Doll Clothes

My niece has an American Girl Doll. Apparently, she LOVES her doll. I've seen books for these dolls and one of my knitting friends mentioned that some of them relate to different times in American History. I thought this was pretty interesting and humored the possibility of buying one for my daughter. Have you seen the cost of those dolls?!?! They are close to $100 retail. GAH! Plus the fact that my girl is not a girly-girl and isn't really all that interested, I dropped that idea faster than an overpopped popcorn bag. More shocking (to me, anyway) is the cost of the clothes for these dolls. Some of the outfits cost more than clothes that I buy for myself and my kids.

Anyway, my sister-in-law asked in passing if I could make clothes for her daughter's doll. I made a few for her last year and she seemed to like them; she still dresses her doll in those clothes. I figured I would make more for her this year (and practice my seaming - ha!). I made a dress for her in yellow Plymouth Encore and made a top in blue Berocco Comfort DK. I plan on making one more top in a pink color and will probably make some pants for the 2 tops. I also want to make a nightgown as well. If I have time, perhaps I can make matching sweaters...but at the moment that seems like a lot.

Hmmm...I almost wish my daughter was into these dolls. It would give me an(other) excuse to buy yarn and make more doll clothes.

Who knew?

I reknit both the front and back parts of Max's sweater and am now blocking them and the sleeves.

I washed the parts in my washing machine, hoping to get all of them saturated and fully spun out. I am happy to announce that the stitches in the back evened out - I was worried because the bottom portion of it was knit with a size 8 needle and I reknit the rest of it with a size 10 needle. Yippee!! My gamble paid off.

Hopefully I can finish seaming it tomorrow and start on the ribbing. It will be awesome if it can be done by the weekend.

Happy Day!

But I got gauge...

I started to stitch together Max's sweater yesterday...and it looked like this:


Long arms, short body. The ribbing would only add 4 cm. GASP!!

So I frogged the front and totally reknit it yesterday, during my son's playtime at the mall playarea. Last night, I looked at my beautiful Goomba face on the back and decided that I would use a size 10 needle and just frog above the Goomba face. I am hoping (crossing my fingers hard!) that it evens out in the wash...I will block it better this time! I miss my top-down seamless knits :(

No Whining Zone

My house has a No Whining Zone. Actually the only rooms where whining is allowed is in my children's 2 rooms. Respectively. And I am very happy to say that it works.

Today, I took my son to the local mall playpark and he made lots of new friends and had a grand time...so much that he did not want to leave. He cried the whole way car drive to our house that he did not want to go home and he wanted to go back to the playpark.

I reminded him that because we were home, he had to go to his room and finish whining. I closed his door, he opened it, I went into my bedroom to make the bed (better late than never, right?), locked my door and listened to him complain that my door was locked and he wanted to go back to the playpark. When I finished with the bed, I opened the door, asked him if he was done whining. He looked at me and whimpered a bit. I picked him up (mommy hugs always helps the whinies go away), carried him to the kitchen and asked him what he wanted for lunch. He chose Chef Boyardee Raviolis.

Now it is quiet and the whinies have returned to Whiny Land. I know they won't stay there but at least I and my kids know that if they return they are not allowed in the No Whining Zone.

No Crying Over Dropped Stitches

I wore my Corntastic Equinox the other day. I loved the way it felt against my skin. So light, I didn't even feel it. It was heaven.

That evening, I was taking it off and I was horrified to see this:

I dropped a D*** stitch!

I figured out where the stitch was dropped...how did this happen???

Well, being me, I decided to frog the whole top. Yes, the whole top. Besides this little oopsie, I've decided that the top is too holey:


I am going to reknit the top and close the stitches, i.e. twist the yarnovers when I purl them.

I am not as upset as you may think. I like the yarn and it frogs well, the pattern is easy, I like the results (aside from the holey-ness), and I've learned that you can't make a decent length sleeved top with only 550 yards. Good times.

It's Apple Hill Season!

I took my children to Apple Hill on Labor Day Weekend. My brother visited us for a few days and it was the first time that he has ever visited this wonderful place. We went to High Hill Ranch first. My children rode ponies (I am sad to say that I think my daughter will outgrow this soon...almost - it cost me $6 PER CHILD - GAH!) and got their faces painted. We visited the Fudge Factory and bought some nummy candy.



Then we headed over to the Larsen Ranch - a new ranch for us. We visited the museum there, where we saw some old cars, farm equipment, a covered wagon (rebuilt with the original hardware). We talked to a man whose father owned the original parts to the wagon. Also, there was a bison head on a wall that I had to take a picture of.



We also saw the oldest apple tree in Apple Hill. Believe me, it looked ANCIENT.




It was a nice day. My husband is missing out on our traditional visits to Apple Hill.

Flower without a cause

My daughter planted a pumpkin seed this spring. We were both really excited to see it bloom. She had high hopes of a nice big pumpkin to carve for Halloween. I am sad to admit that this will not happen. None of the flowers that bloomed in this precious plant have turned into a pumpkin. Now it is dying. I don't know how to break it to her.