Promise Kept

As I said I would in my last blog, the doll would be done soon.  That was, I believe Friday.  Today is Sunday and the doll is finished.  I worked on it yesterday after I finished my holiday decorating.  I finished one leg early in the morning and did not get back to it until 8:30 last night.  I finished the whole doll except for the face and the skirt. I went to bed at 1:30 and got up this morning at 6:00 and started in again.  I added the face and then went down to sew the skirt.  I found materials that were perfect for color to match the leggings I had knitted.  I even found a ribbon just the size I needed and the color matched beautifully.  It took me longer than I had anticipated, but after about an hour's work, she is finished and ready to deliver today.

I had to go back after taking the picture to sew her arms in a little more in a downward position.  I didn't like the way they stuck out like she is flying.  

This shot from the back shows the hair very nicely. I never know when making hair how it will look, but at 1:00 a.m. I think it worked like a charm, and was probably the easiest hair job I have done.  She requested the hair look like the other doll that was on the horse.  I told her I wouldn't promise anything, but it actually looks very similar.

I called the lady that ordered the play set yesterday and she came to pick it up right away.  She loved it so much and was so happy that I finished it so quickly that she gave me an extra $5 for getting it done so quickly.

I will take a break today from knitting, but then it is one pair of gloves each day until Christmas.  I will need the couple extra days after Christmas and before we celebrate our family Christmas to have time to get them all done.  I am going to try my hardest to get them done.

Holiday Festival

The holiday festival went well.  I sold most of my stuff, even the things that would be used as Christmas gifts if they didn't sell.  Now, I am going to be busy trying to get everything done in time for Christmas.

I also took three orders for play mat sets.  They liked the look of the arched one, but wanted different themes.  One wanted a very girly zoo with specifically requested animals and colors.  The other wanted a forest animal theme because she is doing her soon to be baby boy's room with a fox theme.  She, too, has requested specific animals, but with regular animal colors.  The girly one needed to be finished by this week because the baby it is for is due this week.  I just finished it tonight.  I can have more time for the other one because that baby isn't due until February.

The other set someone wants is the farm set.  She liked it and said she would be back to buy it later, but someone else bought it before she got back.  I didn't put a hold on it because she said she might be back and besides, I see her quite often at school and knew I could easily make another one for her later.  The other woman had already bought a bunch of things from me and she really liked it, so I sold it to her.  I didn't sell the Noah's Ark play set, but I will hold on to it for another baby or for next year.  The arched set that I still have I will give to my new grandchild who is due in June.  I can't give the Noah's Ark set to it because one of the siblings already got one before when she was a baby.

I sold the horse and doll, but the lady who bought it wants another doll like the one on the horse, but by itself and with a dress.  She also wants it for Christmas.  I will get on it soon.  There goes less time for my presents I need to get done.  There is so much to do.

This shows my tables at the Holiday Festival.

This is the girly zoo play mat with the arches and animals.

This shows the mat without the arches.  I used animals from material that had the zoo animals on it.  I actually think it was for a jungle, but they worked fine for a zoo.  She wanted a lot of pink so I made the mat in pink.  I forgot to take a photo of the back of the mat, but it is pink fleece with zoo animals all over it.  It is cute and fits the theme really well.

She requested that the monkey be turquoise and green.  I just remembered, she really wants the banana that I put in the hand of the monkey and I forgot to make it.  I will have to finish it and add it to the monkey before I give it to her.

The giraffe was to be two-toned purple.  It looks cute in any color.

So, a blue-eyed, pink rhino fits the order and it is what she asked for. Not the blue eyes. That was my idea.

Running out of girly colors, so she said to just use gray for the elephant and add some pink, so pink feet and inside ears works. I decided to also put blue eyes on the elephant, but black probably would have been better. The tusks were hard to do.

This has to be the cutest lion I have made.  She asked for yellow and burnt orange, which looks nice, but I decided to make the mane out of a brighter orange for contrast so that it would stand out more.

I decided to make a bag for carrying the animals and mat. The arches are tall, but don't take up a lot of room while not being used.  You can't get much more girly than this set.  She said the arches needed to be pink, so I used the two toned pink combination - one with the chevron print and the other plain pink.

Second Sweater Completed

I finished the second sweater today.  I actually finished the knitting several days ago, but I had to special order the zipper online, so I was waiting for it to come in to finish completely.  It came today and I immediately got it sewed into the sweater and so now it is finished and I can breathe a sigh of relief.  Another Christmas project completed.  I want to show the two sweaters at the Holiday Festival this week end.  I will put a sold sign on them, but I want to have them there just in case someone wants to give me an order for one of their own.

The color is so wrong in this photo.  The sweater is actually a very pretty blue, more like Royal, and this looks really gray. It is much prettier than the photo shows.  From the front you can see the zipper and pockets.  This sweater is from a pattern that has the pockets, but with buttons instead of zipper and collar instead of hood.  I have made this sweater three times, each time with the hood and zipper.  It is easy to do and takes me about a week to make.

Just showing it from the back so that the hood can be seen.

Here it is.  I had a really hard time getting a place to take the photo to get the true color.  It would show the blue and then turn immediately to gray.  I finally found that my best place was on my couch.

I also started making the gloves for my grandkids for Christmas.  I am trying to alter the pattern from lady's gloves, but it is tricky to get the fingers wide enough and the right length.  It is a work in progress, but I have finished two pairs.  I do not intend to give either of these pairs as gifts because I have a plan to make them with lots of colors; fingers different colors, for example.  It is going to be fun making them and I am anxious to get them started. Here are the two that I will use at the festival.

I made the dark pink ones first, but they were too small for most of my girls, except for Annie and I think I will make her mittens instead of gloves.  The brighter pink pair fit much better, but the little finger is too long.  I will have to use the smaller version with larger needles for the littler kids and the larger version for the others, trying to get all the fingers the right length for which ever child they will be for.  I may also need to use smaller needles for a couple of them, but that should work.   My oldest grandson will need a bit longer fingers, but the glove itself should fit.  It is always trial and error with me, but in the end, it usually works out.  Gloves are so easy to do and takes only a day to make, so it doesn't really matter much if they don't turn out right the first time.

Another successful day.  I am currently working on a gift for a friend who shall remain nameless, as well as the gift, because I know she reads my blog.  This will keep you guessing Nancy.

First Sweater Finished

I just finished the first sweater I need to get done before Christmas.  It was not without a great many mistakes, take outs, and do overs, but I was able to accomplish the task in the two week time frame that I had expected it to take me.  It would have been in less than two weeks if the first time I did everything was the only time I had to do it.  My first mistake was when I was doing the back and was half way up the armhole opening that I discovered it looked way too long below the arm break for the person I was making it for.  She is not that tall, so I took it out to about two inches below the armhole and reknitted about half an inch and then finished to the top.  I blocked the whole back and thought it looked great.  Then, I started the right front.  I worked up to the armhole and when I was measuring it to be sure it was the same length as the back after I had fixed it, I discovered an area clear down to half way between the lower band and the armhole where I had forgotten to do one of my cable patterns on the last cable repetition.  It was right next to the edge, so I considered just leaving it thinking it probably would not be that evident.  However, I cannot live with mistakes I can visibly see, so it was take out time again. This time, it was two days work and that would mean another two days at least to get the back finished again.  I decided to finish the front and then go back to fixing my mistake on the back.  I finished the front with the same number of rows as the back for above the armhole to the shoulder. Then I went back to the back and fixed it.  I finished it and then I attached the two pieces at the shoulder.  I tried the sweater on to see what it was going to be like as a fit.  I discovered that the armhole was going to be too short, so it was take out time again.  I had to just take the front out at the bind off and add another two inches.  The back had to be taken out back to where I had broken for the neck, which meant about four split rows for the right and left sides to the shoulder.  That was a little tricky, but I managed to get the stitches picked back up without them looking repaired.  It was a little difficult because the yarn tends to split and fray, especially after it has already been knitted, blocked, and taken out.  It is hard to pick up all of the stitch right in the middle of the stitch without it looking split, but somehow, I managed and you cannot tell where I picked up my stitches.  Thank heavens for that.  I also discovered that my first sleeve seemed to be a little too tight.  I stretched it as much as I could when I blocked it and it is better.  I decided to just knit the second sleeve a little looser to see if it would help.  It did, and is slightly looser than the other one, but not so much that it looks or feels different.  I just did not have to stretch it as much during the blocking.  It was so important to block this sweater because of all the ribbing, especially on the sleeves.  It tended to fold in like an accordion until I blocked it.  Here is the final results.

From the front you can see the cable pattern going up the sleeve which consisted of one horseshoe cable in the center and the sides are all done in a three stitch rib.  That is why the sleeves look more accordion than the rest of the sweater.

From the back, you can see the whole cable pattern which consists of three horseshoe cables divided by a rib, and two R/L twist cables along each side, also divided by a rib.  You can also see the ribbed pattern on the back of the sleeve.

I have already started the other sweater I need to get finished.  I am again striving to be finished within two weeks.  The holiday festival is in just two weeks, so I want to have both sweaters on display at my table.  Hopefully, people will see the sweaters a like them enough to give me orders to make one for them.

Wasn't Done Yet

I thought I was finished with the festival items, but I had a visit from a friend who bought a lot of my stuff last year.  She asked if I make dolls and I said that I do, both knitted and machine sewn dolls.  She indicated that she has a friend who has a little girl that has no dolls.  I thought I would make one to have at the booth for the festival.  She can buy it then.  I decided to make a machine sew doll since I have so many things that are knitted.  Here she is.

This doll was supposed to be a miniature baby doll, but I enlarged the doll by using a graph to get it in the right proportions.  I wanted it to be about the size of a 19" doll so that I could use clothes patterns I have for the 19" dolls.   However, I found that this doll has a fatter body, so I had to get creative and give her a waist by pinching the sides in and sewing them tight, similar to what I did when making Cabbage Patch dolls years ago.  It worked.  The blouse has to stay open at the hips, but is now able to be velcroed shut at the top and it does not show because the jumper covers the part that is open.  I had to make slight adjustments with the jumper, but not bad.  Overall, it fit fine.  The hat was exactly as the pattern called for. I painted her face.  However, when I sewed the head pieces together, I did not get them even and so the face was closer to one side than the other.  Also, the ears were way to projected.  I tried to fix the ears, and when I checked to see how it looked, it was even worse.  I ended up having to sew the one side of the face that was too far from the side further in and still make the ears a little more rounded because they were so pointed.  They still look too wide, but now the face is at least in the middle.  Once I had the hair on and added the hat, her ears don't look quite as bad.

The hair, as usual was a problem, but after a little rearranging, I managed to get something close to looking like hair. I wanted to show the back view to show how the hair looks.

I have been working on the first adult sweater that I need to get finished.  I have worked for three days and have the back portion finished up to just where the armhole begins.  It is looking really nice. Still a long way to go, but I will get there.  I took a break from it for two days to get this doll done. Now that she is finished, I will be able to get back to some serious knitting on it.

Done With Festival Items for a Time

For now,  I am finished with items for the holiday festival.  I felt an urgency to get to the sweaters that I need to finish for orders for Christmas.  If I get done with one sweater, I may feel more confident and try to do some more stuff, but for the time being, I think I have enough things to put on display for sell. Here are the final things I have finished.

This shows the man's slouchie beanie hat. I feel it may be too large and if I have time, I will make another a little smaller.  Of course, the headband is for a woman.  both items do not appear to be the color that they actually are.  The hat is chocolate brown and the headband is plum purple. 

This shows the two scarves I made.  The gray one is 100% wool and a little thicker that I anticipated.  If you like wool, it is nice, but I'm not that fond of it.  The other is a lace scarf and was extremely difficult to stay on pattern.  Each row was so different and it took an immense amount of concentration to stay on pattern.  Since I knit a lot while watching young children, sometimes it is difficult to really stay focused, so I did not make it as wide as it was supposed to be, but I think it looks just fine with the width.  The length was what it was supposed to be because it was worked on a circular needle and I used the correct number of stitches per round.  It is made from acrylic yarn. 

This shows the two scarves folded and laying flat.

This shows the detail of the lace pattern.  I had to look hard to find an area where I had not made a mistake.  Just looking at the scarf as a whole, it is hard to see the mistakes, but if you examine it closely, many can be found.  Usually when I make a mistake, I just take it out and start over from the spot where the mistake was made.  However, with this pattern, it was too hard to take out.  There were too many knit two together and knit, knit, pass over stitches and loop overs in a round that it was hard to determine when each had been made and if I took it out it was too easy to lose stitches, so I just tried to fudge it a work around the mistake.  Usually, it looked okay and it was hard to see that a mistake had been made, but I know they are there.  I still think it looks nice enough to sell, so I am going to use it.

So, as I said, I have started the first sweater.  It is coming along nicely.  I am almost to the armhole shaping on the back panel and I have just been working on it for two evenings.  It is a cabled sweater like one I have already made twice.  I have given myself a two week goal, but hopefully, it will not take that long.  I am really anxious to complete anything I start.  I want to be done yesterday.

Christmas Items Finished

I finally got all the plastic canvas Christmas decorations finished.  This year I just did tree ornaments, a Santa door decoration, and another nativity scene.

This shows all fifteen of the tree ornaments with the Santa door decoration in the center.

I'm not sure why the color is off on the third panel of the scene.  It is actually the same color as the other two,

I am back to knitting.  I have finished one scarf and started another.  I will make some more hats, gloves, headbands, and things like that.  I need to get the things finished for the festival so that I can get on to the two adult sweaters that I need to finish before Christmas.

Finally, the Farm Play Mat Set

After great lengths, I finally got the play set pictures downloaded.  It wasn't easy, but I finally got it.  I wish I understood technology like I do my crafting.  I guess I will just stick to crafting and take what little I can manage with technology.  I thought things were supposed to get easier, but it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks.  Well, here are the results of my latest project completion.

This is the mat which I designed by cutting out the animals and their sounds from farm print material.  I then appliquéd them to the mat and zigzagged the edges.  I made a mud hole for the pig which is hard to see in the mud in the picture and a duck pond out of a piece of blue tarp to add texture to the mat.  The tree also has a corduroy  trunk with leaf patterned material for the top. The barn is made from different textured material like felt and ribbed material. The fence is made of felt. There was also some apple trees, a tiny tractor, and tiny windmill on the farm print material.  I cut them out and added them to the top of the mat to look as though they were far away.  I used computer print material to add the words, Baby Farm, chug for the tractor, whirr for the windmill, and yum for the apple trees.

This is the mat with the matching animal toys.  The pig is sitting on top of the chicken because it is the only print animal that I added to the mat, but did not have a pattern to make a matching toy.  

This shot shows the cow that I knitted which has a zipper in the bottom of the belly so that all the toys can be stuffed into her for easy storage.  However, the farmer is too big to fit into the cow so he cannot be stored inside. He can be kept along side her to keep an eye on her.  The cow is ridiculously long, but needs to be that way to hold all the toys inside her.

I guess you could call this little toy the baby cow, matching the storage cow in color only.  It is made of felt.

I simply adore this little duck.  It is extremely hard to sew all those tiny parts, in particular, the legs and feet. It is made from a very soft fleece.

I hope my little lamb holds up.  It is made from a textured batting that looks to me very much like wool.

I cannot believe how much trouble I had with this little pig.  My pattern I got online copied way too small so I had to try to enlarge it on my own.  I didn't always get the same increase for all parts, some were too big and some were still too small.  The hardest part was the snout.  I couldn't get the strip that goes from the front legs up and around the nose and continues up along the top of the body and back as far as the tail to sew in the way it was supposed to work.  I ended up having to hand sew and pinch and maneuver the pieces until they resembled a nose.  Once I got it done and stuffed,  the left front leg would not sit down on the surface, so it appeared to be walking with one foot up and all others grounded.  He is made out of a textured material that also was hard to sew because it frayed too much. 

My farmer doll has a flannel shirt, jean material pants, felt boots, hands, and face, and fake fur for the hair which I hot glued into place and shaped like hair.  The hands may be on upside down, but this way, he is "all thumbs up."

My horse pattern was from a simple pattern that only requires sewing around the horse shaped body and did not require the detailed stitching of the cow, duck, lamb, and pig.  He is made of felt, with yarn mane and tail.

This shows the storage cow all stuffed with the toys and being attended by the farmer doll. 

I am so happy to have the toys all made.  Now I can concentrate on different things.  There is still so much to do before the Holiday Festival and Christmas.  I hope I can get everything done.

Halloween and Play Mats Finished

I have finished the Halloween costumes for this year.  I have also finished the last play mat set, but I can't blog it yet because I am having trouble getting my pictures to download from my phone to the computer.  I don't understand because sometimes they automatically transfer, and sometimes they do not.  Sometimes I can download them and sometimes it won't let me download them.  So I will show the costumes and will show the play set when I get the pictures.

Cat Woman is for Portia, but she can't be here, so Lexi is styling it for her.

Joey is showing off his Flash costume.

Lexi is flying high as Wonder Woman.

My neighbor, Julia, is being Rody of the Avengers for Ellis since he can not be here to show it.

I am happy to have the costumes done.  I will blog the play set later.  Now I will work on some plastic canvas Christmas ornaments and decorations.  I need to get so much done before Dec. 2nd.

Another Play Mat Finished

I have finished the second of the three play mat sets I am making for the festival.  I am nearly finished with the third, but still need to finish knitting the cow that holds all the set when not being used.  I am nearly half way done with it.  All the toys have been sewn on the machine.  Here is the jungle mat set.

This is the set of toys hanging from the arches.  I was able to buy the panel with an elephant already on it, so I just used it and put some batting and a back on it. This play mat can also be used as a mobile by tying the arches to the corners of a crib.  My neighbor used her set almost exclusively as a mobile instead of a floor mat play set.

These are the toys in the set.  From L. to R.: Georgia the Giraffe, Wally the Wart Hog, Tommy the Tiger, Molly the Monkey, and Zula the Zebra. The toys have bells in their feet to make them have a soft jiggle when knocked around from the arches.

It is Halloween costume time again, so I have started making them for four of my grandchildren.  I cannot find patterns for the characters they have chosen, so I have had to go online to get pictures and I have to make my own costume designs.  This is very difficult for me, but I do like to try to duplicate the look of the character they have requested.  I need to get the first two done by next week so they can be taken to Maine with their father.  He will be down next week and can take them back with him.  I still have another week to finish the other two since they live right here.  I need to have them done by the 28th.  I always feel the crunch.  I know these costumes could be purchased for less, but the kids like for me to make them, so I do.  It is fun and I look forward to doing it each year.

More Projects For Festival

I have been working on more projects for the holiday festival booth.  I am mostly working on toys at this time because I really like making toys.  I hope they will be a big hit and I will be able to sell most of them.  I really have no use for them if they do not because there have not been any new babies recently, or any that I know of that are on the way.  Anyway, they have been fun to make and I really love them.  Here they are.

This adorable moose goes along with the other three soft stuffies that I already blogged earlier. I actually made two of these because I gave the first one away to my nephew's granddaughter soon to be born.

This adorable polar bear is going to be the item I donate for the Chinese auction table.  He just might be my favorite toy I have ever made.  He is so soft and, as with the other stuffies I already made, he does not looked knitted, but really is.

This is my child sized monkey which I have dressed in infant clothing.  I had to really search to get a shirt that would match the shorts that I already had.  This Smokey the Bear was just the thing I was looking for.

Same monkey as above, just in a sitting position.

Another Noah's Ark play mat like several I have made before.  This shows the mat with the animals sewn onto it. 

This shows the completed play mat set with the accompanying toy animal laying beside the ones sewn to the mat.  I leave the ark open at the top like a pocket so that the toys can be stuffed into it.  At each corner there is a ribbon tie so that if wanted, everything can be tied up into a bundle for easy storage.  I didn't take a picture of the bundle this time, but I have blogged one before that was bundled. 

This is my latest creation.  I have made this horse and girl rider before for my grand niece's baby girl.  It is such a challenge to get this nobby kneed horse to stand, and then to get him to hold a rider is even more tricky.  With a lot of extra reenforcement, I was finally able to succeed.  I am also always challenged when trying to get the hair to look right on my dolls.  I forgot to put bows in her hair, but it is my intention to do it.

I am in the process of making two more play mats.  One will be with arches and will be a jungle themed mat.  The animals will hang from the arches and the toy animals will be knitted.  The thing I like about this mat is that I have created a way for the arches to be hooked over a crib so that it can be used as a mobile or as a play mat on the floor.  The other mat will be one like I have made before.  It will be a farm related mat and will have a large knitted cow with a zipper in the bottom of her stomach so that it will be a place to store the toy animals and the mat when not being used.  These toy animals will be sewn on the machine.

Once I get finished with the toys, I want to get back to more knitted projects like hats, scarves, bags, head bands, etc.  I have so much to get done before Dec. 2nd so I need to be very busy.  I know that I will need to be taking a small break soon to make Halloween costumes.  That is always a must do at this time of the year.

Christmas/festival Projects started

I have started to make things for the Holiday Festival booth which I hope to do again this year.  I am making things that if they do not sell at the festival, I can use for gifts for family and friends.  I have found that gloves are an easy and quick item to make.  I always thought they would be hard to do, but I can actually make a glove in one day and that means I can finish a pair of gloves in just two days as opposed to making a pair of socks that takes two weeks to make.  I am going to make a bunch of gloves for men and women and I will gift them to my family if they do not sell.  If they do sell, it won't take much to make new pairs to replace them.

I am also making something a little different this year.  I am trying to think outside the box a little bit. I am making my knitted stuffy toys, but I am using a really soft baby yarn that doesn't look like the critter has even been knitted.  I am doing it in the baby colored yarn, so there are blue, pink, yellow, white, and green mixed in.  I have always had a hard time making animals of a different color than they actually are, but you see toys like that all the time.  This is pretty much a first for me, but these little animals are so soft and cuddly that I think they will make excellent baby's first stuffies.

This is a pair of men's gloves (my first pair) and a pair of wrist warmers for women.

My first pair of women's gloves.  Fingers seem a little too short so I lengthened the next pair.

This is a beret slouchy hat that matches the gloves above from the upside down view.

This is the top view of the beret slouchy hat.

This is the beret slouchy on a head model.

This is a pair of women's gloves with a newsboy beanie to match.

Side view of the newsboy beanie.  Looks a little better than the front view.

Close up of the newsboy beanie shows the rolled brim in the front and the textured look of the body.

These are my adorable hippo, elephant, and rhino made from the fluffy, soft baby yarns.  I have one more to make.

I have had a birthday to celebrate in the mix of making these things.  My Annie turned two and so I made her some dresses.

These are the two dresses I made for her.

This dress is 100% cotton and so will wrinkle, but I had to use this material for what it says.

Sizing up the Grandma dress (she wouldn't put it on)

The other dress, which she wore to church and showed everyone her new dress.

I plan to keep making gloves, hats, toys, and other items for the festival.  It keeps me busy and I love doing it.  I also want to make some more plastic canvas Christmas items just to break up doing the same stuff all the time.  Before I know it, it will also be Halloween costume time.