Tuesday

I have finished the doll quilt and have been trying to get a photograph of it but it's not going well; I usually only remember at naptime, when Laura is tucked up in her bed with Teddy, Daisy, Baby, Baby's new blanket, Bagpuss, Other Daisy, Rosie, Raggles, Makka-pakka and her pig puppet. Soon I hope to remember while she is awake and the blanket is available to me for photography. It turned out very well, although not quite as wide as I expected. But better than I hoped considering I did not measure, press or machine-sew one single thing.

But anyway. Here is Felicity!



She's my new Pukifee Cupid! She's here to help me with modelling and pattern designing. As soon as her hair turns up I'm going to re-photograph all my doll clothes and patterns, and at the moment we're working together on the next book, Lati Yellow and Pukifee knitting patterns for summer and sunny days.

And I wouldn't have it any other way

In our garden, we're growing a fine crop of apples:




strawberries:




bees:




and round-and-rounds:

Something Completely Different

Patchwork!

After all that knitting, I felt like doing a bit of hand-sewing, and I had a project in mind. I wanted to do a bit of old-fashioned hexagon patchwork. I had a rummage around in my fabric box and found that I had a lot of bits of blue, so that's what we ended up with.



It's going to be a quilt for Laura's doll, Baby, because that's about how far my attention span will take it. I explained to Laura what I was making and now she keeps handing me pieces of it and saying 'You sew it, Mummy. Sew the blanket for mine baby.'

I have some blue bias-binding and some suitable fabric for a backing. One thing I'm enjoying about this project is that I haven't bought a single thing for it, everything is from my existing stash - all of the patches are made from old clothes and off-cuts. It makes me feel terribly thrifty.

Ta da! I finally finished my book!

Here it is!

Brilliant Basics: Knitting Patterns for Lati Yellow and Pukifee



It costs £6 on Ravelry: (you don't have to be a Ravelry member)

Or $9.50 on Etsy: Brilliant Basics: Knitting Patterns for Lati Yellow and Pukifee

The focus of the book is on making a complete basic wardrobe for your doll. The patterns included are:
- t-shirt
- sweater and cardigan
- pixie dress
- pleated skirt
- socks and underwear
- leggings
- shoulder bag
- hat and scarf

All the patterns use 2mm needles and 2-ply/laceweight yarn.

And of course the beauty of making these things yourself is you can customise them however you want - use any colour or combination thereof, add buttons and ribbons and sparkles, change sleeve lengths and leg lengths and skirt lengths - to make completely unique items. If you do make some things, please do send me a picture or add them to Ravelry, I would love love love to see what people make with these patterns!

And of course I'm not finished with doll knitting patterns yet....I have plenty more ideas! I'm thinking a summer book, and a winter one, and maybe some costumes, and plenty of hats, and lots more things!

But for now I'm going to put down my needles and do something completely different. When I post again in a couple of days you'll see that I do know how to do something other than miniature knitting, hopefully.

More miniature knitting I'm afraid

My book is so nearly finished! One more pattern, then a great big photo shoot, then it can be released to the world. Here's a quick look at a couple of the new patterns you can expect, first a pretty dress:



and secondly a cute shoulder bag:



The socks she's wearing there were knitted by myself, in the round, on 2mm DPNs. They were 14 stitches round and not as difficult as I thought they would be.

Emily's cardigan again

My mother commented on my last post and said I should put the pattern for Emily's cardigan on Ravelry. I think I will just share the notes I made here:



You're welcome.

A cardigan for Emily

As the second girl, Emily wears almost exclusively hand-me-downs, as might be expected. But I noticed that she only has one cardigan. This puzzled me for a while until I remembered that the green bamboo cardigan I made for Laura at about this age felted terribly. So I dug out some wool I had left over from something else (James C Brett Marble Chunky in a variegated blue, and I think I bought two balls for Laura's owlet jumper and then used slightly less than one) and set to. I improvised something because I was too lazy at the time to get up and do a search on Ravelry for a suitable pattern.



It's a top-down raglan cardigan. I guessed the size to start with, which had the usual effect - I had to rip it out after a couple of inches and start again. But I got it right second time.



The stitch pattern on the lower body and the ends of the sleeves is from one of the Harmony Stitch Guides, Knit & Purl Stitches I think. I love those books, I have three and might put the rest on my Christmas list next year.



The button bands at the front are only as long as the stocking stitch section as the edge of the textured section doesn't roll in like stocking stitch does. And with babies I only usually do up the top couple of buttons anyway, due to their roly-poly nature and inability to sit still. The buttons have flowers on but you can't see that in my photo.

Of knitting and bears

A little while ago I was contacted by a lady in Canada who needed a couple of cardigans for a miniature bear that she had. With just the measurements to work from there's always a bit of a worry that they might not fit, but I'm pleased to report the cardigans (and the little scarf) fitted the bear perfectly!



Here he is in his new knitwear. Such a lovely bear and I'm very glad I was able to help make him look so smart!

(the bear is made by Christopher Duquet of http://www.squidwool.blogspot.com/)