Spring is Full of New Beginnings and a Trip Back in Time.

Well the sun is shining and it looks like Spring is finally on it's way.  Woo hoo!  Despite all of the blog entries that I've written and not posted or shared, Spring is a great time for re-birth and restarting things such as the blog.

So what have I been up to...

Knitting.  Teaching. Weaving,  And not as much spinning as I'd like.

I've also been working on designing.  Designing knits for dolls of all things.  It's like I've gone back in time, reverting to my grade 7 self and creating clothes for dolls again.

Back then, it was mostly for the Barbies that I'd stopped playing with.  I'd already given them all punk rock hair cuts and was adapting whatever I could into high fashion clothing for Barbie and (yes, that's right) my sister's old Donnie Osmond doll (he was so much cooler than Ken).  I converted mini gloves into short-suits, socks into skirts and, my fave, an umbrella sleeve into a gorgeous halter gown.

So, here I am, X number of years later and an avid knitter making doll clothes once again, but this time on a much larger scale - for 18" dolls.  Now, keep in mind, this isn't something I'm doing for my own kids; these dolls really creep out my boys.  But, when a friend's daughter started obsessing over American Girl and Maplelea dolls just before Christmas, a seed was planted.  With my short attention span, I've stayed away from garments - just ask my husband and his 10+ year sweater that's still in the works.  Knitting at the scale of an 18" doll is much more workable for me.

I started with this simple red version of Susan Seffknit's Top-Down Cardigan  in worsted weight Red Heart for my friend's daughter. It knitted up so quickly and simply.  I'd had a taste and needed to try more.  I've since created vests, cardies, and skirts for these dolls, getting more and more adventurous with each item.  I'm just loving knitting up ruffly skirts with scarf yarn - a much better use than scarves if you ask me.  I've even invested in an Our Generation doll of my own (her name is Kaylee and she has FABULOUS hair) for modeling and sizing of the projects.

I have so many ideas swirling through my head for future projects.  The next step, of course is translating my chicken scratches in my little notebook into real live patterns.  I've toyed with writing patterns before (although most are locked away in my mind), but I've never been this excited about the process.  It's a step in a new direction, back into my past.  Perhaps I did know what I wanted to be when I grew up back in Grade 7, but I just didn't know it yet.

Lace and ruffles short sleeved cardy made with hand dyed wool.  My favourite so far!

The Queen of the Land of Half Done

The slipper I'm knitting for my son is just sitting there.  Sitting there staring at me.  It would only cover about half his foot right now.  It's been there for about 2 weeks now.  I feel sorry for the poor thing;  even more so for my boy's cold feet.  The first one of the pair wasn't so difficult to complete. It never is because I am the Queen of the Land of Half Done and my subjects are single slippers and single mittens, and projects still on a set of needles scattered here and there throughout my stash.

On Friday last week I whipped up a mitten.  Just one.  There it is on the laptop. It is yet to have a partner.  I've started its match, but I've already lost interest.  Poor, poor, lonely mitten.

I've been trying to sort out how I ended up ruling over this land.  It comes down to my knitting style.   I like solving puzzles.  I also like to create and not necessarily following all the rules, or for that matter a pattern.  I alter patterns all the time.  Take the little yellow lovely to the left.  I referred to a pattern for the base of the pattern (how many stitches to cast on, how to set up the gusset.)  But the 6 stitch cable up the front was my own improvisation.  It was pretty successful. But now what challenge to add to for the left.  I need to think about that one... and I have no pattern to refer to make the match.  My mistake not to write any of it down.  Now I'm afraid that I won't be able to replicate the mitten with the thumb reversed.  The perfectionist in me coming out.

This is a pattern that rears its ugly little head over and over again:  I improvise or alter a pattern as the creative side of me takes hold and then I find I can't duplicate it and the perfectionist in me just can't be satisfied with the second version.  This is never an issue when knitting a hat or scarf or cowl.  Once those items are finished, if I can't duplicate my changes, then I simply have a brand new, one of a kind item.

So, lesson learned.  I need to start to jot down any changes that I make to the base pattern as I go.  But what about the mitt and that poor little slipper?  The mitten will soon have a left hand partner, but I'll make it without the cable so I still can have a "one of a kind" project, and a completed project at that.  The slippers are almost done.  I'm deconstructing the completed slipper as I go.  I'm nearing the toe shaping, and it's going to be a challenge, but it's getting colder and my boy's feet need to be warm.