood turnings available at any craft store.  I purchased most of my pieces from Michaels.  Here is the link to the picture tutorial to make this bed:

Simple and inexpensive doll bed from wood turnings

Some additional pictures of the bed in process.  Enjoy!

Trying out the pieces before gluing

The pieces selected

The bed stained, glued, and varnished

A cozy bed for Pocket Spirit Catherine.  You can also make a nifty dress form with wood turnings as well :-)

Dolls for the Christmas Bazaar

Every year, High Street United Methodist Church in Muncie, Indiana, has a Christmas bazaar in November.  This year, the bazaar is November 6 from 8:00am to Noon.  The church is located at 219 South High Street.

For the last few years I've donated several dolls that were made during the year to this bazaar.  Above are a few of the dolls donated this year.  There are lots of other neat items, and some delicious baked goods...I know this because my Mother donates her marvelous goodies to this bazaar.  Her brownies are impossible to beat :-)

I sang in the choir during my teenage years in this church.  When I was in college, I learned to my horror that during a brutal blizzard, a gas main exploded and nearly destroyed the church.  The entire inside was gutted, all the stained glass blown out, the doors blown off, and it took three hours to get the fire under control.  Amazingly, no one was injured, in spite of the fact that a young man lived at the church as a caretaker.

A year later Christmas midnight services were held in the barren, unheated shell of the church.  Work was under way to rebuild, but this midnight service was conducted by candlelight, the only illumination.  We sang all the beautiful Christmas hymns in the cold, still structure, and truly the magic of Christmas touched us all.

The following year, Larry and I were married in this church; the second marriage service conducted in the newly restored building.  We've been together ever since.

Many very good memories remain to me of this structure and congregation.  Many extended family members belong to this congregation; the picture below was painted by my Great Uncle Orla and is a lovely and loving representation of High Street United Methodist Church.

High Street United Methodist Church, painted by Orla Harris

More WIP's!

No, it isn't as perverse as it sounds; WIP's are Work-In-Progress :-)

Paton's Astra sportweight/dk yarn is the perfect yarn for making the little Pocket Spirits, and I had to have skeins in all of their many flesh toned colors.  And then, of course, I needed to make a doll out of each of the colors, and give them all different hair styles.  This yarn is a pleasure to work with, it is soft without splitting, and works up nice and tight so no fiberfill shows through the stitches.  Find Paton's Astra here:

Paton's Astra at Mary Maxim

They are all sporting hair using Nashua Hand Knits, Creative Focus Kid Mohair yarn.  This is a wonderfully 'hairy' mohair yarn, and you can find it here:

Nashua Creative Focus Mohair yarn at Fabric.com

Now to get them dressed :-)

Paton's Astra in Aran, Apricot, Medium Tan, Dark Tan, and Soft Tan

A new look, and a new doll

After over a year, I felt it was time for a new look.  Something a little brighter, and that would make finding the patterns available on this blog a bit easier.  What do you think?  What I like is the way the sidebar items are grouped together.

Please meet Nightshade, my little Goth Pocket Spirit.  The dress was very easy, and a fun way to easily incorporate a piece of favorite fabric in a crochet outfit.  Just crochet a top; cut a piece of fabric 10 inches by 2 or 3 inches (depending on how long you want it).  Zig zag stitch around all four fabric edges to keep it from fraying.  Turn up and press 1/4 inch for the hem and the two short sides; stitch two rows of gathering stitches (either by hand or with a long machine stitch), along the top edge, 1/8 and 1/4 inches from the top edge.

Pull the gathering stitches up to match the lower edge of the top and stitch the skirt to the top.  Make sure the gathering stitches do not show below the bottom edge of the top.  I stitched with short running stitches.  I then hemmed the bottom with contrasting color featherstitching, and stitched up the back seam of the skirt to about 1/2 inch from the top.  The back is closed with four tiny buttons into crochet button loops.

Nightshade

More Christmas Crochet, 2010

For my nieces for Christmas; Pocket Spirits with their own pockets!  The pattern for the granny square bags is available free from the Lily Sugar & Cream website:

Lily Sugar&Cream

They have some wonderful free patterns, including a great crochet doll, named Lily (of course!).

The ballerina outfits are from the Annie Potter Presents leaflet "Tu Tu Angelic."  I used my own design for the body suit, but the ballerina embellishment came from Annie :-)

Skye, Cherry and Willow