Kiss My Knits!

Elizabeth Taylor

Pattern: Basic doll, panties, pants, and sweater from “Toys to Knit” by Tracy Chapman
Yarn: Dale Baby Ull for body, Mission Falls 1824 wool for pants, Lion Brand Cottonease for shirt.
Needles: #2 (2.75mm) for doll and panties, #7 (4.5mm) for outerwear
Gauge: 7 sts per inch for doll held single, didn’t check for outerwear.

Taylor, right, is the completed companion to Elizabeth, left. In spite of how it looks, they are the same size. Taylor’s head might be just a smidge bigger. I blogged extensively about my troubles with Elizabeth. Again, the pants would have been too long with the full 50 rows called for, so I did 42. Also, after seeing how much trouble Elizabeth has with keeping her trousers up, I only cast on 23 instead of 25. The panty pattern, at least, works like a charm.

There was a different shirt for Taylor, made out of blue Lion Brand Cottonease. This pattern had its own set of issues. Why would you call for decreases along the sleeves of a sweater for a doll? They’re not real person arms. They’re little sausages. They don’t taper. Instead of casting on 22 and decreasing to 14, I cast on 20 and did one decrease to 18 after eight stitches on the theory that it might make it a little easier to stuff the arms into the armholes. It worked fine. Just before I started the sweater, Emily asked for a picture on it, a heart. Turtlegirl76 was gracious enough to share some red Cottonease for that. I had to buy a skein of Baby Ull for the doll itself, but the yarn for the pants and main body of the shirt came out of my stash.

We chose Taylor’s name the same way we did Elizabeth’s, by going to a baby name site and perusing a list of the most popular girl names. She has trouble coming up with stuff from her own head, but having a list like that, she had no trouble selecting exactly the right name.

Seeing this picture makes me wonder if this was what was in her head when she bought that issue of Betty and Veronica yesterday. Hopefully they’ll be a good influence on each other, although with a combination name like “Elizabeth Taylor” I kind of doubt it. Well, Emily’s happy and that’s all that matters.

Comics, multicolored food, and knitting.

I have things to write – progress on the doll including a YouTube demo on doll hair, Emily’s and my adventure uptown riding the bus today, my horror of Girl Scout paperwork – but I’m a bit too tired.

Instead, I’ll just say that I got my Ravelry invite today (yay!) and my username is Tvini. I’ve been getting http://www.wearwithstyle.com hits from the Jayne hat pattern that’s up there, so it’s nice to be able to actually, you know, see what’s there.

If you’re on Ravelry, friend me at will!

http://monkeemaker.blogspot.com/ is running a contest. Comment on her blog, possibly win a monkey backpack. I LOVE this monkey. It has a very Aardman-esque quality to it. The original Sirdar pattern has its charm, but the creator gave it some extra personality somehow. I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s a singularly British monkey. The signup closes soon, so head on over and poke around. Leave a comment, and maybe get lucky!

Behold! Grapey goodness!

I spun up the last remaining super-soft cormo/silk batt (pictured left) that I had in order to take a break from the neverending itchy red wool that I had been spinning. Last time I spun this, it came out very loose (pictured right) because I was underspinning it for my desired result. This was an early attempt at spinning. I’m still not an advanced spinner, but it’s been gratifying to see how much better, in my opinion, this one looks compared to that one.


I posted after that first attempt, and got a lot of good suggestions. This time, I loosened up the tension on my wheel and treadled like a one-legged duck as I tried to spin tighter. I actually wound up making the second bobbin of singles more spun than the first bobbin, and I think it shows, but I’m okay with that. I two-plied it, and Navajo-plied the last little bit from the bobbin that ran out last. The Navajo-plied bits are hugely more twisted than the two-ply, even though I slowed down my treadling for that section. Clearly I’m letting it take up more slowly with the Navajo plying as I try to get it right. I’ll have to work on that.

When setting the twist, I took a page from ‘s “rough set” book and soaked it in very warm water for about an hour, then in cool for a bit. Then I spun it around in my bathtub, then beat the tar out of it against the tile walls. Then I hung it unweighted to dry. It hung very straight. Pictured: a closeup of the plies. This still isn’t as tight or even as I’d like it to be, but it’s miles better than the last time I tried this fiber a few months ago. I don’t spin as often as I’d like, so I consider this good progress. I’m pleased.

The finished skein has 76 yards, enough to actually make something, but I have no idea what. I’m open to suggestion as to what to knit!

Many thanks to everyone in the community for all their suggestions, they’ve really helped make me a better spinner.

(crossposted to my own journal and )

So there’s a meme going around LJ where you link to your 42nd post ever and it supposedly is predictive of how your life will be. Apparently my life is about knitted hats (correct) and multicolored jeweltone boobs (not so far).

One out of two aint’ bad.

My daughter asked for a doll to be a friend to the other doll I made her and selected a specific shade of yellow for her hair. Unfortunately, nobody local has it. So I’m asking if you have a single skein of Crystal Palace cotton chenille in colorway 1317 which is a pretty straightforward yellow.

I have many skeins of cotton chenille in colorways 6045 and 8166 (purple and red, respectively) and will happily trade multiple skeins of my own for your single skein. Heck, if you’ve got a skein of this and can get it in the mail very quickly, I’ll dig into my Lamb’s Pride, Noro, Lorna’s Laces, Creatively Dyed (some pics here and here), whatever I’ve got, whether it’s a lopsided monetary value trade or not. Just let me know what you want, chances are I’ve got it.

Won’t you please help stamp out doll baldness and make a little girl happy?

(Crossposted to my .)

I spun and plied the last remaining cormo/silk batt that I had. It turned out so well-balanced that I took pics before remembering that I needed to wash it and set the twist properly. So the really finished pics and details will have to wait until the hank finishes drying.

My wonderful Italian husband who cooks like a dream made a fabulous eggplant rolatini Sunday evening. He used an enormous eggplant from our garden and made the sauce and ricotta cheese from scratch. No, really, he made the cheese. Like from a gallon of milk, chopped spinach, garlic, and something that I can only describe as “Pure Essence of Flavor” a la Bender from Futurama.

Pictured eggplant is actually storebought and slightly smaller than the garden one. We bought an extra in case we didn’t have enough. We did.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Ladies and gay guys, marry a man who can cook!

Ran out of yellow yarn after packing up several kits this morning. This afternoon, a cone of yellow arrived! Yay! It’s a one-pounder, which should get me through until my monstrous four-pounders arrive. Hat orders are flat, but kit orders are up, so I’m actually going through the yarn a little faster than usual, since I tend to send more than is strictly required. I’m making a yarn counter for myself that should be more accurate than my homemade PVC niddy-noddy (pictured left), which will help me keep costs down – especially important since postage rates went up. I’ll still send more than is strictly required, but maybe not, like, two hats worth of orange in a single kit. Heh.

Am now off to bed, and already looking forward to blueberry cornmeal muffins and coffee in the morning. My daughter actually asked for a muffin after I made them today, and since she never wants any new foods, I’ll take that as a major victory. Yay for cool days that inspire one to bake!

Question: pics opening in new window. Good, bad, or indifferent?

Cribbed from

37%
Well, that ain’t good. Apparently my desire to try to locate my relatives would most likely doom me. Oh well.

Drove up to Greensboro yesterday to pick up some more yellow yarn, just to get through the crunch. Also snagged some spinning fiber, 70% cormo and 30% silk. There’s more VM (vegetative matter) in it than I’d like, but I do like that it’s undyed. I’d like to take a shot at coloring it. I’ve recently spun up all the cormo/silk blend that I got from eBay, and will be plying it very soon. The store had Buffalo Gold buffalo fiber for spinning, but at $45 for one ounce, I think I can soldier on without it.

Many thanks to for the cool T-shirt for Emily. That exclamation point is the only thing keeping her from looking like a mime today. I’m trying to branch out my html skills, so the pic to the right has a bit of code that should make the larger picture open in a separate window. Hopefully it will work!

Last night, the local mall had its Independence Day fireworks early. We were able to see them from our driveway. I stood on the bumper of my car and steadied myself with a hand on my husband’s shoulder. We got a few mosquito bites (my husband got more than a few) but I felt it was worth it. I won’t speak for my husband.

Emily’s doll is mostly knitted. Only part of an arm remains. Today Emily dug out my bag of polyfiberfill stuffing and stuffed the two legs and arm. She’s very anxious for this thing to be done. I’ll try to finish the arm and sew it up some tonight.

Hope you’re all staying cool – assuming it’s hot where you are!