Nighty-Night...

Here are the Bitties in their new PJs! Supercute!

Picking up stitches

I've decided to pick this up again. Inspired by playing with my knitting on Ravelry, I will play here with my sewing and embroidery. Maybe some dance.

Mini-Me got the Americn Girl Bitty Twins for Christmas so my first project here will be their PJs I am working on today. Mini-Me has pneumonia so I've moved the sewing machine upstairs to keep her placated while she watches movies and I sew.

Dance really took over my fall, but it was all worth it. Check out these photos of our Ballet Blanc production.

Lookee!

My husband got me a digital camera! I promptly made a photo studio for Barbie and an image directory of the state of all my projects!

Here is my first Barbie fashion plate. A simple striped shell and mini skirt using no specific pattern, Knit with self-striping sock yarn used as stripes and as specific colors for edging. The hat was crocheted with the same yarn during my experiment with crochet.

Back on Track

The socks are growing. I certainly wouldn't want to see them as a bikini top now.

I only got the one chance to practice the figure-8 cast on when starting the socks, so I practiced it again by making an ipod sock. Yes, I am now a "pod person." It was pretty funny. All week I had been after the dancers to be sure their ballet shoe and Irish shoe ribbons stayed tucked in or I would fine them like a real ballet company does. Any time I charged a virtual fine I would say "more money for me, here comes my ipod!" I guess the universe heard me because at the end of the week a good friend came through town and gave me her old ipod nano! She had upgraded.

<> The preemie blanket is nearly done. Only a couple inches of pattern left to go to be a little bigger than 24" x 24". Next time, a bigger gauge for a bigger blanket.

Mini-me's spa cloth in limbo. She lost the other size 10 needle using it as a wand (in disregard of previous safety advice.)

Finally, the first cross-stitch fairy is in motion! This is Mushroom Fairy's head. She is 28-count over 1 stitch.

And, I got a chance to join Brazilian Embroidery club tonight with my summer schedule. I am way ahead of them on Snowflake Fantasy. They had to finish their other project first.

The Vacation of a Workaholic...

...means knitting. Here are the toes of my new socks. They look more like a supermodern bikini top so far.

Now, if you know me and you think for a moment, you may perhaps realize that I don't wear socks. So, what's the deal? I am on vacation and I started looking for classes and projects to fill the gap in my life purpose. The toe-up socks class fit my schedule. They're fun to do. Maybe this wil be the year of the sock like 2006-2007 was the year of the dishcloth. Maybe I will give many away. Maybe I will actually wear them, they feel pretty nice.

Update on my neck: I finally went to the doctor and was prescribed the same pain pills my husband was taking, which makes me feel better for taking a couple, along with a muscle relaxer. After about 5 days I believe reached complete recovery. In the intervening time I stage-managed our spring concert (recital) at the ballet school for which I choreographed 49 minutes and staged another 30 minutes of dance. Then I left on vacation with my husband and mini-me (but not before taking the first sock class!)

A few token photos of our concert I pilfered from my students' facebook pages.

Relaxing can't hurt!

Yes it can! My neck has been in spasm for over a week now, to the point of excrutiating. And I think the cause is: knitting while watching TV. Sigh. Been to 2 chiropractors. Regular drugs can't touch it. Finally tonight I took my husband's pain pills for his broken arm (don't ask) and hopefully I have broken the pain-spasm cycle.

Life Triage

Just checking in with my other self. I am in a state of life triage. It is not unpleasant, but there are just certain thing which must be tended to first, namely recital. Luckily, it is not exsanguinating, I just need to keep it clean and dressed until June 3.

The preemie blanket is still growing. It is my project while I watch the news. And I did get a few cast on flowers added to the Snowflake Fantasy. I worked on my Brazilian at my cross stitch group this month--I don't have everything gathered to start the fairies yet.

Meanwhile back at the farm

Whoa! Ballet took over for awhile there. Pleased to report an excellent program presented by our youth ballet! Maybe a picture or two later.

Meanwhile, I've been slowly working away at the blanket for The Preemie Project. I have about 16 of 25 inches done.

I think I've worked on blessed little else.

Easter Peep

Here is my Easter peep from http://kat-knits.blogspot.com/ trying to fit in the scanner.

Also made two Barbie outfits for birthdays last week. Colors and styles picked by mini-me for her friends. A lavender sparkle gown "just like my [Barbie's] pink one, but lavender and sparkly" and a "rock star" sweater. I was also required to sew a jean skirt to go with that one.

Sent off my first Preemie Project donation today. The blue hat and booties. I have a whole collection of patterns to try next and I'm still knitting away on the blanket.

Also working on a knitted belt for me. We'll see about that one. Missed my cross-stitch-along group today. Too busy getting on top of my schedule to actually be on top of my schedule!

Preemie Blanket #1

I have received the word that The Preemie Project is most in need of bereavement blankets and sleep sacks. Here is the start of my first blanket. I am using the first baby blanket pattern I ever knitted years ago with some adaptations. First, I have totally changed the number of stitches to hopefully get the same size blanket with baby weight yarn and smaller needles.

The other change is interesting to me. I figured out that I was always going to have one extra "column" if you will of knit on one side of the pattern stitches. I puzzled about the logic of this and decided it had to be done that way to match up the seed stitch border on the sides with the border on the bottom. The first time I used this pattern I would have read it rote and not thought about how it worked. So, I solved it by moving the extra stitch to the other side every other repeat, making a staggered pattern. I'm liking it. It has kind of a smocked effect. I am using white and antique white which comes off as a very pale gold.

We are supposed to keep track of our hours. I figure 6 hours for the hat and booties. The blanket looks like it's going to be about an inch an hour. I think it will be my 10:00 news project. I'd like to think I could finish about one blanket a month. I also realized tonight that I can now write off the yarn! And Barbie can use the leftovers!

Two Barbie projects in the works as birthday presents to be done by the end of the week.

Kelly's Closet

Here are a couple of dresses I've knitted for Kelly ("Barbie's little sister"). This blue one I'm pretty sure was a Barbiebasics pattern once upon a time. The first one I knit flat, but this one is one of the revised in-the-round ones. Barbie and Kelly don't need extra seams bulking up their clothes if you can help it. Although, some of the Epstein stuff really does fit better seamed.

This green one I think was also Barbiebasics. It has a self-shawl. I don't care for it as much, but Kelly doesn't have many patterns and I was trying to learn about Kelly's dimensions so I could design my own.

This one with the stripe, I forget where I got the pattern. Online somewhere. If I find it again I'll annotate. It turned out pretty cute. I have also adapted this pattern to make some strapless party dresses for Kelly with different edgings. I wonder where they are. My house is amazingly and comfortingly orgranized these days, but the Barbies and Kelly aren't actually my domain. I am merely their humble costumier.

Four Seasons

These are from Dorothy Platt's "Four Seasons" I finished last summer. I made it as a vertical banner of four squares with wrapped chain stitch borders in the variegated tree branch color. Then I sewed a backing onto it and hung it with a dowel and yarn. A good solution to the framing issue for a rustic piece like this.

The Fairy Project

Here are the blocks I am planning for my next cross-stitch project. Designed by my daughter, I hope to make them into a quilt for her eventual "big girl room." The last block will be her signature.

The Preemie Project

A hat and one bootie for The Preemie Project.

Finished the Simple Sampler

Very nice. It has a spot reserved in my kitchen once I figure out how to deal with framing it. Insanely expensive to frame non-standard sizes and not planning to get into cutting my own mats and whatnot. Walmart had some cheap odd-size frames a couple of weeks ago. We'll see what they have today as I am off to buy my pom-pon maker!

Also finished the preemie hat (sans pom-pon so far) and one matching bootie (not seamed yet.) That bootie is so incredibly sweet. The scanner will never do that one justice, it begs to be seen in 3D.

In my craft corner today...

Here is the chart for what I am calling the "fiesta dancers" dishcloth. It's not mine, but I don't think it had a name but I need a working title and the yarn I'm using is called "fiesta ombre." I am trying to backtrack and locate the blog where I found this chart, I got to it from Monthly Dishcloths last week. As you can see, I'm highlighting the rows yellow when I am reading right to left for the front of the cloth and pink when I am reading left to right for the back of the cloth.

The dancers won't show up so well on a varigated yarn like this, but I don't care. It's so happy.

Here is my spa cloth coming along slowly.

And here is the sampler.

And finally, here is the very beginning of a teeny hat for The Preemie Project. I'll get that link up here soon.

Oh yes, Snowflake Fantasy with all the roses and daisies. Next are the cast on flowers (no more bullions!).

The Tooth Bunny vs. The Easter Fairy

This is the mid-month KAL dishcloth. Like several others, I was completely stumped as to what this might be. Maybe a tooth? Whereas there were many who said theirs was turning out so cute! A cute tooth? Well, so much for my "spatial" nature. All I needed to do was flip it over. See. Cute.

Nearly done with cross-stitch alphabet. Lots of progress on Snowflake Fantasy. Stalled pending thread on Dorothy's Denim. Knitting a spa cloth for me (Clinique green), a fiesta dancers dishcloth from a chart and a preemie hat for The Preemie Project. Updates on all that to come!

Shopping list: a cable hook I like; a pom-pon maker for hats (yes, I know I can make my own, but I plan to use it a lot so it's a toy I can justify)

Billions of bullions

Here are all the roses with the frills added and a couple of daisies.

Haven't visted Barbie's closet in awhile: here is a sundress I made to experiment with a lace edging. It is the one on Epstein's Barbie wedding dress. I couldn't get the gauge perfect for the wedding dress and I'm not going to commit to that particular picayune project if there is any room for error. So I practiced the edging on this more forgiving dress. The lace edge is the beginning of the pattern, so then I had to work my tutu design upside down to complete the dress. I added a bit of clear elastic around the top for security, the Barbies at our house are very active.

Another good cartoon. This one is in my collection because it refers to dance notation which is my specialty. It would be so great if everyone just picked up books of dances like in this cartoon. Apparently it was that way in the days of court dancing. Courtiers kept books of dances at the bedside to learn.

I'm liking the pink

This is all roses so far and pink is going to be very pretty. This project is bullion happy, but the snowflakes I did before Christmas got me back up to speed on them. Projects go so fast now. I hardly ever have to pull things out unless I want to adjust the number of wraps or the shade of the thread. I have since added the frills around the center rose (more bullions!) and started the daisies (bullions!)
Here is a change of pace: one of my favorite cartoons.

Think pink

When you bring your almost-5-year-old daughter along to pick out thread you are in serious danger of falling prey to pink. So here is my palette for the "Snowflake Fantasy." Light to dark pink shaded, dark pink, and light to dark avocado. I also ordered sight-unseen some opal pink beads. Pink is pink, right? We'll see. Actually, there were only a couple of directions I could go with the current selection of threads; I'd rather buy from the shop than order myself and I truly like all colors. So, pink it is.

Jasmine flower finished in one day

Amazing! Mini-Brazilian is my new best friend. Witness my mistake, though. I got carried away with stem stitch and did all the vines as stems. I like how it turned out; the stem stitch keeps everything nice and curvy, little couched vines tend to get zig-zaggy. Usually I like the zig-zaggy look, but here I like how the whole thing just swirls out.

I am moving on to a giant project next, but the mini has given me great inspiration. Here is the project the Brazilian club is doing next. They're just finishing up a bunch of minis themselves (Sunshine's Treasures). This is Snowflake Fantasy JDR #154. It doesn't quite fit on the scanner. Since snowflakes don't have eight points in the first place I am not going to get hung up on a snowflake palette. Heck, the pictures I found online of real Jasmine flowers didn't show pistils, but they sure look cute in the pattern! I was trying to figure out what color they should be. Clearly they were meant to be whatever color I had on hand in Glory thread: pale apricot. I don't know what colors I'm going to go with for the "snowflake" at all. I'll probably go down to the shop and pick off the rack. Maybe today even! School, and therefore dance classes, are cancelled due to the massive power outages. (We were among the lucky first 70,000 urban homes to get power back; another 100,000 more rural or with more damaged lines may have to wait up to a week!) I'm thinking a trip to Village Needlework and a couple of haircuts today.