Petite Blythe moves in

Seems like the Blythe Dolls are taking over my life!  Certainly the newest (and littlest) Blythe has taken over the Dolls' House.  Bird is a LPS Blythe - she likes Ladybirds and joined the other dollies some months ago.

When I showed Bird the dolls house it seemed that all the furniture was just the right size ... not to big, not to small but just right.  I think Bird has moved in....

Making Biscuits in the kitchen

Replying to her fan mail in the Drawing Room

Playing Bach Toccatas in the Parlour

And making friends with the Cornish Rex Cat

At the dressing table

Running a nice hot bath

Bed-time - tucked up in the Nursery

Lillian goes Fishing

Lillian has been enjoying our lovely spring weather - and all the flowers in the garden.  She went for a walk through the bluebells ...

to the fish pond.  And although Lillian could see the fish swimming about, she didn't manage to catch any.

Lillian's pretty new outfit is a purchased one - from This is Blythe - known to Blythe doll people as TIB. 

More Stitches and some Facilitating

I have been working hard - here is some proof!

That's what happens to a pin made to do too much - poor thing!

The Facilitating was at a Workshop held by The Watershed on King Street, I had great fun and it was quite a success so they will be holding another  Upcycle your wardrobe workshop  more info here. 


Currently I'm working full-time sewing costumes for some musicals and I can only show you a few peeps.



Lots of stitches in that costume and the shiny velvet stuff is not easy to work with.

This beaded "cage" was a joint effort - all the major construction was by another - I did the smaller beads which are tiger-tail - lots of organic, wobbling lines to break up the straighter, structural work and wherever one crosses another they are wired together ... Quite a massive thing but very pretty and twinkly.



Most of what I can show you is knitting stitches rather than sewn ones - here are some knittings made for family & friends over the last few months ...

Socks - quite plain and traditional in a nice "denim" yarn - Araucania Ranco Solids.

 

Jacket for a new baby - an old pattern (from the 80's) and nice cheerful red wool from Bendigo Woollen Mills.

For my Granddaughter - an interconnecting set of accessories to keep her warm.  Little people are very apt to lose small items of clothing like mittens & scarves so my idea with these was to make them connected and thus, rather more difficult to lose.

Scarf with Mitts attached

The Scarf is long enough to go round then down the arms to her hands - where it ends in the mittens.  There are button-holes along the edges of the scarf which can be buttoned to the beanie hat.

And you can't see the buttons in this picture but they are there in a decorative grouping.

Of course my granddaughter has her own ideas about her clothes - she loved the beanie but insisted on wearing it pulled down almost over her eyes.  She wasn't impressed by the scarf - perhaps it is too wide.
Oh well - it served as a good project to start teaching her brother how to knit.  And he really enjoyed helping me to "stab the stitch, throttle the stitch, walk it round the ship and push it off the plank".   Piratical Knitting  :-)  

He preferred helping with the variegated yarn sections ... and that yummy yarn is "Knitcol" by Adriafil.  I bought it in a lovely little yarn shop / cafe in Nancy, France - a shop utterly crammed to the gunnels with wonderful yarns :-)   I bought 2 colourways of the Knitcol - the other will make a similar interconnected set for my grandson.

Another yarn purchase in France was the utterly gorgeous mohair I bought in Vezelay - I've blogged previously - and you can buy this yarn on-line   No, I'm not getting a kick-back.  Yes, I'll be buying more of this yarn - for a 1950's style big mohair jumper?  :-)



This is the loveliest mohair - very long haired, but quite soft, not wire-like and skritchy; it even has a slight lustre - divine.



With the 2 colours I bought I've made myself a simple lace cowl. 

Isn't it lovely?

Have I mentioned that I love this mohair?

Aren't those colours gorgeous?


Did I say that these are THE colours of spring in France?   The light green of new leaves against a freshly washed sky.

Aaaargh can I go back to France?     NOW!!

Self Sown Foxglove

Previously I posted about a daffodil that has appeared and flowered in our garden - at least 5 yrs after I last threw daffy bulbs into the soil (here) and now we've a self-sown Foxglove in flower.

I planted foxgloves over 20yrs ago - but although I love the look of them, I haven't planted foxys since (was being cautious about the digitalis - read too many Agatha Christies in my youth.)  Foxgloves are biennials and over the years there have been large leafed 'weeds' which I've usually pulled out but this year I was lazy / busy and one of the 'weeds' has flowered ... proving itself to be a foxglove!!   Really love those spots.

Stitches

It has been such a long time since I posted about the things I've been making  - there is quite a backlog!  

Most of the stitches have been knitting and the sewing projects are mostly things I can't really show you.  I can show you the complete mascot costume - one Hound Dog.  

Previously I've posted about the making of the head and about the hind feet - this is the complete costume being modeled by my darling hubby.

And a back view to show the tail.  BTW please do not notice the uneven lengths of those curtains!

 

Of the next project I can only show you a teaser - and tell you that it is all ecru with lace & embroidery - it involves masses of hand-stitching and quite a lot of glue.

And now to the knitting - the commissions for costumes have continued.  Some have been repeats ... and this was a repeat of a repeat   Eh! What!

 

Well, the first tatty & distressed shawl for the Bird Lady in Mary Poppins was a great success and they wanted a 2nd one - which I made from the yarn supplied - half of which was mohair.  That 2nd shawl was quite 'splodgy' and I think the mohair made it look quite elegant (it is the last item in this post).  Perhaps it was too elegant and it didn't look like the 1st shawl  SO I had to make a 3rd one ... and I now consider myself an expert in the art of Bird Lady Shawl Making :-)  For this 3rd shawl I sourced the yarn - it is a long length variegated yarn meant for socks.

 

I've also made a 2nd Cardigan / Jacket for Colline in Opera Australia's current production of La Boheme - there are some cast changes.  It is another distressed and artfully 'badly knitted' thing and I would like to avoid all shades of mustard for the next decade!   Had to hand it in without buttons (they weren't supplied) so here it is with safety pins.

 

And a back view - with those pleats and some of the deliberately 'knitted in' holes.

 Now if you go to the Opera Australia web site you'll see David Parkin wearing the 1st of those mustard cardi/jackets - with the beanie and scarf that I knitted.  I've borrowed one of the pics here ...

 Had my first commission for some knitting for the small screen - the next 'season' of Underbelly (starting in some states (or all?) Sun 21st Aug) is set in the 1920s.  If you watch the show, keep your eyes peeled during some of the more domestic moments for a character knitting a chocolate brown jumper.  Of course, it may all have ended up on the cutting room floor but I provided the knitting in 3 stages - just commenced ...

Up to the 1st (or 2nd?) sleeve ...

And Very-Nearly-Almost-Finished ...

 

  Poor ole' Bruce the Body there with those sharp metal things at his neck - very appropriate for this TV show!  The jumper is based on a vintage pattern and has old-fashioned styling including very deep rib bands.  I also had to source all those knitting needles - making sure that they looked like those used in the 1920s.  

There were some other commissions, not for the stage but via Jonathan Howard The Hatmaker.

 Donuts? toilet-seat cozies? hand-knitted UFOs?   No, but almost as unlikely.  Jonathan was making a top-hat for a client who wanted it hand-knitted and he wanted cashmere.  So these are, in fact, the parts of a knitted top-hat!

 

First I had to find the cashmere - the desired 'look' was chunky, country-fied and natural - hand-spun seemed the best option.  I bought some natural brown cashmere fleece (fluff) from Belisa Cashmere lovely soft stuff it was like spinning a cloud - I put in about 20% wool to make it easier to handle.  However, it was still brown - the client wanted charcoal so into the dye-pot it went ... until it became the colour you see above ... actually the knitting was the easiest and fastest part of the whole process!

Jonathan The Hatmaker really likes the look of my hand-spun yarns with all the lumps and fluffy bits ... he commissioned a man's scarf ...  

   The yarn is about 50% alpaca & 50% corriedale sheep, both undyed, naturally coloured fleece.    I used a simple knit/purl pattern with garter stitch edges and as it was to be a fairly short scarf, there are 2 splits.  The wearer can thread the scarf through the splits and the scarf doesn't slip off and get lost.      Here is a close up of the texture of the yarn and the stitch pattern.

I've also been knitting beanies for Jonathan to sell in his lovely boutique.  We've missed the window of opportunity to sell warm woolly beanies this year but inevitably, winter will return!  Here are 2 of the beanies ...

Again, all naturally coloured, undyed fleece, these were spun 'in the grease' so the yarn has retained some of the lanolin.  The mottled yarn is sheep - a grey/brown from the Robinson era with some very dark fleece from another Robinson sheep thrown in :-)   The stripes are 100% alpaca - the same ginger girl as in the scarf above.  Her name is Angelique and the fleece was from her 2nd shearing.

The stripes in this 2nd beanie are the same alpaca - the rest is re-purposed woollen yarn.  I found an abandoned knitting project in an op-shop - following some un-knitting and lots of sorting I plyed 2 of the colours together on my spinning wheel to create a thick tweedy yarn ...

For the ladies I knitted some very vintage, very French berets.  My own pattern but based on a 1940's vintage one.

The yarn is Bendigo Woollen Mills - their very dependable Classic 8ply.

Spring has Sprung - at least in our garden

For some the first sign of Spring is one of these :

This daff has appeared in our tiny front garden - I must have planted the bulb at least 5yrs ago and this is the first time it has flowered!

For many Sydney-siders Spring has arrived when the jasmine starts to bloom

Our jasmine is down the side of the house - don't you love the perfume of jasmine on a warm evening?   not that we've had any of those yet!

For me the first signs of spring are the SnowFlakes (Leucojum aestivum)  with their pretty bell-like flowers,

 

 our little Star Magnolia (Magnolia stellata),  and

 my favourite orchid - a Dendrobium teretifolium. 

 Dendrobium teretifolium or has this native Australian orchid been re-named (I simply can't keep up with the botanists) Dockrillia teretifolia    well it has several common names as well - in NSW  'rat's tail orchid' for the long thin leaves whereas in Queensland they call it the 'bridal veil orchid' for the lovely cascades of white or cream flowers.  We call our D teretifolia/um  Errol;  he has been with us for 30yrs and every year Errol delights us with bunches of lovely 'flying' flowers - the scent is gorgeous too :-)

 

 This year Errol started flowering really early - the last week of July!  but those photos, in full bloom, were taken last weekend (7th August).

I'll leave you with a dewy pale pink camellia bloom :-)   pretty?

New Shoes for Blythe Dolls

Lillian & Audrey needed new shoes .... and I found a wonderful fellow Australian Etsy artisan who makes (and sells) really wonderful shoes for Blythe Dolls.  Here is a link to her Etsy shop JemGirl 

Lillian new shoes are a wonderful sheeny purple with Mary-Jane straps and high heels -  Lillian thinks she is extremely elegant and sophisticated in them.  Here she is modelling her new shoes and new winter jumper suit.

Audrey got a pair of low-heeled Mary-Janes, black with twinkles in them  :-)

JemGirl also sent a licorice lollypop - which made Audrey very happy indeed.

We all went to Melbourne recently - Lillian & Audrey are jet-setting dolls and they do love to catch up with the Melbourne Blythes.  

That's Bird with her Bugsie and Bunny with her Wabbit, Audrey, Bibi and Lillian.

 Bunny is new to the Melbourne branch of our Blythe family - she has been adopted by the White Rabbit.

Bubs arrived a little late to the gathering - she was busy getting dressed!

Bubs is a Basaak Blythe clone - Audrey was rather envious of that big evening dress ...

But Lillian was very happy when the irises in the garden started to bloom - they were such a lovely dark purple.