Knit For Dolls - A Doll Sweater, A Review, and Picture from 2006

If you know me (or have followed me on Twitter since 2011), you know I have an unhealthy obsession with American Girl dolls. So when I was offered the chance to review Nicky Epstein's new book, Knits for Dolls, I was totally in! 

I grew up with American Girl dolls (I have 4 - Samantha, Felicity, Kirsten and a "Girl of Today," my lovely model), and I'm happy to say that my nieces are starting to get into them, too. They have Bitty Baby dolls, and I love looking for knitting patterns for them. Perfect Christmas and Birthday gifts! 

Knits for Dolls fills a void that I noticed when searching for patterns - Nicky has designed hip, trendy sweaters for these dolls! I made the Perfect Match hoodie, and it turned out adorable. There's an array of cute cabled and color-work projects - perfect for using up those odds and ends left over from human-sized projects - with coordinating accessories like purses, headbands and socks. 

Proof of my AG-obsession? When I first moved to Chicago (in 2006), I worked as a Doll Hair Stylist at the American Girl store. Yup, you read that right. "Pics or it didn't happen"?

You're welcome. 

Make sure to check out the rest of the blog tour for Knits for Dolls:

July 1

Toys In the Dryer

House of 34

July 2

Under the Red Umbrella

Crafting A Green World

July 3

Karen Mom Of Three's Craft Blog

Doll Diaries

July 4

Smashed Peas and Carrots

On The Laundry Line

July5

The Doll Wardrobe

Untrained Housewife

July 6

American Girl Fan

July 7 

Stitch and Unwind

Nachtfalter Update (and waxing poetic about Top of the Lake)

Oh, this pattern. 

This is Nachtfalter, one of the Holla Knits Summer KAL sweaters, and I'm totally in love. It starts off easy - just a nice, cabled ribbing. 

But then it blossomed into this gorgeous, addictive lace, and I couldn't put it down. 

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was knitting while glued to Top of the Lake (streamed on Netflix). This little BBC mini series caught my attention and ran with it. It's gorgeous, suspenseful, thrilling and very dark. Elizabeth Moss stars as Robin, a detective in New Zealand specializing in children and sexual abuse cases, and she is superb. I'm a huge Mad Men fan, so it took me a minute to adjust to seeing Moss in another role, but once she hooked me, I couldn't stop watching! Also Holly Hunter has a small, but amazing part. All-around, a very talented cast. 

Ok, I'm done gushing. What have you been watching?

P.S. I love that when I do a knit along, I have pictures of projects at every stage. Usually, I'm way too busy knitting to stop and take a picture. 

Summer Goals or Bucket List or What Have You

This little row of sticky notes is my summer to-do list:

1. Etsy Clearance - I still have a ton of the felt stuff that I used to sell in my shop, and since Etsy came out with a new app, it makes it even easier to do a quick sale. Soon I will have everything listed and at low-low prices! 

2. Crochet Beach Bag - Alycia from Habitual Homebody runs fun, monthly crochet-alongs, and this month's is this Beach Bag. I might not make it by the deadline (which is Wednesday... and I haven't started..) but this is the perfect bag to take to the grocery store on my Vespa. It shall be made! 

3. Donut Quilt - Inspired by Amanda from Hey Porkchop, I'm dying for this Donut Quilt. Chris gifted me the pattern for Valentine's Day, and it's been waiting, patiently, for me to make it. It, too, shall be made! 

4. Library Card - I've lived two blocks away from a branch of the Burbank public library for over a year, and still don't have a library card. For shame. 

5. Blog Re-design - I'm thinking something simple. I love the look of these templates from xoSillyGrrl on Etsy. 

6. Camping - I love camping, and summer is the time for it. My tent and grilled-cheese-maker will not gather dust this year! 

7. Web Series - I'm burying this big news at #7: I've written a 6-episode web series and will be filming it this summer. I'm terrified. 

8. Pool Party - Every weekend. Snacks + Friends + Pool = Party. 

9. Beach - More than last year, which means at least once. Yeah, I'm kind of silly for living in California and not taking much advantage of the beach. 

What about you - what are you doing this summer?

A Lacey Red Hat and talk about Show Biz

Here's a hat I've been meaning to show you for a while. Remember how I said I was all about knitting with my stash yarn? Yeah, that motivation also created this hat. The pattern is Debbie Stoller's All-Day Beret, and the yarn is Knit Pick Shine Worsted left over from this debacle. 

What do we think? I'm going to talk business right now, and by business, I mean the entertainment industry. Aka, The Business of Show. 

There's a trend right now for ladies my age to get not just one headshot (that looks like them and is lovely), but lot of headshots with different "looks." Inevitably, one of these "looks" is some sort of hipster person wearing a slouchy hat such as this one, and/or glasses.

In some ways, I want to embrace that trend because I look darn good in this slouchy hat! And I love wearing fake glasses. But in other ways, it seems silly and I think I should just trust my local casting director to know that if I look like a person in a picture, I can also put on a hat and look like the same person, but a hipster. 

All this to say: I haven't actually worn this hat in public, but it turned out great. 

Random Bits from the Last Few Weeks

1. Have I introduced you to my new nephew, Brennan? He's adorable. 

2. I hung out with a friend and filmed a music video for the band, Animal City. I got painted real pretty, and at the end we all jumped into an (incredibly dirty) pool. It was equal parts fun and disgusting. 

3. I got a request for more pictures of my bunnies (ahem, I'm lookin' at you, Julie!) - this is Lady Grey and Sir Thomas More, and they are totally in love, and snuggle constantly! 

4. My Mom painted me this thank you card, and I loved it so much, I framed it. Thanks, thrift store frame! 

5. A friend adopted this tiny dog named Dharma, and she fits in a hat.

6. I'm really amused by these spam emails. If I was single, I'd totally say I was "certainly having a look for boyfriend." Anyone else fascinated by spam?

7. Facetime with my sister, and my other sister (Kate, my sister's oldest friend).

Ps. I'm sure you know that Google Reader is on it's way out, so be sure to transfer over your blog roll before July 1st. BlogLovin' is a great way to keep up with blogs (follow me by clicking here). I use The Old Reader, because I still miss the old Google Reader!

Returning from Radio Silence

Long time, no blogging! I haven't really talked about it much here, but my day job is in post production, and the weekend before last, we moved buildings. That meant 12 straight days of work, and a lot of shopping, coffee drinking (my Starbucks name is Hilda), and lifting. 

With the new building, comes a new (teeny) office for me! I got to pick out my paint colors, and my boss gifted me the fun hot pink office supplies. I thought my tokidoki unicorns fit in nicely.

I ordered some coordinating washi tape from The Sewing Post on etsy, which I'm going to use to spiff up my plain office supplies. 

The new office is also close enough to walk to work, which is amazing. LA is great, but it's not known for it's walkability or public transit. I look forward to many nice walks, before it heats up and the "nice" walks turn into "sweaty" walks. 

 

So that's where I've been for the past two weeks, but now I'm back at it! How's your summer so far?

Spring Break Bandit

A few months ago I got super committed to KNITTING WITH MY STASH YARN, and I pulled out a bunch of old yarn and matched it to patterns in my Ravelry queue. You know, like you do after completing a big design and craving the simplicity of just following someone else's pattern for a bit. 

I'm one of those knitters who enjoys picking out yarn, and enjoys knitting, and enjoys wearing their finished hand knits. Those are all pretty common attributes of "the knitter." 

But I'm also one of those knitters who hates having a stash of yarn sitting around, taking up room, just being yarn. I'd rather have socks, or a scarf, or a hat, than yarn. Maybe this is because I live in a one bedroom apartment, so my yarn has to live tucked away, taking up valuable space that could be used for something else, like old tax returns or VHS tapes or something. 

Now I've used the word "yarn" so much it's lost all meaning.

ANYway, I got really excited about this using-up-of-yarn for a minute, until I was distracted by those Downton Abbey towels, and in that minute, I made this shawl.

I'm usually not so into shawls, but this one is more like a big scarf, less like a poncho. 

I was pretty proud of myself in this picture.
Look! If you use the nails already in the wall, you can hang up your shawl!

The pattern is Springtime Bandit by Kate Osborn, and I made it just as written using a little less than two skeins of leftover Cascade 220 from my Beatnik sweater. I knit it while on vacation in Captiva Island, and I made one mistake in the lace. I accidentally did two extra YO's, which I later just stitched closed and wove in the ends. Such is life. 

Thanks to Ravelry, I know that this yarn has been sitting around, just being yarn since the spring of 2011. So I'm pleased that it will now sit around as a shawl until December or so, when it cools down enough to wear this, or I go home to Michigan for Christmas. And yes, this is somehow better. 

Holla Knits KAL - Nachtfalter

Just looking at that lacy swatch makes me happy. 

This summer I'm leading a knit-along for Holla Knits, for my favorite sweater from the Spring/Summer 2013 issue: Nachtfalter.

I'm using CotLin in Gosling and Wallaby, and we start next Monday. Care to join us?

Works in Progress - Blankets & Lettuce

A few weeks ago, I went home for my Mom's graduation from college. She graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a degree in Art after about 30 years of taking classes on and off. She has 4 kids, 3 grandkids, paints professionally (that links to her sweet art blog), and is very involved in the community and at church. So basically, she's amazing and her commitment to education has finally paid off. Other people would have given up 25 years ago - but not Jean Canavan!

She also reads this blog - I love you, Mom! -  so if she's blushing right now, she'll let me know.

So for her graduation, I wanted to make her something big. When my little sister, Meghan, graduated, I made her a crochet blanket, and I knew that Mom deserved the same. 

But where to get the amount of yarn that a great blanket requires? Ah yes, my old WORK+SHELTER yarn line! 

I still have a bunch of this yarn and held double, it's perfect for a blanket. Seriously, this is what this yarn was MADE for. I searched around for a good pattern, and landed on the Starburst Flower crochet motif. 

I'm only about a third done, but I presented the blanket to my mom in April. It fit over about half her body, but she loved where it was going! She has vision, my mom. 

What else? I've been re-growing my romaine lettuce heads on my windowsill. Sarah from Knit York City posted a picture of her lettuce on Instagram, and I was intrigued. The bunnies go through about 5 heads of lettuce a week, so we definitely have lettuce leftovers to spare around here. After I cut the leaves off, I popped the stems in water, and voila! New lettuce!

And really GREEN lettuce, too. It's funny how such bland grocery store lettuce can look so healthy when grown somewhat naturally. And by funny, I mean a bit creepy.

Adventures: Seattle & Port Townsend, WA

This past weekend I went on a little trip to Seattle to get this guy (Chris. My boyfriend.) and see the show he's been working on Port Townsend, WA. Chris is a stage manager, and lately he's taken a few more jobs out of town, which is always a fun excuse to travel!

We spent early Saturday in Seattle, and I got to meet up with my long-time blog-friend, Andi, from Untangling Knots! It's so fun meeting up with people, but with Andi it was especially awesome, since we've "known" each other online for so long. And she was wearing a super cute hand knit sweater, too! 

Chris and I went to the EMP Museum to see all the nerdy stuff like props and costumes from our favorite SciFi/Fantasy/Horror movies and TV. Which, to be honest, there was less than I thought. But the stuff they DID have was pretty cool, including this Iron Throne to sit on and take pictures. Chris was just begging to be thrown off... (throne.. off?!!? ehhh??)

Clearly I'm more devious.

Then we got in the car and drove around the bay to Port Townsend, WA, where Chris was working at the Key City Public Theater. 

Port Townsend is an adorable little town, and I was kinda jealous that Chris got to spend the last month and half there. 

We ate a lot of delicious seafood, drank some yummy drinks, and of course I had to visit the local yarn store and purchase something. 

I got these super soft, hand dyed, French crewel threads at Bazaar Girls! Finding crewel supplies is hard enough, so I knew I had to get a few of these high quality threads. I wanted to buy all the colors! 

So if you're in Seattle and want to take a little day trip - Port Townsend is highly recommended! Very cute and cozy town with lots to see, do, and eat.