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.