Red Silk Cashmere Mini Dress For Fashion Royalty

Sometimes the things I knit decide they want to be something completely different than I envisioned.  In this case I had pictured a sleeveless sweater top for Ellowyne Wilde or Tonner dolls.  I had it knit up, it fit (snugly!), but just needed some finishing touches to make it look better.  I wasn't bright enough to take pictures of it in progress, but it needed a clean edge for the hem, armholes, and neckline.

So after I spent a couple of hours knitting on a three stitch i-cord edge for the hem, and two stitch i-cord edges on the armholes and neckline, it looked great!  Then I tried to get it back on my 16 inch fashion dolls.  D'oh!

I could no longer get it on the doll.  If I did, it would only be if I ended up ruining the sweater and snapping stitches.  Not acceptable!

So I looked to my twelve inch fashion dolls.  My Fashion Royalty Veronique gazed at the rich red color ("Lipstick Lava" is the yarn name) longingly.  In the next few minutes I swapped out her current outfit for the sweater, adding thigh high black boots to complete the look.  It fit!  It was definitely a mini dress on her (mini to the point of scandalous.  Hollywood mini.), slinky and clingy, but still not quite right.

Enter the magic of blocking.  I soaked the sweater (now sweater dress) in Soak for about an hour.  This would have been necessary anyway to make sure inevitable cat fur was removed!  After that I blocked it aggressively, stretching the length out, and making it more narrow as a result.  It only took an hour to dry, and the results are better than I ever hoped.

Still scandalously short, to the point you wouldn't sit down for risk of flashing everyone and their cell phone cameras, but on a doll it works!

So another happy knitting accident!  Now I just have to remember how I did it so I can do it again in a different color.  This one is up on eBay as another test for interest.  I'm hopeful I can get my asking price.

If anyone is interested in the general pattern, feel free to leave a comment! Enough interest (heck, even if one person is interested!) and I'll make a "how I did it" post soon.

Now off to more thankless tasks.  And avoiding the look of discontent my Veronique is casting my way now that the old dress is back on her.  :D

Tiny, Doll Sized Socks!

Even dolls need a pair of luxury socks.  This first attempt turned out to be green reclaimed cashmere socks.

These were knit on size 0 US needles, with a laceweight yarn once again provided by Penelope's Fine Yarns.  It's a nice shade of green, more blue undertones than yellow.  They are simple socks with ribbing at the top, but they aren't tube socks.  Oh no, these have a tiny little heel!

The socks are knit from the toe up, so I can gauge how long I want to make each one before I will run out of yarn.  I have a lot of little skeins that are perfect for doll items, so I envision a lot more socks in the near future.  The pattern being easy to memorize makes this a great project for tv watching, or to have in my purse if I suspect I'm going to be waiting around for anything for any reason.

This pair of socks is up on eBay.  Hopefully this will be another item I can make to help offset the cost of living in general, and doll collecting specifically.  :D

Now I need to get to work and try to ignore the indignant glances I keep getting from Ellowyne and Sydney.  They got a taste of cashmere socks, and now they want their own.  They've already pointed out that it would be impractical for me to knit myself a pair, and that they have been modelling for free, so, you know, some kind of compensation is in order.  Soon.  :D

New Sweater Dress For Fairyland Puki Puki

My little Fairyland Puki Puki Flora has exhibited so much patience with me. She's had a haphazardly constructed green dress that didn't fit her properly, and didn't even have a snap to keep it closed in the back. This has been the case for well over a year, poor thing.

But over the weekend I had a meeting I didn't need to participate in, but still needed to be there, so I brought my knitting needles. I'm fairly impressed with myself that I eyeballed the general fit of this, and knit it off the top of my head. The first and only fitting was done after I'd finished it. But knitting a simple dress like this is pretty forgiving.

It's a bit longer than I wanted, and the neckline needed to be a little "shallower", but it still looks cute on her. And it's an actual, truly finished dress, just for her, so Flora is happy, which makes me happy.

Now I'm off to drink more coffee and contemplate how concerned I should be that the happiness of my dolls has such an impact on me... :D

Flora constantly looks up. She's a 'postive outlook' kind of girl.

On occasion Flora does have her 'diva' moments. Here she is trying to 'vogue' for the camera. :D

Little Bit Of Blue

My Soom Smoky Day Gena is enjoying her new cashmere cardigan. It still needs a button to close in the front, but she still seems quite pleased.

Cashmere Hoodie Makes For Happy Dolls

I've busied myself with knitting up doll sized sweaters this last week during every spare moment.  I found a couple of great free patterns that only took a bit of tweaking to fit Tonner 16" dolls, including my lovely Tonner Club Jane repaint by PepStar, and my Amber doll from the Ellowyne Wilde collection.

I am thrilled with the results and can't easily pull myself away from my knitting needles to go to work or do any of the necessary chores of life and living. Especially since I'm using the luscious recycled cashmere yarns from Penelope's Fine Yarns!  This particular hoodie is made from her Curry reclaimed yarn, with a touch of a mink brown at the cuffs and lower hem.

The pattern for the hoodie is found here at Undermost Salamander's site. It is extremely well written and easy to follow.  I tweaked the fit on the sleeves just a bit, adding four stitches at the armhole caston, but otherwise the pattern intended for a slim fit BJD like a Miniefee, in laceweight it fit Tonner's 16" doll just about perfectly!

As I went on to my next project, I found it less complicated than I expected to knit up a sweater with a custom and tailored fit, so I will definitely be making a lot more knit wear for dolls. It's a lot less daunting than knitting a full sized sweater for myself!

And the dolls stay happy.  Happy dolls are important. Unhappy dolls are unnerving, even to concerned friends and family who don't hear what I hear...