big bows

This is certainly not a barrette for the shy. I wanted to knit something that was reminiscent of the big bows my Great Grandma made for her three girls in the early 1900's.
I love bows- big and small

I used Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran in pale yellow.

the doll hospital

On Saturday we took a drive to Chester, NJ. While there, I stumbled upon a doll hospital where I met Mary.
Mary has been repairing dolls for 40 years. I asked how she got started and learned to do it. She said it just came to her.
Formerly, she taught and worked in floral design. She is such a sweet lady. A little hard of hearing but, so cute.

She also sells dolls and doll clothes. While there I noticed a few of my own dolls from growing up as well as a plaid doll cape with matching umbrella that my Mom gave me recently.

plant dyed wool necklace

Mama made me a necklace and then my brother was playing peek-a-boo with me which I think is really funny and then he broke the string but, that is okay because Mama can just restring it. You know I'm probably going to pull on it and break it over and over again. It will be a fun game. I break it, Mama fixes it.

-Wool roving is all plant dyed wool from Sunbridge College Craft Studio. I purchased it at NY State Sheep and Wool and it took me over 2 years to use it because it looked so pretty in the box I didn't want to disturb it but, then recently I decided that it was the right day and I just played with a little of it and made some beads.

This had me thinking about the garden and what kinds of flowers I want to plant this year. Too many choices, right? The thing is you can always do it different from year to year.

the sledding sweater

I imagine this is the type of sweater a boy wears to go sledding, build snowmen...something rustic, playful and outdoors.
It is the type of sweater when a boy grows up he may wear around a ski lodge.
It is classic- vintage yet modern.

And, to think at one point while knitting it I wasn't sure I would even like it.
It is knit in pure wool by Plymouth Yarns which was made softer through blocking.

Pattern: Knit and Tonic- Drive Thru
Size 4
Yarn: Plymouth Galway Worsted and Plymouth Galway Worsted Highland
Needles Size 7 and 8 Circulars 24"and Size 7 and 8 DPN's

pretty corners

I was tagged a while back to show the fourth photo in the fourth folder in my image file by Kristi which happened to be a corner of my studio. I have shown this photo to you before.
I love this corner and it is one that happens to stay neat and tidy.



I thought I would play along since this provided a nice opportunity to show another corner. This is in Ms. S's room. The beautiful rag doll is by Jess Brown and it was a birthday present I gave to Scarlet. I actually bought it several months ago and it was wrapped up and hidden in the attic. I don't know how I managed not to unwrap it myself.



I like to imagine the doll has just finished with her ironing and is now going to get ready to snuggle up under her quilt and eat a cake. Perhaps this doll is feeling a little tired after all her hard work. I can relate.

For fun please take a look here at this video of a girl with her Jess Brown doll. It is so sweet and wonderful.

Sonny Boutique

Hope everyone had a sweet Valentine's Day!
I got to spend the day with Mick and the kids - all my Valentine's.
We went out to lunch. I got kisses from the boy and giggles from the girl.
Mick bought me Li-lac chocolates which I adore and Milk magazine which is exactly what I wanted. I think the fact that I've been asking him to pick it up for me every once in a while over the past few months must have been a good hint.

I've been working on knitting a sweater for the boy, some sewing for Ms. S and some needle felting...I'll show you soon but, I just wanted to pop in and let you know that my smocks are now available at an online boutique. You may have noticed it over on my sidebar.

There are some cute things over there so take a look when you get a chance.
I've also been adding things here and there to the Etsy shop and have more to add once I get around to photographing it all.

Hope you are all having a nice weekend!

tea wallet

My Mom is English and Scottish and a big time tea drinker.

I noticed recently that she carries her tea bags around in her purse in a plastic ziplock. I thought this simply will not do... I can't have her carrying them around like that so when I saw this tutorial I knew I must make her one. And, then I made one for me too.

I think it is so funny how she brings her own tea to my house when I have plenty of tea and quite a variety of both tea bags and loose tea.

She was quite happy to receive this gift last week.

cardigan done!

I finished this sweater a few days ago. I think the knitting part of it turned out okay but, I'm not too excited about the design. For one, the collar is too wide which makes it floppy. Perhaps I need a fastener on top.

I am also unhappy about the yarn situation I first wrote about here. After months of waiting for my yarn to come in from Uruguay the yarn still did not match. Now I am extremely pleased that the Sheep Shop Yarn Co. was nice enough to care to attempt to dye yarn to match my strand and send me double the amount of skeins necessary for free so I feel bad complaining but, it was not what I expected. I have been told that red which is present in this shade is the hardest to repeat and red is obviously a component here.

I will try to keep this short but, what happened was this:

I only bought 3-4/5 of the yarn needed for my project and thought it would not be hard to acquire the rest but, it was. I bought a few online that I thought would match but, turned out too dark however I held onto them anyway. Then I waited for the yarn to come in from Uruguay and when I did it was too light. Basically, the dark color didn't appear in the original and the one from Uruguay had the original color present in it but neither had the variegated tones and none had this one shade the original had.

What was I to do? I thought about ripping it out but, it didn't seem right after all the anticipation and waiting around so I finished it and striped it. It doesn't look horrible and in certain lights one may not even notice it. Will I wear it? I'm not sure yet.

What do you think I should have done? Does it look very noticeable?

One

knitting - old projects and new

I am trying to keep to my goal of finishing projects alongside starting new ones.
Last year around this time I began knitting this diamond/lattice scarf
and completed it about a week and a half ago.

Then, I started and finished this hat in Malabrigo Chunky which turned out a little too big but, I sort of like it anyway. I would make this hat again and I love the color the robin's egg blue that hat is named for. I did the decreases a little differently then the patterns says. The color matches the Toast wristwarmers I made a few months back.

Note: The button is vintage and holds back the flap. The button was a big decision for me.

Next up, is finishing this cardigan although there are still problems with color matching but, that is another story for another post.

tea party sundress

Tea Party Sundress in My Folklore-

I have wanted to make this dress for a long time and fabric choices were what was holding me back. I finally settled on one.

My Folklore is a favorite line of mine and I went with two patterns in the same colorway mixed with a deep cherry red.

The pattern is written very well and the different options you can do with the dress make it very versatile.

The fact that the dress patterns come with a paper doll with coordinating outfit is the icing on the cake. There are bloomers to match.