Several little things

My secret stitcher from my EGA guild sent me 3 skeins of pearl cotton in Red, white, and blue, and I thought I would make a patriotic temari. This was fun! Thank you!



I have been working on this dolly for a couple of weeks, and I finished her last night. Her name is Amy. This is from a pattern by Mimi Kirchner, posted at the Purl Bee a very nice blog with a lot of nice projects. Last fall when we went to the Renegade street fair, I was hoping to buy one of Mimi's dolls, but my budget didn't stretch quite that far, so I decided I would "eventually" make my own. The pattern was excellent to follow, and I really like the result, so much so, that I am having all kinds of ideas for another doll.

I love how her hair turned out, with the little pig-tails with bows. I do need to locate my fray-check to apply to some of the ric-rak. If you look closely, you can see some it is already fraying.

Keep an eye out for her... I have a feeling she is going to be getting into some adventures. She may even get a play date with Dolly!

I also made a couple of holders/organizers for the knitting needles I received from my grandma via my mom (along with mom's knitting needle stash). They were very nicely kept together in a purpose built canvas bag, and a tube that was a mother's day gift to mom over 40 years ago. (I will try to get a picture of that next time.) I don't remember if I made it or not. I want to say that I did, but I don't quite recall.

I saw pictures of the 3 organizers in a catalog, and I thought, "I can do that!" So I did. There are two organizers for straight needles, one for regular ones and one for double-pointed needles. There are two pockets for each size, longer and shorter. I was a little amazed by the number size 1, 0, and 0000 (!) size double pointed needles. I don't remember my mom ever knitting anything on needles like that. It must have been my grandma making socks or wool stockings.

Here you can see the double-point bundle rolled up. They fit wonderfully in the canvas bag, and now I know what needles I have, and I can find them without having to look at everything. I also made a hanging holder for cable needles. That holds them without tangling, and keeps track of them.

On Saturday DH and I drove to Sheep's Clothing in Valparaiso and picked up the knitting pattern book and yarn for the double knitting project I want to learn, but not the yarn for my lacy shawl yet. I did manage to knit 2 repeats of the lace pattern without messing up, so I am eager to start on that when the yarn gets here. Of course, that is knitting in the morning, with no TV, and no pets, and no other distractions. Hopefully I will get better, and will begin to be able to knit it with a little more distraction around, but I am going to be very careful.

I have some projects for today, so I better get going! Talk to you later.