Dollhouse rehab

This was a joint project with my Dad which kept us very busy during the week before Christmas, turning what looked like this:

The dollhouse my dad built for me and my sisters 30 years ago

into this, a Christmas gift for my nieces Eloise and Maisie:

Dad really did most of the work on this: repairing and repainting the roof and windows, rebuilding the staircase and making windows. 

My job consisted of re-wallpapering all the rooms, putting together a little bed from a kit, and sewing curtains, pillows and quilts for the beds.

It was a lot of fun and Eloise and Maisie loved it.

New crafts...

 Cross-stitch: The first of several projects...

 Decoupage: little cardboard boxes...

...and old yogurt containers.  A new obsession!

fo: Cafe Tunic

Cafe Tunic by Kristina McGowan...stats/notes on my Ravelry page:

fo: Museum Tunic

 

From Modern Top Down Knitting by Kristina McGowan.
Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes Bulky in Cadet.
Needles: US 11.  

 

WIPS

I have multiple projects that I'm working on right now.  First, another lace shawl, Cleopatra:

The there's the museum tunic, which is one of the main reasons why I wanted to purchase Modern Top-Down Knitting when I was stateside in August...but this had many false starts and froggings, and then I got stalled trying to get my hands on a crochet hook since I lost all my knitting notions this summer when I moved....

 

And then there's the cafe tunic, which I started  in late September while I was stalled on the museum tunic.  Nothing like knitting two DRESSES simultaneously....

Just for fun, here is a picture of the same cafe tunic which my friend Christine whipped up in just under a month.  This is only her third knitted project.  She did a scarf, then a cowl, and then decided to go ahead and knit a dress.  Here is the newly finished versionr:

fo: Henry's Baby Quilt

I made this for a friend's new baby, using mostly scraps and a backing fabric that I got to coordinate.  It's an unusual color palate for me but I like it! 

It looks sort of silly on the twin bed, but for once I had a desire to photograph a quilt on an actual bed, even if it's a baby quilt.  It measures 42 inches square, and I used 5 inch squares of fabric. 

This was my first time doing a simple nine-patch quilt.  It took me three days and probably about 15 hours (which is really way longer than it should, but I spend more time unjamming and re-threading my machine than actually sewing!)

fo: Maisie's Quilt

Finished size: 46" x 46"
Star and little girl blocks finished size: 14"
Three of the little girl blocks were based on/inspired by embroidery designs by Anneela Hoey and her "girl on a swing mini quilt tutorial" found here.
The ballerina is my own and I can't find the image of the girl jumping rope that I used.

I quilted the stars with straight lines on the diagonal, beginning by stitching in the ditch and sort of winging it from there.

I quilted the little girls with Oh Fransson's loopy flowers free-motion design.  I still need quite a lot of work on this one.

  I pieced the back with 9.5 inch squares.

(almost) fo: slouchy cardi

I still need to add a hood to this guy, but I lost the photocopy of the pattern and the book is in Paris, so it will have to wait a couple weeks.  Also, I need to block it...I'm hoping that it will stretch out a bit upon blocking as right now it's really too tight....which is why my slimmer sister is modeling it here.

But I finished knitting the pieces several months ago, and they languished because I was without a tapestry needle to sew them together (lost my knitting notions case in my move) and even after I got one, I put off weaving in the ends.  So it's time for me to get this posted already, finished or not!

 

The pattern is Helene Roux's Slouchy Cardigan and the yarn is Knitpicks Gloss DK in a lavender/pink/mauve color.

A lot of modifications on this, which I documented on my ravelry page.

fo: wrap baby sweater

This wrap sweater is adorable but I despised knitting the honeycomb pattern.  I maybe would make it again in seed stitch or garter stitch.  The construction is really clever.

 I used about 2 and a half balls of knitpicks comfy yarn in honeydew from my stash and size six needles.  The pattern is Judy's Grandmother's Baby Sweater by Judy Spector from Greetings from Knit Cafe.

No picture of it being modeled by the recipient, Logan, but I've seen him in it and it's adorable on him too!

fo: Arthur's Baby Quilt

This is a welcome gift for the new, adorable son of my crafing inspiration and wonderful friend, Jenny. I had a lot of fun making these pinwheel blocks. However, I machine bound the quilt (front and back) and it came out looking extremely shoddy. But I didn't have time to redo it! Other than the messy binding job, I'm happy with how this quilt turned out.

Finished size: 34" x 44"
Pinwheel blocks made from 24 print and 24 white 5" squares cut in half for triangles. The white border is made from 3" wide strips.

fo: Celes Shawl

This is my favorite knitting project ever! I couldn't be happier with how it came out.

Pattern: Celes by Jared Flood
Yarn: Isager Strik Alpaca 2, 3 skeins
Needles: size 6
Began: October 21st, 2011
Finished: March 2nd, 2012

Shawl in progress

I started this shawl, Celes, on the plane from Boston to Paris in late October. Over two months and 3 trans-Atlantic flights later, I'm still far from finished. While home over the Christmas holiday I finished both halves of the center panel of the shawl and grafted them together, then began knitting the edging stitching.

This edging is going to be interminable. I figured out I need about 90 repeats of a 12-row pattern which takes me about 10 minutes. That's 900 minutes or 15 hours. Anyway, I had 10 repeats done when I left Boston. I only did 4 repeats on the 7 hour flight. Here's a picture when I had completed two repeats.

In other craftiness, here are the stockings I made for my nieces:

And here are all the Christmas treats I made: