The herd grows

I finished all of the sweater parts last nite and gave them all a quick steam to block them tonite. Now it's time for them to get sewn together and the collar binding and button band knit on. Another raid on the button stash and this sweater will be ready to keep some doll warm and looking fashionable at the same time.

My herd of easter treats or 'hats for eggs' as my sister calls them is growning. A chick and a pink mouse round out the other bunnies in the gang. On the way home from work I stopped and got a lot of chocolate eggs to fill out their shapes. They look so cute and I just love having them in a rainbow of colors. In my craft stash were pom-poms just perfect for their little bunny tails. Much easier than knitting a tail and they look so soft and fluffy. I think at this point a few more have to be knitted so there are enough in the 'herd' to go around.

Back to the needles

No meetings today but I wanted some new knitting to keep my needles busy. I cast on the back of an 'american girl' doll sweater. It was a free pattern from 'classic elite yarn'. I'm not doing one for a child, only the doll and the yarn is some 'jaeger' from the attic stash. The pattern is an easy broken rib (k1, P1 on row 1, Purl on row 2) that has a good look for such a little item. This one is sure to knit up quickly.

I know I need to add more bunnies to the herd but that is all garter stitch. No patterning at all. Cute in the end but I need more variety.

At my needlepoint meeting this week I decided to bring some beading to do and finished this easy peyote stitch bracelet yesterday. I has a picot edge to bring some interest to a plain wrist wrap. It uses size 8 for the main, and 11's for the picot edges. I raided my stash and am pleased with the results. The beads were a little un-even so it is as tight as I like but still no one is going to look at it on a wrist with a magnifying glass.

Easter gang

Three meetings all in one day made for some knitting strategy. Not another sock but something really easy and fun. This little easter gang fit the bill perfectly. Casting on 30 stitches and knitting for 27 rows makes a rectangle. Sew that into a tube. Turn right side too and gather both ends. Now it's a hot dog. Push one end into the other and you've got a body. Knit two ears and a tail, insert a 'cadbury egg' and you've got one of the cutest easter table decorations ever.

They don't use a lot of yarn, knit up quick, are cute and ... they lay an egg when you squeeze them. So far I've knit 1 pink mouse, 1 yellow chick, 1 brown bunny, 1 pink bunny and 2 white bunnies. 6 total. The trouble is I only have one 'cadbury egg' for fitting. I'll have to put the other eggs on my shopping list.

You can get this free pattern from www.jeangreenhowe.com Highly recommended. You too can have your own herd of bunnies for easter.

Craft comeback

After yesterdays meltdown in the morning, I went down to the kitchen and made the best chocolate cupcakes I've baked in a while. Chocolate with buttercream frosting and dipped in green sprinkles. A melt in your mouth delicious morsel. They came out so tender that it made up for all of the craziness with the teeny, tiny quilt blocks.

So I went upstairs again and assembled a 'hello kitty' mug that will go off in a box soon. Really cute and easy to stitch up.

I finished that chick and her egg shell. It's cute but won't be knitted again.

Then I pressed all of the red work blocks so I could put them away neatly and get them organized. I counted how many I had stitched and looked at all I had left to do. Mistake. I've only done 7 and there are 32 total to stitch. At least they are all ready, traced and waiting in their box. I keep thinking the mantra 'it will be beautiful when it's finished, it will be worth the work'.

To make up for the teeny, tiny block mishap, which I couldn't face working on, I pulled out another project that had recently made it's appearance from the back of the closet. A paper pieced quilt which had all of the blocks sewn and almost all of them sewn together. Two seams stitched and it was time to pull off all of the backing tissue. Magpie, my cat loved that as tissue flew around the room and at my feet. I kept picking it up but it just went everywhere. This morning I gave it a good press and looked in the box for all of the other fabrics that went with it. It's going to have a 1 inch red border around the edge to punch it up, then a 4 inch border of the same black color. Deep at the bottom of the box is enough backing fabric, a white with swirls of black. I even had the plain black for the binding.

I'm going to finish the borders and then have it machine quilted. It's a twin size quilt that is not my favorite colors but has my sense of color. I gravitate to two color, classic, bold quilts. We'll see how it goes but it's out of the closet now.

Craft Mishap, a true confession

First the good craft news. After a day of cleaning the house I put in a movie and undid the eggs for the chicken. The brown yarn is a little bit lighter in color than the old but looks great. The parts need sewing together and then assembly. That's going to happen today. I need a great chicken on my mantle, complete with matching egg shell.

My ongoing red-work quilt project saw another block finished. I haven't counted how many blocks there are to do. I just pull out another one, all prepped, and stitch it up. I really like the designs and the final quilt is stunning. I've seen two so far that others have done.

Now for the true confession part of today. I was working hard on finishing up the final two paper pieced boat blocks and looking forward to the next step. I got out the pattern again and was checking the final size of the block. 8 1/2 inches. ??? My pieced blocks are 4 inches with lots of seam allowance. I looked at the pattern, read all of the instructions, looked again and again and duh.

It was me. My great idea of paper pieceing hadn't embraced the idea of the finished size. I should have printed the blocks at 200%. Now I have 6, count them 6 teeny, weeny blocks that look great, but... they are all too small.

It's time to back away from the sewing machine. I'll be making some chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting and green sprinkles for st. patricks day. Then I can come back and see if I have enough fabric to make the much larger blocks and/ or make up the chickens. I'm hopeful. It's only fabric, not brain surgery or rocket science.

Sailing Away

My sewing machine went into the shop earlier this week for a tune-up. In only a few days away from me I realized that I really, really missed it. It is always at the ready waiting for my whim of sewing time. Well I picked it up today and decided to put it through it's paces. I can't tell if it is sewing any better, it was fine to me but it smelled of oil and looked all shiny again. The tiny, tiny paper pieced blocks above are for a wall hanging. I finished three of the stripy sail boats and only one of the tiny triangle boat. Two more triangles boats to do. The pattern didn't even suggest paper piecing these tiny blocks. They assumed templates and drawn patterns. I looked at that and re thought the pattern for ease of sewing and assembly. Granted the pattern is from 1994 but my goodness, streamline is the word now.

On the knitting front on my needles this week is a tiny chick and egg from my favorite knit designer Alan Dart. It is a free download from his website. My son agreed that we don't have enough easter/spring decorations so that decided me on what to knit next. I finished the chick parts and almost all of the two colored egg shell when I ran out of yarn. Oatmeal, brown yarn. I thought there was enough for the shell but no, so now it's time for some un-knitting and selecting another shade of oatmealy brown yarn. The bride and groom are in the finishing pile waiting for some time this weekend for their debut. Too many fun and exciting crafts to work on.

Knitting the nites away

The very 'pink' american girl doll sweater got finished yesterday. I sewed on the buttons and got it all ready for a 'glam' shot. I will look very nice on a doll, which I have to find. I'm hoping it fits well as my gauge was a little larger than called for. That will leave room for the dolls shirt underneath.

Up next I've knitted all the parts for the bride and groom cake topper set. They look like a tangle of yarn at the moment. But with a lot of assembly things will evolve into little tiny people.

Lets go to the circus

The circus mice are all completed. Yeah!!! Here is the clown with his hat done.

The bee trainer with his shaped hat on.

The completed girl juggler.

The completed girl acrobat. The acrobats idea of having magnets in their hands didn't work out the best but they hold 'paws' together nicely.

Next up for Alan Dart is 'medieval mice', I can't wait.

So instead of waiting, I cast on and knit the back of an 'american girl' doll sweater from Berroco yarn. I'm using some 'plymouth astra' that I had in my stash and everyone agrees it is a 'doll' color. I'm getting back into doing cables but the project is small and doable and fun to knit. Too much knitting and not enough time.