Sweater Weather!

I love this time of year.  It's not quite fall, but the weather is cooling down enough to dress in layers and not always be at the bottom one.

The dolls are modeling two new offerings currently on eBay.  Lately I've been favoring the Wilde Imagination dolls, especially Amber.  But this time Prudence got in on the fun, too.

One is a green cardigan sweater I've had nearly done for quite a while.  Sewing snaps and buttons on is not my favorite task, but I finally got them on.  I like how clingy this one is.  It was really meant to be a sweater with a back closure, but I messed up the neckline a little, and it just looks so much better as a cardigan instead.

With the dark wig and her dark eyes, Amber loooks so good in this dark green.  The yarn is from Stricken Smitten, a fingering weight yarn I believe was called Glow Worm.  It's sadly sold out (her yarns sell out fast!), but I believe I have enough to make another doll sweater down the road.  :D

The second is a stripey sweater that I started recently, for Prudence.  Lots of fun stripes, and a nice big neckline.  Even sleeveless, it looks like it would be pretty cozy.

This is another reclaimed/recycled yarn project.  There is a lot of Penelope's Fine Yarns, plus the silver is from Keystone Art and Craft.  All luscious and a joy to knit with.

I've already cast on for a new sweater, but I'm still not sure where I'm headed with it.  I was thinking of trying something with a ruffled hem, but as with my other doll knits, I'll see where it ends up.  :D

Awesome custom made stamp!

I'm probably getting ahead of myself, but I ordered a custom made stamp just for Fashionable Figures.  I can stamp my own business cards (in small quantities, on custom paper), stamp up my own coupons, price tags, packing/wrapping materials, etc., and have it all contain the pertinent information I want people to have.

And best yet, total cost even with shipping was around $28.00.  I don't think I could purchase a mass produced stamp of this size (3.5 inches by 1.5 inches) with this level of detail in a store for that!

I ordered this from an Etsy seller, JLMould, finally choosing one of her listings after sifting through a lot of other seller options.  This is a laser cut stamp so the small text was possible (versus hand carved).  Plus, that also reduced the turnaround time.  I ordered the stamp on August 25th, and it arrived Sept 4th (with Monday the 3rd being a "no mail" holiday).  

The ordering process was also very easy (although you do have to leave Etsy's site to go to her nifty portal).  You upload the graphic you want made into a stamp, specify any extra instructions, and go from there.  Since I already had my graphic designed out exactly the way I wanted it, and sized to fit the stamp (and made at 600 dpi resolution), I think that saved me a few days.  If you needed her assistance to tweak or even design the graphic, naturally that would add time.  But you have all the instructions/specification at your fingertips, both on the Etsy listing, and at the ordering portal, so nothing should be confusing.  Unless, of course, graphics just aren't your thing, and things like "DPI" sound like a weird disease you should have been immunized against as a child.  :D

I have JLMould "favorited" on Etsy, because I know I will eventually want/need more sizes and graphic combinations.  I had been holding my breath to see how my stamp would look, and how well it would work in actual use, and I couldn't be more pleased!

Of course now I need to craft some more items for sale so I can replenish even that relatively small price back into my budget. And I think some of my dolls are feeling more than a little neglected these last few busy days... :D

Just A Wisp Of An Idea

I can barely draw, but sometimes even my minuscule skills communicate (at least to me) the musings usually floating about in my skull.

Ideally I'll be able to get more details out either on paper, or in fabric!

Stripes. There Will Be So Many Stripes...

I have so many bits and bobs of wonderful laceweight yarn, I just started knitting up yet another doll sweater.  After the little fitting fiasco of the red silk one I intended for an Ellowyne doll, but became a Fashion Royalty sweater dress instead, I started off with 18 extra stitches on my cast on, for 72 total.  I did a 2 x 2 rib at the hem, so it's nice and stretchy.  I also learned my lesson, and will not do an i-cord edging, especially at the neckline and armholes (if sleeveless) without going up at least two needles sizes!  I'm sure there are much better edging techniques, but I haven't dedicated myself to learning any new ones for my repertoire.

At first I was going to do solid purple, but the little bits of color in one of my myriad of knitting boxes kept calling to me.  So next went a lovely silver, then this gorgeous russet red I'm using on the current stripe.  Next may be the teal blue, then green, and then we'll see from there.

I am picturing this as a sweater for Wilde Imagination's Prudence.  I think all of these stripes will suit her personality well.  This will most likely be a long sweater, with the hemline at mid calf, because I want to get lots of stripes in.  I'm not sure how I'll do the sleeves or neckline yet, but as with my previous "for the heck of it" knitted doll items, I'll figure it out when I get to that point.

And if you haven't checked out Penelope's Fine Yarns yet, you're really missing out!  Even if you wouldn't knit an adult sweater out of laceweight cashmere, why deny yourself the pleasure of working with a luxury yarn?  A lot of her skeins are the perfect amount for a doll sized item, and very reasonably priced. 

I've been a customer of hers for well over a year now, and have lots of her yarns in my stash.  There's something about having cashmere, silk, and fine merino yarn glide through your fingertips.  It's cheaper than therapy!  And considering how much my dolls "talk" to me, I'm sure friends and family have at least thought about my therapy needs... :D

Red Silk Cashmere Mini Dress For Fashion Royalty

Sometimes the things I knit decide they want to be something completely different than I envisioned.  In this case I had pictured a sleeveless sweater top for Ellowyne Wilde or Tonner dolls.  I had it knit up, it fit (snugly!), but just needed some finishing touches to make it look better.  I wasn't bright enough to take pictures of it in progress, but it needed a clean edge for the hem, armholes, and neckline.

So after I spent a couple of hours knitting on a three stitch i-cord edge for the hem, and two stitch i-cord edges on the armholes and neckline, it looked great!  Then I tried to get it back on my 16 inch fashion dolls.  D'oh!

I could no longer get it on the doll.  If I did, it would only be if I ended up ruining the sweater and snapping stitches.  Not acceptable!

So I looked to my twelve inch fashion dolls.  My Fashion Royalty Veronique gazed at the rich red color ("Lipstick Lava" is the yarn name) longingly.  In the next few minutes I swapped out her current outfit for the sweater, adding thigh high black boots to complete the look.  It fit!  It was definitely a mini dress on her (mini to the point of scandalous.  Hollywood mini.), slinky and clingy, but still not quite right.

Enter the magic of blocking.  I soaked the sweater (now sweater dress) in Soak for about an hour.  This would have been necessary anyway to make sure inevitable cat fur was removed!  After that I blocked it aggressively, stretching the length out, and making it more narrow as a result.  It only took an hour to dry, and the results are better than I ever hoped.

Still scandalously short, to the point you wouldn't sit down for risk of flashing everyone and their cell phone cameras, but on a doll it works!

So another happy knitting accident!  Now I just have to remember how I did it so I can do it again in a different color.  This one is up on eBay as another test for interest.  I'm hopeful I can get my asking price.

If anyone is interested in the general pattern, feel free to leave a comment! Enough interest (heck, even if one person is interested!) and I'll make a "how I did it" post soon.

Now off to more thankless tasks.  And avoiding the look of discontent my Veronique is casting my way now that the old dress is back on her.  :D