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.

Jasmine flower

Here is a Brazilian I've been working on today. It's from The Art of Dimensional Embroidery by Maria Freitas. I've been planning to make a Jasmine spray for my friend whose daughter's name means "jasmine." These are turning out really cute. Like I said, sometimes I intimidate myself out of picking up the Brazilian and make something knit and square instead, but when I finally get up the nerve I am always happy.

Speaking of knit and square, the Turkish washcloth turned out nicely as well.

We did end up losing power for about 8 hours last night from the ice storm. I told my duaghter it was an adventure; she told me she didn't want to call it that. No school tomorrow, so no dance classes. A three-day weekend!

Pictures haven't been uploading for days

I can finally post the February mid-month KAL. It was fun to do a pattern stitch--it's been awhile.
I am working on a spa washcloth (turkishwashcloth) for my husband, he nearly confiscated the KAL one for shower use. My first thought was to make all the bathroom ones blue, so we know they belong in the bathroom, but now I'm thinking I want a spa washcloth for me, too. What color do I make that one? I'm making all the kitchen ones ecru or varigated including ecru.

Here is my progress on the Brazilian. Stuck now until I can get to the shop for some more Iris 222. We are getting slammed with an ice storm as I write, so no getting out tomorrow. It's a snow day for me! Lose income, but get to stay home all weekend, which is a rarity.

Here also is my first Brazilian, which I have picked at for many years. Let's see, started it maybe 2 years before getting pregnant, worked on it again on another fishing trip when baby was 3 months, baby turning 5 next month. Dug it out tonight and figured out that I'm stuck right now, having run out of Kreinik metallic thread for the little branches. I think the shop can order it. Also have to remember what color I need to pick up to do that last rose at the top over again, I remember picking it out. I'm sure it's in my notes, I just haven't really looked. There is some questionable stitch technique here, but also some pleasant surprises looking back at it.

Okay, here is the cross-stitch. This has been fun. I have a few questions about how to finish it to ask next month, then I am on to another, I think.

It will be a fairy, but I'm not sure which direction to go. I have turned some fairy art into cross-stitch patterns (copyright guilt), and also turned some of my daughter's drawings of fairies into patterns. I may make a quilt eventually including either or both of these ideas. A quilt seems very daunting, so that's way off.

Brazilian seems daunting to me sometimes, too, when I haven't picked it up in awhile it's hard to believe I will still be able to do it!

Barbie's Beach Bag

Bikini (she also has a mix-and-match tankini top for these bottoms) , halter tank and mesh cover-up.

A funky little cloth

This is the January mid-month dishcloth, finished last night, the night before the new KAL. It's a funky little cloth--see what I mean about the topography?

January KAL

I've caught up on the 1st January dishcloth. I like it a lot. I think I prefer the "picture" to be all in stockinette stitch (like this) rather than in garter (like the February hearts). I suspected I would.

Started the January mid-month last night and I have to say I'm glad I have the pictures of the completed ones to peek at. I thought the topography of mine was a little extreme (like maybe I forgot how to cable properly, which is a distinct possibility) but it turns out it's okay.

Happy Valentine's Day to me!

Look what my husband got me for Valentine's Day! A Brazilian thread organizer!! I was drooling over the ones the Brazilian club had and he remembered. Combines my loves for embroidery, organization, clear things and him. :)

Oh, yeah. When I listed all my groups I forgot that I am following along with the Brazilian club even though I can't attend their meetings. I'll show the project we're starting next time and maybe I can get some ideas for colors!

Reaching into the closet with my eyes closed

Here is an adaptation of a tutu. My daughter wanted a fairy suit so one of her Barbies could play Barbie's friend Dandelion from Fairytopia. This one has undies to go with it somewhere.

Stayed up waaay too late last night

I let my preschool daughter pick out which Epstein pattern (within limits) I should make her friend's Barbie for her birthday. She picked this poncho, which I heartily approved, and she picked out the colors for the stripes. I started in plenty of time a couple of days ago and proceeded to knit half of it with the wrong gauge. Dumb. (But now my daughter's Hearts Only dolls will have a poncho soon.) So I started over and was hurrying, so of course I did dumbs at every opportunity. Seaming went quickly, but I silently cursed the stripes for producing all those little ends to tuck in. Luckily, I had convinced my daughter on the first try that it would look good without a fringed bottom. That would have been maddening at 2:00am. I actually like it better without the fringe. I did this one before in self-striping yarn and with fringe and the fringe rolls terribly.

Been having fun at http://www.darklilac.com/ making my own cross stitch patterns. Getting a little ahead of myself there... let's finish the first one.