Knitting for Barbie

So, in between my revived mania for Brazilian and my new exploration in crazy quilting, Barbie has had to suffer with a closet that is sooo last season. But here is timeless piece from her wardrobe--a classic cable sweater in surprisingly versatile mustard.

Here now is a good start on my latest Brazilian project. I actually just finished this same one for a friend at Christmas and loved it, so I'm making one for me, too. It is an autumn bouquet design by Dorothy Platt, a local Brazilian guru. There are patterns for the other seasons as well. I have a thing about 4-seasons stuff. I already did her Brazilian trees in 4 seasons, which hangs in the livingroom. And the sampler posted below is her pattern, too. It's kind of hard to scan the dimensional embroidery because I don't want to smash it down and distort the look. These are chrysanthemums made with cast-on stiches. Wait till you see the cutest-ever wheat stalks that come next!

Now my crazy block--not showing up super well either. I have decided to limit myself to the stash of rayon thread I have and a package of multicolored seed beads. This will keep my head from swirling with too many possibilities. I have done a herringbone seam with contrast couching and beads, a buttonhole seam with beads, some buttonhole fans... with beads, and a back and forth (up and down?) buttonhole with contrast woven thru... and beads, and some running bullions... with beads. Can you tell I'm having fun with the beads? I guess this is going to be a pillow top or just a sampler. For any bigger project I would want to have some sort of color schema.

Back to a bit of my job today and the rest will slam me next week, so I hope I've made some inroads here toward keeping some sanity projects like these going.