Knitting Machines, Happy Town, Dress a Doll

Here's a video of a wind-powered knitting machine, which is pretty cool. I have a cheapo plastic version of this kind of knitting machine, but it skips and drops more stitches than it catches. It's not worth the effort of cranking, by hand or wind.

And here's a slightly more cumbersome setup... I'm glad I don't have to cast on this way.

So, I watched the first episode of Happy Town, and had mixed feelings. On the positive: it has Sam Neill, and a sort of Twin Peaks/Harper's Island vibe that could work (TP was Art, at least in the first season, HI was trash, but it was entertaining trash), and it's set in Minnesota. On the negative: they got the weather so incredibly wrong right out of the bucket that I could barely watch the rest of the hour. I mean, it began to pour rain, and to thunder WHILE PEOPLE WERE IN ICE SHACKS ON A FROZEN LAKE!!!!!  I cannot state this firmly enough: if it's warm enough to rain, there is no ice left thick enough to support a person, much less multiple shacks and vehicles parked on the ice. Nor are there fresh flowers in stands on the sidewalks. Ice fishing takes place in the dead of winter, in the below zero weather. And of smaller irritation, but annoying nonetheless: while people in Minnesota do not sport the accents heard in Fargo (for the most part), there was nary a midwest twang or a you betcha to be heard in Haplin, MN.  However, the DVR is programmed for the show, and it took me several episodes of Harper's Island to get me hooked, so I'll stick with this one for awhile. But they'd better shape up meteorologically.


And finally, I had a spare hour yesterday, so I worked on the Dress a Doll outfit that I'm submitting to Judy Johnson (mentioned in yesterday's post). Here's what I have so far:

I do all of my paper doll designing on the computer. I drew over the doll herself, and then erased anything that wasn't neeeded for the outfit. I used the clone tool to fill in the fabric for the dress and the rose accents. I'll add details, jewelry, sparkles, shading and tabs as I have the time to do it. Download the doll yourself, and play along. It's fun!