Another New dress

Inspired by some of the things I tried with the baptismal dress, I made a new dress for my oldest daughter...who has nearly grown out of all the dresses I've made for her. She's pretty tall and slender, so I needed to try something different. This is a mock turtle neck top with 3/4 length sleeves. I added cuff ruffles, a seed stitch texture, and a eyelet pattern to allow me to insert the decorative ribbon on the bodice. You're looking at nearly three months of work here, over three skeins of yarn, a spool of ribbon, and two yards of fabric. But I'm much happier with how this "big girl" dress turned out than any other I've ever tried before. Hopefully, the dresses will just keep getting better and better. Already I have ideas of what I can do to improve next time.

Baby's Alpaca Sweater

I started this about 20 days ago...that's a long time for me...and long time in the life of a quickly growing baby. But it's still big enough for my little one.

The yarn came from an impulsive purchase at a local shop. It's 100% alpaca wool, and just looked so chocolate and pinkilicious! I had to make my princess something girly with this.

Pouch Sling

I thought I really needed one of these... and I love how it turned out. However, the baby has not let me put her into it (without crying) so it's failed to gain her approval.

This pouch is double layered with cotton sateen fabric, and wool flannel. I thought it would be great for winter time baby wearing. Oh well.

Old project, new model

This sweater finally has a model to fit it. The wool longies I made four years ago for her sister and I'm glad I hung onto them. Not terribly girly, but it's warm and cozy!

Recycle that sweater

I realized that my girls did not have many pants today...because it got really cold at my house today. Yeah! Bring out the wool and heavy blankets, hot coco, wool lined slippers.

I turned my husbands discarded sweater into a pair of sweater pants for one girl and had enough left over to make a skirt and matching hat for the other girl.

I found really good instructions for making pants like this at:

www.greenkitchen.com/blog/2008/09/sweater-sleeve-kid-pants-tutorial.html

However, I must confess I made my pants before finding this site.

Fancy Nancy Dress

This dress was finished a while ago and was her birthday present. Yesterday, the girls came down stairs and had dolled all up. So I decided it was a serendipitous time to get a photo of this dress...as I'd not yet done so.

My eldest girl delighted in helping to stage the props and model's accessories. Thanks to our new greener surroundings, we got some quaint shots...and I love not having to incorporate rocks into my pictures anymore.

While it wasn't my intension per say, I realized this dress looks something like a dress you might see in the Fancy Nancy stories. It's just full of tacky frills.

Say it ain't so!

I got this far...nearly finished with this dress top before I realized that the sleeve lengths were not symmetrical. I had failed to cast on 10 stitches in one of the sleeves (a little over an inch difference)...and continued working all the way up and over the neck, and completed the sleeves before I realized that one sleeve was shorter than the other. UGH! There's no way to fix this other than to tear it out and start over.

A couple weeks ago I had a gal contact me looking to get me to make her a couple dresses. I turned down the order because of all I've go going right now. But, after this little debacle I'm more glad I didn't take on any paying customers right now, because I could only afford to make this severe of a mistake with my own kid's clothes. I'd be so much more devastated if I'd just had to tear out a week's worth of work for a waiting customer.

Which brings me to confess the real heart of why I've been shying away from custom orders this past year...I can't take the stress. I'd much rather just make a dress and find it a good home then try and create on demand. It's so much easier that way...though I do realize I might end up with an incredibly adorable dress that nobody wants that way. My little stash of pre-made dresses usually wind up as gifts, eventually.

Baptism Gown

There you have it...all done.

Teach your children well

Each of my children spent some time having knitting lessons as part of their art program last year. It would be such a shame if I am unable to pass along the knitting skills I've achieved to my own children. Lately, though only my youngest is interested in continuing her studies under my instruction. Today, she crawled into my lap and insisted she wanted to "do some knitting." She tossed the yarn over each stitch for me for about 3/4 of a round before she was satisfied that she's practiced sufficiently. Sure, it slows my progress down a bit, but I'm more than happy to let her help one the easy rows (which require only the knit stitch anyhow).

Right now I'm working on a very special project for our new baby. I'll only give you an in-side-out preview of my work thus far. I'm working on the skirt utilizing some lace and cable patterns.

After that...

I decided to just make an ugly side seam. Though when you flip it on the fleece side, it doesn't really look all that bad, given the nature of fleece.

And while it's not entirely prefect, this car seat cover is done and our car seat is ready for use again.

Okay...now what

I need to have my infant car seat ready for midwife inspection this week. I noticed our roundabout cover was a bit shabby and decided I'd try and make a new one. So I sketched a pattern out and have gotten this far. I'd intended to make this a reversible cover (print on one side, fleece on the other). However, I'm not sure how to make the edges smooth on both sides. So it might turn out one side is pretty and the other isn't so nice...unless I can think of something else.

On the brink of trying something new

I'm deviating from my original plan with this knit...all of a sudden I was hit with the inspiration to try something new with the sleeves of this dress. This is another birthday present for my soon-to-be four year old.

Merino Angora Sweater

This sweater is hand knit from yarn I spun myself. It's the first fruits of my first fleece purchase...which I bought, washed, carded, and processed almost a year ago. I've not finished the spinning of the entire fleece, but I'm very tempted to drag out the wool box today and do a bit of spinning so I can work with more yarn. Then again, I'm a realist and I don't think I quite have time for spinning right now. So just admiring the fruits of my hard work might have to suffice for today.

This little girls is getting this sweater for her birthday in a couple weeks. It's not a surprise, but she's very happy with the turn out non-the-less.

Most importantly, "it's not an itchy sweater...it's a soft sweater." Praise the Lord!

How I find time to get my work done

Set a good example of what diligent working should look like and the kids will hopefully follow suit.

So here I am knitting while one child works on phonics and the other works on math.

And I'm getting to knit! Win, win for everyone!

Baby Sweater

I took a break from knitting longies to make a sweater for the new baby. My child will not be cold this winter...if anything overheated is more likely the scenario with all my fervent knitting. Well...socks, I've not been much for knitting those. Perhaps I should consider some socks now.

Red Longies

And another pair done...

On the needles

I'm working on...bet you can't guess????

Yes, another pair of longies! This pair is red. I like red.

Old dress, new dress

Last week the girls wore their "pretty" dresses for skating. Charlotte's coach wanted to see how her dress would look on the ice. Felicity just didn't want to be left out.

I've since finished the beading on the sleeve cuffs.

More and More

I just can't stop knitting longies! I love longies, and I guess I just want to be sure my baby will have a dresser full of them. That's all. Can you blame me?

These are a little different than the ones I did before, but I like to experiment and try new things (in very small doses I like to try new things).

Shop open till cleared out

I decided to re-open my shop and list the dresses I have sitting here. I will not take any custom orders, but would like to sell off the dresses and snow beanies I have left over from last year. I'll probably list one thing a day, and just keep them up till they're gone. Get em while they last!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I love ya!

Tomorrow, You're only a day away... and now the dress is mostly finished. Just a few finishing touches and this season's skate dress will be done.

Seed Stitch Longies

These longies are for my baby (yes, I want to be sure I'm well stocked this winter). This pair was made utilizing some new wool yarn my grandmother gave me. It was spun in Colorado and is nice and thick.

The ribbing has faux cables and the main body of the pants are seed stitched. The cuffs (legs and top) can be folded down for little baby and unfolded to accommodate growth.

I put a few short rows on the top and bottom of the seat area to allow for extra room in the bottom area, and I'm pretty please with the turn out.

Pink Lace Back dress

Originally, I planned to make this into a shirt, but decided I didn't need a few inches of left over fabric and made it into a summer dress instead.

This top resulted in a few mistakes though. I've been working on making this top design without seams. So I've been finishing it off in the round. Well, I made the lace back a little too long, so the front hangs down too low. I could have compensated the front by starting off with fewer neck line stitches too...so this was a learning experience piece. It's nearly befitting that after an hour my daughter pulled on one of the tops treads and made a nice sized snag. Hopefully, it will work it's way back out, but if not, just chuck it up to her trying to unravel my mistake.

Yellow Spring Lace Back Shirt

Today I finished this top for my daughter's birthday, which was last week, to go with the pink skorts.

I've got another on the needles for her little sister now.

It's longies

The mystery project I started a while back is just about done. I only need to tuck in the tails and lanolinize.

I've inserted a size small, MotherEase, Sandie's diaper so you can see how I worked to shape the rump a littler better. I also added seed stitching to the soak zone thinking it would help to add a bit more wool to that area without making a double knit layer (which I don't really know how to do with longies anyhow).

These are for my baby....though when I finished my dh asked me if they were for my (almost four year old) daughter. Nope, I'm done making her wool pants...I hope.

So close...but so far away

I've all but given up on the idea of pursuing all that is now required to legally sell my hand knit dresses. It's a crying shame, but I haven't much time these days to knit, let alone figure out how to accomplish all the bureaucratic &#!* that I would need to do to fulfill the new CPSIA laws. I've tried to keep up, but it's too overwhelming.

I just want to knit and sew dresses and not worry about breaking some law.

This morning I came across the address for the CPSC...it's practically in my back yard!

It's not lost on me that I still have about six completed dresses sitting in my sewing room, which I'm too afraid to list on Etsy...because they haven't been lead tested, nor do they have tracking labels.

I've always labeled my dresses with a sew on, cotton tag. That label includes my name, and my website address. Also included is a hand written label that describes the fabric/ fiber content, care instructions, my e-mail, and my name (again), and that the article is entirely hand made.

I try to think of everything. I even include a disclosure on my listings that I have a dog...just in case they're allergic to dogs.

So, the CPSC is just 15 miles away...and it's tempting to just go and show off my dresses to these folks...what else can I do with them? I'm wondering if I should send them the remaining dresses...I don't know why...like it would do any good...but it's as if nobody sees what they've done to the American work at home mom who loves to make children's clothes (diapers, toys, and so many things).

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission,an independent federal regulatory agency, located at 4330 East WestHighway, Bethesda, MD 20814 Toll-free hotline: (800) 638-2772

Lincoln Decor

Today I toured Lincoln's Illinois home on-line, via photos. I was just a little surprised at how boldly the carpet and wall paper selections were. Many of the rooms have absolutely no coordination what-so-ever, and some of the color choices just smack of what I would expect. It's not to say it's good or bad, just surprising, that's all.

On the whole, it was affirmation that a home is a place to "lived" in. It might not look pretty, but if it's comfortable to you, and it functions for all who reside in it, then it is...as it should be.

Window treatments for the girls' room

There are three windows in this room. I found satin sheets on clearance at Target, and thought it was a great price for drape making fabric. I'm not sure if the turn out is as astounding as the concept was...but it will work. And the girls' like what I've churned out thus far.

I still have two more windows to go, but this is a good start.

Taking the Angora out of the Knitter

What do you call an Angoraknitter who no longer has an angora?

Just a plain old knitter.

Today my last Angora went to bunny heaven. So...I'm kind of rethinking this blog.

Boy's skates...girl's skates

Skates are expensive! So when one sibling grows out of his skates, and his younger sister could use them (cause she's complaining her skates are too tight)...well, girls can wear black skates. Of course, there's a relatively easy fix for black skates. Boot covers!

Pretty pretty boot covers! They go with her pretty dress. So here you go, my first sewing from the new house. The dress was mostly done, but I had to alter the neck line (it was coming up too high) and finish the elastic in the legs.