Knitalong - With Prize!

As winter is winding down, I’m excited about spring, but also a little sad to be about to put away all my knit items. I thought it would be fun to have one last winter knitting hurrah, and host a knitalong of the Winter Toppers hats! And let’s face it, a knitalong is even more fun when somebody gets a prize! Interested? All the details (and pictures of the prize) below!


How To Participate
To participate, all you need to do is knit a hat from the Winter Toppers for 18” Dolls pattern, and post a picture of the finished hat on the knitalong thread in my Ravelry group by March 31, 2018. That’s it!


How You Could Win
On 4/1, I will choose a winner at random. I’ll announce it here, and will also send you a Ravelry message, so that I can get your address details and get your prize to you!


The Prize
The prize is a spring jacket for your 18” doll such as American Girl! The coat is handmade by me of a linen/cotton blend, and fully lined in a blue and white striped cotton. A few pictures follow, but please note that only the blue coat in the pictures is included in the prize, and not the doll or any of the rest of her outfit/accessories.







Happy knitting, doll fans!

Winter Toppers: A New Knitting Pattern for 18" Dolls!

Last fall, amidst the craziness of my last semester at college, and working a job that was sucking my soul, I had a notion that I'd like to make up a doll hat knitting pattern, both to make some fun doll hats but also with a mind to publish it for anyone else who might like it. Of course, because of afore-mentioned craziness, I never got further than a few rows of hat sample #1 before it ended up it the knitting bag, where it languished for almost a year.

About a month ago, I was thinking about it, as I had so many times before, and I just decided it was time. So over the past month, I have been having a ball designing and knitting up samples. I've come up with what I think is a nice little pattern with a lot of opportunity for customization!



The pattern includes three "views," for three different hat styles. There is a very classic hat with optional pompom and heart motif, a slouchier version of the classic hat, and then a fun "stocking" style with optional stripes.



In designing these hats, I wanted to make sure they were as simple and fun to knit as they could possibly be, so I paid a lot of attention to the little details, like trying to work out shaping and other details in an easy to follow way, and minimizing how often you have to move stitches around the needles. I also wanted it to be versatile, so the three hats can have any of the details swapped out, including the heart motif, which will fit perfectly on any of the three views you'd like to knit.



They use a sport weight yarn, which I felt was a good compromise as far as staying away from the worsted weight folks often use when patterning for dolls (which I feel ends up looking a bit too chunky for a doll for my personal taste), but without getting down to a fingering weight (which would make the project take a lot longer - although I am working on another hat pattern for those of you who like a more delicate look and don't mind the extra effort it takes to work with a finer gauge!) The small yardage required makes them a great stash buster, and they are quick to knit (a speedy knitter will likely be able to knit a hat in one sitting) which lends them nicely to last-minute holiday gift making!



This pattern is now available via Ravelry (Winter Toppers for 18" Dolls), and if you decide to purchase it this week, you can save 20% by using coupon code WINTERHATS (good through the end of Sunday, 12/10).

I also decided to start a Ravelry group (Historically Dressed Ravelry group) for my knitting designs, so that there is a place for people to ask questions, and to show off their finished things made from my patterns. I hope you will have as much fun knitting these hats as I did designing them!

Tiny Marching Sheep

A belated Happy New Year to you! I've been quiet, but hard at work on my last semester at college (which has been so much fun, because I'm learning Python and Android Apps, and loving it!) I've also managed to steal some time to work on several historic costuming and doll projects, but nothing is really at a point where it would be interesting enough to blog about. I do, however, have a handful of things I made in 2016 that I haven't chattered about, so here is one of them. . .



A tiny cashmere blend (yet machine-washable, apparently) cardigan featuring two rows of sheep marching around the top! This was a gift for one of my very best friends, who had her first baby in November. I'd done a little bit of fair isle knitting before, but this was the largest amount of fair isle yet. I was so stressed out that I was going to get the tension wrong in the fair isle section, and have the sheep be puckered or too loose, but I think it turned out great!

The pattern I used is "Welcome to the Flock," by Julia Farwell-Clay, and I knit it up using Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in Light Blue, Dark Grey, and White. (If you want to read more about the knitting process, you are welcome to visit my Ravelry page for it, which can be found here).

I decided that I also needed to make a pair of pants to wear with the cardigan, so I made up Butterick 5510, view C, in some 21 wale corduroy by Robert Kaufman, in the "Graphite" colorway. They turned out so cute, but along the way, I decided that I definitely do not enjoy sewing snap tape!



The finished ensemble included some onesies that I found which featured a gray and white sheep theme (so perfect!) and a pair of cute little gray shoes with a woolly lining, that I simply could not resist.

And finally, my husband contributed a little something to our gift:



Of course, it has nothing to do with sheep, but we feel you are never to young to start learning the ways of the force! ;)