tephra | Entries tagged with knitting

A bit of distraction from my other knitting, all of which is either boring or frustrating depending on the project.

A mostly face forward photo protrait of a doll with frizzy orange hair poking out from under a brown hand knit hat. The doll is wearing gold glasses and a brown shawl collar cardigan.

A mostly face forward photo protrait of a doll with frizzy orange hair poking out from under a brown hand knit hat. The doll is wearing gold glasses and a brown shawl collar cardigan.

The yarn is something I reconstructed from Red Heart Super Saver in "coffee" and "fall". I split 10 yards of each colorway, joined the resultant singles into one long one via drop spindle, and then plied it back on itself.

Needles: US 1 (2.25mm) and 4 (3.5mm)
Doll: Resinsoul Mei in light tan (coffee) cast in 2009

Her funnel neck shell, cardigan, and wig are also knit by me.

Current Mood: accomplished
Crossposts: https://tephra.insanejournal.com/64864.html

Buttercup Miniatures did an Advent knit-a-long and I decided to join in using Lionbrand Amazing Lace yarn and US #0 (2mm) needles. I had no idea if the finished item would fit any of my dolls but I was sure I could send it to a friend with more varied dolls if it didn’t. I don’t have any male dolls at this scale so it was a gamble from the start.

A grey, shawl collared cable knit sweater on a pale wood background.

A grey, shawl collared cable knit sweater on a pale wood background.

I basically crossed every cable other than the center panel wrong but didn’t want to start over when I noticed it and just kept going. The ropes should have been snakes and the outermost cables should have been Xs and Os but I still like it. Maybe I will knit another with the cables done right… well at least with the Xs and Os, I prefer the ropes actually.

Seaming was a mixed bag of simple and nightmarish. Setting in sleeves is never going to be something I enjoy, but doing it with a cable at the edge of one piece and no selvedge stitch? ARGH!

The same grey sweater on a Bobobie March doll with wild hair in shaded of orange and gold.

The same grey sweater on a Bobobie March doll with wild hair in shaded of orange and gold.

It fits my Bobobie March like she stole it from her boyfriend. The armhole depth is very long for her and the sleeves could be one rope cable crossing shorter.

The same grey sweater on a Wild Hearts Crew Rallee Radmore doll.

The same grey sweater on a Wild Hearts Crew Rallee Radmore doll.

The fit on Wild Hearts Crew is great! I was impressed that the neck stretched enough to get over her head.

The same grey sweater on a curvy Barbie Fashionista "spring into fashion" doll.

The same grey sweater on a curvy Barbie Fashionista "spring into fashion" doll.

It even went on a curvy Barbie Fashionista easily.

I would love a Made to Move body for this girl. I bought her specifically to model that crochet flamenco dress she has on under the sweater, so articulation didn’t matter, but then I fell in love with her face. (Not in love with the glue head I deal with and the “look at it funny and it floats” static prone hair.)

Current Mood: accomplished

Wayfaring Yarns does a mini sweater KAL every August and I finally finished the last of the patterns and blocked them.

Sweater #2 (pinky/coral/rust) was knit as written except I mirrored the cable on the second sleeve. I used the twisted German/old Norwegian cast on and the Icelandic bind off since they look nice with garter stitch.

Sweater #3 (blue) knit completely as written, again using twisted German cast on and Icelandic bind off. This pattern really needed blocking and is why I delayed posting until I blocked things. I may add a button to the neck, but I have decided if it will be a snap with a button over it or if I can get a button between the stitches to fake a buttonhole.

Sweater #4 (green) was really fun because I basically said "nope, not going to seam this thing." The pattern calls for casting on the first cuff and working flat, you cast on for each half of the body and divide from the neck and when all is said and done you have to seam the sleeves and sides. I knit with a long-ish circular suitable for magic loop ,so instead I cast on and joined in the round. When it came time to start the body I did a figure-8 cast on using the needle for the side I was currently knitting and the cord for the other. From that point I was knitting flat like the pattern called for, but in a U thanks to the closed side "seam". When I reached the other side I cut the yarn with a tail long enough to graft the side seam (in pattern) and rejoined at the under arm to knit the sleeve. I used the twited German/Icelandic combo again but half way through I kicked myself since I could have used the alternating cast on and grafted bind offs with the seed stitch hems on this pattern.

Current Mood: accomplished
Crossposts: http://tephra.insanejournal.com/64536.html

Wayfaring Yarns/Sweater Sisters is doing their annual mini sweater KAL again this year so I knit up the first pattern using Lion brand Summer Nights yarn and US #1 (2.25mm) needles. My only changes to the pattern were to do some decreases in the first round of ribbing for the cuffs and hem so that I could use 2x2 ribbing to match the neck (and also get the cable to flow into the ribbing).

A doll with wild orange hair wearing a turtleneck sweater in shades of blue in green with a wide horseshoe cable running down the center front.

The fit is surprisingly good on my Bobobie March. There are some things I would change for a better fit/cleaner lines if I knit another, but I’m happy enough with it.

That excess fabric is from the extreme increases in the yoke and I would omit about eight of them in the back section and add them back in as waist/hip shaping. March has booty, so while I could shave a few stitches off here and there in the sleeves and upper torso I would need all of the torso stitches to cover her butt.

Current Mood: accomplished
Crossposts: http://tephra.insanejournal.com/64438.html

Finishing more old stuff

Sometime last year someone on one of the knitting discords posted a link to the Shusui Shrug pattern. The designer was thoughtful enough to post a video on how to get the thing started and I just had to try it….

Now, before I show the back, let it be known that my Knit Picks needles decided to betray me and the cord came out of the needle right in the middle of the two color brioche portion and dropped a couple dozen stitches.

Let it also be known that acrylic crochet thread doesn’t actually like to be knit with all that much and wants to be straight. Yeah. But! I did get everything back on the needles, and after several attempts even sort of got everything fixed!

Just please ignore the horridly uneven tension that remains even after attempts to fix it and blocking. And that one strand that ran on the RS instead of the WS that I didn’t notice until I was pinning it out to block, okay?

Current Mood: accomplished
Crossposts: http://tephra.insanejournal.com/63908.html

While I was procrastinating about blocking the sweater I posted I knit something else.

Inspired by a pattern called Tanrenga, which I liked because it made me realize I could turn a top down triangular shawl into a vest if I wanted to. So I looked for shawl patterns and then said screw it and improvised with the old classic feather and fan, like the original used.

Fingering weight yarn (Lion brand Summer Nights) on US size 1 (2.25mm) needles. Lightly steam blocked. I tried out the Channel Island bind off (Icelandic variation), but I think if I have to match the CI caston I will do a type of sewn bind off with doubled yarn.

Her tank top is what happens to uncomfortable footie socks. It’s pretty bad hand sewing (I hate hand sewing) but it does the job when I need a layer to put under an open lace vest, yes?

The doll is a Dollzone Feilan on body b45-002. Yes, her wig needs a little TLC but I’m kinda terrified of screwing it up.

Current Mood: accomplished
Crossposts: http://tephra.insanejournal.com/63715.html

In my defense, the project bag got eaten by stash and I only found it again when I had to deep dive because of the Stay At Home order. I know that’s not much of a defense.

Anyway, back when the Hunger Games was The Thing and Catching Fire was about to open, knitters kinda lost their minds over Katniss’ sweater (and that one arm cowl/vest thing). I poured over every high res promo shot I could find and knit my version of the sweater for one of my dolls. Then, probably in 2016 or 17, I started another from my notes on the first.

So when I was stash diving I found what I had finished, the side panels, tail, and bottom hem. About half the sweater was already done so I knit the sleeves and then in the fiddly bit to fill in the torso and finish the yoke.

This doll (Dollzone Mo on body b45-012) is a bit taller and slimmer through the shoulder and bust than the one I made the original for (Featherfall Elf Iruhi on Resinsoul Rong body) but I think the fit is okay, as long as you don’t mind flashing a bit of belly (the low rise pants don’t help; yes I knit those too).

My version was knit before we had a shot of the back of the movie sweater, and from what we could see of it I had assumed the side panels were square and met in the back. The real sweater is more boring so I didn’t even consider restarting when I saw the back was different.

Knit with Aunt Lydia’s Bamboo Crochet Thread (discontinued, dammit) on US size 0 (2mm) needles.

That’s one more thing out of the WIP pile. I might even finish the rest if the SaHO keeps being extended.

Current Mood: accomplished
Crossposts: http://tephra.insanejournal.com/63332.html

I did indeed lose at yarn chicken. Knowing it would be possible, however, I stopped the first sock with just the graft at the toe left and used the other end of the ball to make the second sock.

I ran out of yarn so I ripped back the first sock a few rows so I could get the second knit to the same point. Then I split some dark grey worsted yarn down to single plies and used those to do the last three rounds (holding the tail of the original yarn and the new yarn together for the first half round to blend the two on the top of the toe) and graft the toes closed. Since she's using her high heel feet the mismatched yarn is all under her toes when she wears the socks so it's good enough for me.

Current Mood: accomplished
Crossposts: http://tephra.insanejournal.com/63080.html

So I had a wild hair last month and started swatching an idea…

And after a few variations, I stated knitting… and ripping and re-knitting. Until I ended up with this (unblocked):

The wine/maroon neckline is sort of fail, but by the time I knew how it would look I had finally managed to get the grey neckline/yoke area sorted out and I was not ripping it again.

I had knit the sweater to go with the skirt I had knit previously, so then of course I had to knit a hat to match.

Now I just need to knit her some socks. Unfortunately I am thinking I might not have enough grey yarn, which is a horrible thing to think when you are nearly finished the first sock.

I’m hitting the end of my enthusiasm for this project, so she might go sockless if I lose yarn chicken. Maybe I will get back to one of the ideas I have had for making her some boots instead.

Current Mood: accomplished
Crossposts: http://tephra.insanejournal.com/62732.html

I did finish up some human scale knitting, and blocked some human scale crochet, but I don't have photos yet. So instead you get to see more of Fiona.

A grey Hujoo Phoebe Mouse doll standing on snow and leaves in front of a tree trunk wearing a black handknit sweater, black and white houndstooth pants, and black combat boots.

Hujoo doesn't use s-hooks in these dolls, so until I get around to restringing her I can't just take off her head to dress her like I do with my other dolls. Because of that, and the fact that I am not a fan of bulky fasteners like snaps and velcro (which is not great with knitting anyway), I had to come up with a neckline that would allow me to dress her feet first. However, I didn't want the neckline to be super large and open either. I think I succeeded with this design, which has "tabs" on the front and back that overlap in the shoulder in the sleeve cap area. At this scale the overlap is kind of like having a shoulder pad in there, but I think it looks okay.

I'm going to knit another to streamline the process; picking up for a tiny sleeve in the round while overlapping bits was fiddly to say the least. After that, maybe I will write this one up as a pattern for sale. We shall see.

Current Mood: accomplished
Crossposts: http://tephra.insanejournal.com/62077.html

While I have been knitting and crocheting right along all year, I haven't really been doing much, or finishing much, for my dolls. I fixed that this past weekend.

First, the craft project that kicked things off.

A grey Hujoo Phoebe Mouse doll sitting on the edge of a silver laptop with a doll sized pale yellow laptop open on her lap. The doll laptop has a cheese wedge for a company logo.

( More photos and other projects under the cut. )

And that's it until I either update with the finished human scale things from this year or I finish more doll things.

Current Mood: accomplished
Crossposts: http://tephra.insanejournal.com/61915.html

I managed to get a shot of it today between spats of rain. This one is a full sized shawl on me, though at 80" across and 40" down the spine I know that's a large shawl on most people. I could drape is over my shoulders and catch the points in a belt, the sides rest on my elbows worn that way.

Strictly speaking, this has not been blocked. It's acrylic so as long as the lace doesn't distort the fabric much you can get away with just tossing it in the washer and dryer, so that's what I did. If I figured out somewhere I could pin it out to a larger size and steam it I could make it a bit larger still, but it's big enough and flat enough that I'm happy with it as it is.

So other than works in progress and that even older shawl that does need to be blocked (OMG, where??) I think the only things left needing photographing are the assorted balls of yarn I reconstructed and the spinning wheel that is still wood bits and bolts in the back of my Jeep.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: rain that just missed me and the shawl

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: rain that just missed me and the shawl

So this is definitely not all that I have done since the last update, but at least I got some pictures of some much older projects for a change.

First, my best shot with my iPad mini and Mom's afghan out on her lawn:

The grass did not allow me to get it all nice and squared up, especially after the wind kicked up and blew on corner over and made me have to lay it out again. Trust me though, it's all nicely straight and rectangular. I had to so some easing on the first round to get everything smooth but I did manage it.

( Now onto the older stuff! Newest to oldest for a change. )

Things I do not have photographs for:

The big brown shawl.

Lots of re-plied yarn.

The wood and parts for my spinning wheel (I bought them Monday).

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: wind chimes

The big brown shawl.

Lots of re-plied yarn.

The wood and parts for my spinning wheel (I bought them Monday).

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: wind chimes

The craft output of the last year has not been up to the usual level due to life events. I know I mentioned my mother's valve replacement surgery that was scheduled for last summer and ended up being last fall. What I didn't mention is the reason for the delay; my Dad died. I spent late summer and fall with Mom and my brother and didn't get home until early November, which is also why you didn't see any hints of NaNoWriMo last year. I wanted to do NaNo but there was just nothing for me to work with, not even enough to really get a character or setting started, and absolutely no energy to write with, especially not with nearly a third of the month passed already. It hurt a bit to skip a year but not as much as trying and failing would have.

Anyway, I did actually get some crafty things done in the second half of last year. ( Many photos behind the cut. )

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: breeze in the trees

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: breeze in the trees

And knitting, of course. A lot of it for dolls.

Things have been... not that great, for the last couple months. Things will continue to be not fantastic for the next couple months at least. With that in mind, let's just focus on what I have been doing/can do that I enjoy.

( Photos. So many photos. )

And outside the cut for being recent and pretty (in my opinion) some more crochet doll shoes.

I sent these to Kris for her MSD sized girls. I wanted to know if they would fit Planetdoll minis since I only have Resinsoul and Dollzone (old b45-002 body) dolls to fit things on. The answer is yes, but they could fit a bit better, so I have some tweaks in mind for my next attack of shoe making. Since you can't judge the scale here, the shoes are about 5.6 cm / 2.25 in long.

That's five pairs I've made, a prototype and four test pairs with different sole styles (flats, wedges for flat feet using 3 and 4 layers of cork, and a 4 layer wedge for high heel feet). All that testing went into writing up a pattern up for sale.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Weird Al Yankovic - Word Crimes (in my head)

I started this in December, not long after I saw the still from Catching Fire that made all the knitters on the internet want to knit That Sweater.

Every single stitch in everything but the white ribbing is twsited, both knit and purl, including decreases both left and right leaning. For the knitters that will mean something; everyone else: suffice to say that it slowed me down a bit.

I'm so happy with it that if I had other colors of this bamboo thread I'd be seriously tempted to start another one.

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Music: 2cellos - Smells like teen spirit

Well, not really, but I sure did increase my output there for a bit at the end of May. There was a doll meet/party at Mint on Card, a doll store in Traverse City, and I wanted my girls to look their best so I went a bit nuts for a week or so beforehand.

In more or less chronological order... ( Photos under the cut. )

I love this shot. Therefore I am leaving it out of the cut. ( Back to the photos and stuff. )

One last thing finished before the party and not photographed, a new case for my camera because the original one is all icky nasty with age. I knit one of out cotton in linen stitch with a velcro closure on the flap.

Current Mood: creative
Current Music: kitty snores

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The Shadows on My Wall Don't Sleep

Enter the Shadowzone

Entries tagged with knitting

Just a quick little knit

Buttercup Miniatures 2020 Advent KAL

The rest of the mini sweaters

Mini Sweater #1

Finishing more old stuff

Things you do to avoid other things

It only took 3 or 4 years...

Now with Socks

Close enough

A little bit of doll knitting

Feeling crafty

That big brown shawl

That big brown shawl

I am not a photographer

I am not a photographer

The Crafty Report

The Crafty Report

Not dead, been crocheting

Impressing Myself

I am a crafting machine

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December 2022

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