Doll Couture

Weekends are becoming doll dressing days. I discovered the German edition of the French book Vetements de poupées: Crochet et couture
by Carole Atzu. Now I am prepared for all wishes and occasions.

I chose a little crochet cardigan.



I don't know, but maybe it is because the designer is French, even crochet looks classy, reminding me of bouclé. A very thick texture; I used nearly two 50g skeins of cotton yarn, the cardigan seems to weigh more then the doll. But a couture result!



The buttons come from a thrifted and then felted cardigan.



I did some modifications of the original pattern: two coloured, the buttonholes are smaller, the sleeves five rows shorter and I added the bottom edging. My crochet hook was a size 2,5 instead of a size 2. And so it fits Clara's Waldorf doll who is taller then the 30 cm dolls the clothes of the book are designed for. Ravelry notes here.

Fresh & Organic 18

Unpacked and in random order:

potatoes, carrots, bananas, cucumber, apples, red bell pepper, zucchini, Batavia lettuce, asparagus, tomatoes, apricots, red radishes, onions, spring onions, kiwifruit

Beautiful / Practical

That is what my stitch markers used to look like:



Practical. They served their purpose within their aesthetic usefulness.

A couple of weeks ago a new Bead Shop opened in Oldenburg and nearly every day I was cycling by, but the opening hours of the shop didn't coincide with my schedule. I have not really worked with beads before (not speaking of the children's kind of play with wood and plastic beads).
I had stitch markers in mind I had seen with fellow knitters and on the Internet. I found this helpful German tutorial here.

Yesterday I also found a time gap and got started.



The owner of the shop was even so nice as to lend me the tools for a day.



Ready in a couple of minutes at the end of a busy yoga day.



And sooo beautiful.
I went to bed with a happy feeling and new glittery ideas.

Especially for Me

The Long Road to Multnomah

I am here. Multnomah. Not the county, but the finished shawl. Starting the trip on January 3rd I arrived there last Wednesday, at last. Two skeins of Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn. The shawl in progress was carried around, taken to the Bremen Town Musicians and waited patiently while I was facing the mental challenge of skeins of wool that didn't seem to get smaller and endless rows.



But then, while watching the six-hour-marathon Royal Wedding of Wool & Cake and knitting, I began to see the finishing line.



I have never been to Multnomah County and don't know what the landscape looks like, but my Multnomah is vast (a wingspan of 173 cm or 5' 8'') with long plains of garter stitch and soft rolling hills.



Breathe out.

(Ravelry notes here)

Sunday: A Bug's Life at the Museum

International Museum Day - and also an Open Day at the museums in our city. Clara and me went to the main art museum, the Horst Janssen Museum Oldenburg.



What could be better on a cool Sunday afternoon, especially when a special children's programme is offered.



Inspired by a bug the Oldenburg born artist Janssen had painted on a paperboard plate, the children could do the same.



Using feathers, buttons, different kinds of paper and cardboard, glitter, ribbon...



And some time for mama to have a coffee and browse through some art magazines. Happy mama.



Happy child.

Fresh & Organic 18

Fruit: rhubarb, pears, plums, bananas, apples

Veg: potatoes, kohlrabi, cucumber, carrots, May turnips, mushrooms, watercress, Batavia lettuce, cherry tomatoes, leak, red bell pepper

Blocking

New shawl on the block.

Knitting Summit

This morning after my Business Yoga class at Oldenburg University, two important people met for the first time: Annkari, "head" of Oldenburg Knit Night and let's call her XX, head, hand and heart of the Oldenburg Yarn Guerilla. Hope to see great results!

May Flowers

Practical

William Morris' quote, again: "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

I have something connected to the house, sometimes in the house, often outside the house, but definitely needed to open the house - my keys. Daily used.

It is quite embarrassing to show the outside world what my key chain looked like until yesterday:



Not beautiful, and not really useful (often searched for).
Just some ribbon and yarn.

I went to the fabric store and got some of these:



Unpacked at home:



The finished key chain:



And some offshoots:



So much better.

Some Summer Sewing

As apposed to last Sunday, this Sunday morning I woke up with the idea that Clara's doll Esmi can't wear her winter cardigan anymore, but needs a summer top. I whipped up this little thing and Clara's main wish was a front pocket (hardly visible in the picture...)



Vintage fabric from the eighties again. Pattern: none, just a sketch on newspaper and some try and error. One thing I learned for future doll clothes projects - you need velcro! For easy dressing and undressing, no tearing over the head, stuffing in the arms, just close it in the back.

I like it when you can use the stuff you sew, so from the same fabric:
a sunglasses case with drawstring.



There are some more summer ideas in my head and also a bigger summer project completed, but as the recipient's birthday is in August and she reads my blog, this has to wait... (and actually, I am also completing a knitting present for Christmas at the moment, very strange)

Fresh & Organic 17

Colours!



Red: apples, red radishes, tomatoes

Green: cucumber, green asparagus, avocado, zucchini, kohlrabi, parsley, oak leaf lettuce (and some purple)

Yellow: lemon, yellow bell pepper, pears, potatoes (inside)

Orange: oranges, carrots

How Yarn Guerillas Communicate

What do you see in this picture?



The disclosed Oldenburg Guerilla Knitter mentioned this interesting object to me. The tag below was made by her. After a couple of days some other person added the crochet tag above. The identity of the crochet guerilla is yet unknown (a new mystery...).

If you know some German and/or are interested in Urban Knitting in Berlin, check out last week's TV report here.

Sewing Continued

After the warm-up on the weekend I took some time out for sewing, especially late at night after all my mundane work was done. The fabric I had used for Clara's doll skirt reminded me of some little cute baby kimono I had seen in the book Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross - "Lucy's kimono".



Just too cute. Great book with great projects, but with some mistakes in it, which can be confusing for a beginner. I am not the first to mention it, just check the errata of the book online. Nevertheless, after I had figured out that one pair of the straps has to stay inside and not both of them outside for binding like suggested, everything was all right. Other bloggers mentioned the same mistake on their blogs. As I had already attached one strap to the outside, the kimono is bound to the other side then in the book, but as internet research showed, the correct way of binding a kimono for a woman is with the left side over the right.
Lucky me.



And as there is no little baby girl around at the moment to wear something airy like this, Clara was delighted when her doll Lilly got a new garment this morning.



Remember the Inspiration Corner: Russia?
Finally I made a little project from that.



It is a fabric cover that can be used for books or booklets, in this case it is for a German document called "Mutterpass" - "a mother's pass", an expectant mother's record of prenatal and natal care. With the matryoshkas as symbols for motherhood and fertility just a perfect fit.
I had seen covers like this on dawanda. I am always amazed how it is possible for a sewing beginner like me to see something I would like to sew, with no real idea how to do it, and then find a tutorial on the internet, get started and have a satisfying result in the end. Magic!



I used this video tutorial here. I would only suggest that you add a little bit more seam allowance if you want to topstitch around the cover in the end.

Sunday Sewing

Sunday morning 7.30 am. Clara: Mama, get up! Esmi needs a spring skirt. Can you sew one?
Me: ???????%%%((((%%§§§§§§§%))))% OK.

Clara picked some fabric from my vintage stash, she had her very own ideas about what a spring skirt should look like. I reminded Clara that sewing requires a little patience. And with some very basic sewing skills and no breakfast I mastered a little hemmed A-line skirt with some elastic. When Esmi modeled the result, Clara said: That is just what I wanted. Happy mama.

Fueled by this sewing success and the prospect of Clara spending a couple of hours at her grandma's house playing with her cousin, I happily sewed on. Actually I have been itchy to sew for a while, even waking up in the middle of the night recently with an incredible urge to sew. But you know, job, cleaning, the usual excuses. And when we went to a garden party on Saturday I talked with two other women about sewing and was really full of sewing desire. Springtime calls for sewing, it seems, like the first signs of fall need to be accompanied by needles and wool.



Just to keep my fingers and my sewing machine busy I made a little bag from the book Sew! by Cath Kidston (the pre-cut fabric was included in the book). A warm-up, little baby steps in the sewing direction, but a good start. And once I started stitching some embroidery and knitting stitches followed in the evening. One stitch seems to call for the next.

Laundry Days

The weather for drying laundry outside is here again! Dry in a couple of hours, smelling wonderful of wind and freshness and when I hang up Clara's and my clothes it usually looks kind of like this...