Memorial Day

To all the men and women who have served our country and preserved our freedoms, thank you!

Pennsy RailTrail, Greenfield, Indiana

Sunday we packed up the bikes and drove over to Greenfield, to ride the 5.5 miles of the Pennsy Rail Trail.  It was a perfect day for a bike ride, and the trail was well maintained.  We saw several folks taking advantage of the day and the trail, on bikes, walking, rollerblading.

Then we stopped at the Greenfield cemetery to eat our picnic lunch in the shade.  They had a very impressive flag installation for Memorial day.

It was a splendid way to spend the day :-)

Lily and what inspired her

The lovely embroidery on the left was done by my good friend Joyce, and it inspired me to make a doll!  Lily is crocheted from the Yun Shu pattern, which is freely available on Ravelry by CrochetWawa.

The sweet embroidered flower girl is a pattern from Etsy:

Flower Girl

Lily and I hope your day is filled with sunshine and flowers :-)

More little gems

Sweet little embroideries by LiliPopo:

www.etsy.com/shop/LiliPopo?ref=pr_faveshops

Framed in lovely wood frames by Ewoodstory:

www.etsy.com/shop/eWoodStory?ref=pr_faveshops

And embellished with crochet balls, beads, and buttons :-)

And one more...

Family

Dad, nephews, myself on the first row.  My brother and sister in law, and her parents on the second.

My youngest nephew celebrated his first communion on Saturday.   Not being a Catholic, I wasn't sure what to expect, especially with a Latin Mass.  

The church was filled with light, and the deeply moving sound of Gregorian chant.   Lacking an understanding of the words was no hindrance to feeling the presence of God.  Sitting next to my father, and watching my nephew and my brother in the pew in front of us,  I wished that my Mother could be present and see this.  

I looked at her wedding rings, which I wear, and they winked and sparkled in the light, and the realization was that she was indeed there:  as a part of myself; as the love my father has for her; and as the love she bequeathed to my brother, his wife, and their three children.  

Love binds us as a family, in the present, to the future, and beyond death.  I am deeply grateful for the love my family shares.

Mushroom Manor Revisted

This is a project I made back in 2013, which I put on Ipernity.  Since then, I've returned to Flickr, and the tutorial for this is no longer available in Ipernity.  I've been asked by a couple of folks what happened to it, so I've finally put the tutorial on Flickr.

It is primarily a picture tutorial, with no written instructions.  The crochet is done by fit, as you go along, but there are plenty of pictures to help you.  You can find the tutorial here:

Mushroom Manor

The Manor is sized for small dolls, about five inches tall.  It was originally made for my Forget-Me-Knot dolls, but Nancy Ann's and tiny BJD's will be quite at home here as well.

Some of the little embellishments are available on this blog under Crochet An Outdoor Setting; just scroll down the left sidebar until you find it.

Enjoy the crochet!

The child in the park

She was probably seven or eight, and walking with her Dad.  Well, she was skipping, and hopping, and jumping, and twirling...scuffing her feet along the walk and stopping to inspect the dandelions.  Children don't just walk, and I wonder when we lost the habit of their joyous form of locomotion.

She had skin the color of cafe au lait, and was wearing a striped tee shirt and cargo pants, with a newsboy hat pulled on over dark brown hair caught up in long braids.  She made quite an impression on me as I rode by her & Dad on my bicycle.

So here is Daisy, my tribute to this lovely, unknown child in the park.  I used the Yun Shu pattern, available on Ravelry.  I used Patons Astra in Medium Tan for her skin, and Knit Picks Palette in Grizzly along with a laceweight mohair in dark brown, held together, for her hair.   Her outfit is crocheted with size 3 crochet cotton.

And we did go to the park!  One of our State Parks, Summit Lake, on the eastern side of the state.

Enjoy the crochet!

Lavender

Lavender is the second doll I've made from the wonderful (and free!) Yun Shu pattern, available on Ravelry.  She is just eight inches tall, and has lovely lavender hair (Knit Picks Wool of the Andes sport in Sprinkle Heather).  Her body is worked in Red Heart Super Sport; I don't know if they still make this yarn...I've had this in my stash for a couple of decades.

Her dress is a size 3/sport crochet cotton, and her eyes were crocheted from this wonderful tutorial:

Crochet Eyes

Lavender loves all things purple.  Sadly, all of my lavender has died out over the years, but we found lilacs, violets, and bugle weed.  We will replant some lavender this spring, for sure!

Another wonderful doll pattern

Columbine was made from a wonderful crochet doll pattern which is available on Ravelry.  The pattern is Yun Shu.  She is crocheted in sport weight yarn with a size C (2.5mm) crochet hook.  She stands about 7.5 inches tall.

As you can see, she is a very slender-bodied doll, so she is easy to dress by pulling her clothing up over her feet.  

I made Columbine's eyes with size 8 perle cotton and a size 7 steel hook; they turned out about 3/8 inch in diameter.

I made a few tweaks to the pattern, so she would be a bit easier for me to make.  Following are the changes I made to the pattern:

1. I eliminated the foot and added one stitch to the width of the leg up to the second increase, then worked per the pattern.

2. I added one stitch to the width of the arm.

3. I did not use a wire armature; instead, I stuffed the legs as I crocheted, after each six or seven rows up to the hips. If you want the doll to be able to sit, do not stuff clear to the top of the leg...leave a little space with no stuffing so the legs can move freely.

4. For the arms, I stuffed a ball of stuffing in the end for the hand, then did not stuff the rest of the arm.

5. By adding a stitch to the width of each arm, I ended up with two extra stitches at the shoulder. Decrease these out in the first decrease row after attaching the arms, then work the shoulders as written.

6. For a move-able head, I worked the shoulders down to eight stitches, then worked several rows on these eight stitches for a neck stub (to fit up inside the head)

7. For the head, I left a hole at the bottom (neck end) of the head eight stitches around, then worked the head as written. I stuffed the head through this hole; it is small but doable.

8. For the eyes,  I used perle cotton size 8 for the eyes, and the eyes ended up being about 3/8 of an inch across.

Crochet Eyes

9. For the hair, I made a three-round wig cap of 8sc, 16sc, 20sc, then worked the strands as written. I used the extra stitch to make one more bang strand.

Enjoy the crochet!