Kissing Fish and Boots

Another letter done in the ongoing Alphabet Project for my grandchildren.

A Family of Fish for the Letter F. And as St Valentine’s Day is only a fortnight away, it is appropriate that they are Kissing Fish :-)

It is the ole’ love story - Boy fish (in self-striping sock yarn) and Glam Girl fish (cheap turquoise metallic yarn except for her lipstick) meet and fall in love … kiss kiss … … and along comes baby fish.

Both patterns are by Cheezombie "Knit Fish" and “Glubby Goldfish”. Cute huh!

And now for something completely different and I didn't make these ... some ultra cute boots for Lillian.

I will have to make her an outfit to go with them though!

Lillian's new clothes

Lillian is my Blythe doll - named for Lillian Gish. I made 3 of these little knitted dresses with hearts on - one went to my daughter's doll, one is put away for my granddaughter's doll (which she'll get when she's grown up) and this one with frills on for Lillian. Being a movie star, Lillian needs to be more theatrical! She asked for a hat and bag to match and thinks that the outfit looks quite Parisian.

Spinning with Manly Colours

No I don't follow the Sea Eagles - or any other form of Rugby actually - that's manly as in masculine. Because there are lots of hand-spun yarns in pretty feminine colours but very little in colours suitable for a bloke.

In the Christmas / New Year break (it seems so long ago now) I got out my lovely Majacraft Pioneer wheel and made...

charcoal with green about 65:35, plied and set
and
more charcoal about 80% with a little green and a very little yellow, plied and set.

Both are about 10ply (worsted weight). It was all Bendigo Woollen Mills sliver (it is not listed on their web site!) the charcoal is their colour, I dyed the green & yellow.

Wombat Battyness

Another letter of the Alphabet project is done - W simply HAD to be a Wombat. There is something so lovable about wombats.



This wombat is from an old Cleckheaton pattern booklet - one of Barbara Lennon's patterns for Australian Wildlife. He has turned out quite adorable :-)

Dress Ups

As a Costumier (lurv that word - it is just a fancy pants way of saying "costume maker") I have strong opinions about costumes, even dress-up fun costumes for little people. Our grandson has lots of commercial SuperPerson outfits, most involve a cape but what disappointing capes they are. Mean, thin rectangles of fabric that velcro to the shoulders - HURRUMPH! you can't play with that - all they do is flutter behind when the child runs (something the child can't even see!). A Cape HAS to be at least 3/4 of a circle it has to be generous so that you can swish it about and fly with it and hide your face with it like Zorro ... a Cape should be a gorgeous garment that you can be imaginative with.

A Cape like this one! it is a whole circle :-) fully reversible, with disco fake sequin stuff one side / silver satin the other. I decided to avoid the traditional SuperPerson / cartoon character colours (bue, red, black) because I'd like my grandson to invent his own character ... here is the back with his initial.
Granddaughter is getting a costume too - seems we can't avoid the gender stereotyping (super-hero for boys, tutu pretties for girls - hmmmm I could do a rant but I'll spare you). At least this is an Australian prettiness - a May Gibbs style Gum-Blossom Baby - I got carried away with the tulle, less would've made a good Ragged Blossom.


I dyed a cotton body-suit (Americans call them Onesies) it went nice and blotchy - squares of nylon tulle (the soft type so she won't be all prickly) bunched and hand-stitched, mini pom-poms stitched at random to represent the pollen.

I'm chuffed with the way these turned out - hope the little ones like them too.

Sewing for Little People

Well the Christmas / New Year break was nice and productive (could I have another one please?) here is some sewing I did before Christmas and during the time off.

Granddaughter is walking now which means dresses no longer get in the way (I like to keep frocks very short - or make rompers for crawling bubs) This is from a vintage pattern - McCall's 2244 (copyright 1958)

Big inverted box pleats front and back with ribbon down the middle of the front ones, more ribbon over the shoulders with bows. Cotton fabric with a lovely print of irises (?) but it is a one-way design because it is actually intended for patch-work quilt making ... I like using interesting and fun fabrics for kids' clothes but those one-way designs keep me on my toes!

More "patchwork quilt" fabrics for shirts and summer PJs for our 3yr old grandson. PJs in this aeroplane fabric and I got aeroplane buttons too !




This chook print became a shirt and because the print is quite busy I kept the styling of the shirt plain and simple (no pocket, no yoke ...)

On the other hand, this beige plaid, really boring fabric became a long-sleeve shirt with lots of detail just like a grown-up business shirt and I'm planning to make a vest (and perhaps trousers) to "go with" this shirt.

A is for Ant - plus a fuzzy Starfish

Another letter in the ongoing Alphabet project is done - only 19 more! This is another wonderful pattern from "Amigurumi Knits" by Hansi Singh, quite difficult to knit but beautifully detailed - very closely observed.


Makes a very large Ant - at your next picnic just be thankful that real ants are not this size!

Ant looks a lot better with wire in the legs but our grandchildren are too young for toys with wires - so this ant is a bit floppy!






And I couldn't resist making the Starfish from the Amigurumi book but I already have toy critters for the letter S (there are a lot of animals with names that start with S!) so this will be a late Christmas pressie for a friend's bub. Used a mohair blend yarn (I'd dyed it myself) so this is a slightly fuzzy, fluffy Starfish ... Asterias mohairii perhaps??