Friday, April 3, 2009

Chickens and Rabbits and Moose...
















.... oh my



After assembling 5 of these dolls, I am heartily tired of stuffing, which never was my favorite part of doll making (I used to do cloth and porcelain- even had a small kiln). For some reason, hand sewing tiny details to clothes isn't nearly as boring as attaching endless (or so it seemed) arms and legs (and ears) in place.

Anyway, here are Minnie Moose (yes, she's officially a Christmas design, but who cares?), Bunny Sue, and Unnamed Rabbit in a Carrot Pouch, all ready to join the chickens for Easter. Sewing this many fabric panel projects in a row taught me a bit about fabric panels- the paint/dye they use is different from the dye usually used on fabrics (or maybe they use a heavy duty starch)- all of the pieces were stiff, and harder to handle. Construction on these dolls and outfits is just a bit wonky- probably due to space problems (with all of the pieces printed on a single yard of fabric, plus instructions), but the dress on the moose in particular was just plain weirdly put together. And not all of the Bunny Sue pieces fit properly (together, or on the doll). But in the end, they turned out adorably, and I know 5 young ones who will love them.

I finished spinning and plying half of the Juice Glass BFL roving from Yummy Yarn (link on the right, in Stash Enhancers- in fact, I think she has more Juice Glass listed right now). This 3-ply came out 1.9 ozs (about half of the roving) and 81 yards of striping 3-ply. If I'm going to continue to 3-ply sock yarns, I'm going to have to remember to buy more than 1 hank of roving in order to have enough yardage. This bunch won't make a full pair of socks either (unless I hustle over to YY and buy some more, though there's no guarantee that the colors will match since they were dyed months apart) (edited to add: I just bought one of the listed Juice Glass rovings from Yummy Yarn. If the colors don't match as well as I'd like, I'll knit both socks at the same time, and make the toes darker... or lighter... or whatever... She does have a lighter version of Juice Glass still listed in her Etsy store).

I have an eye test this afternoon and will be choosing new glasses. I'm thinking of going with rhinestones.

3 comments:

Geek Knitter said...

Well, if you go with rhinestones be sure to show us pictures!

LizzieHelen said...

Those animals turned out so cute I may have to make some of the animal panels I still have--one's a puppy (red with white polka-dots) and one's a bunny, I think, plus more somewhere.

mrae said...

Your dolls are adorable, and Rhinestone glasses will be soooo cool!!!
Mona