Toys and lace progress

Isn't she cute! She is a Tiny Topsy-Turvy Doll from the Jemima-Jane and Friends book by Jean Greenhowe. I didn't exactly follow the pattern. She's supposed to have a hat with flowers, but I'm not a flower as embellishment type of person. ;-) The pattern is so well written. It even tells you in great detail how to sew the face onto the doll to ensure that it's centered. I wanted to try this doll first because she's not that big. She measures around 8 inches tall.

I think the yarns I used were thicker than what is used in the pattern. This doll ended up taller and larger around than what is stated in the book. I only bought the bone colored yarn for the skin. The rest are leftovers from old projects. It's not very fun to knit Red Heart or Caron's Simply Soft on size 2(3mm) needles. I used whatever colors that I had on hand and that meant dipping into the Cotton-ease. That was worse that the acrylic on 3mm needles. Thankfully, I was only working on this at night and not for long periods of time since it was torture on my hands. I battled through and finished it.

This is the other side of the doll when you flip her over. One really big change that I would make when making another Jean Greenhowe toy is to knit most of the pieces in the round. All of the pieces of this doll were supposed to be knit flat and then seamed. Yuck!! I'm not doing it that way again unless I see a really good reason for it. After finishing this one, I don't see why you couldn't knit every piece in the round.

Details:
Pattern: Tiny Topsy-Turvy Doll from Jean Greenhowe's Jemima Jane and Friends
Yarn: various Caron Simply Soft, Red Heart, and Lionbrand's Cottonease
Needles: size 2 needles
Changes: I used whatever yarn that I had on hand.
Start: January 5, 2008
Finish: January 10, 2008

Here is my Spring Surprise Shawl progress through clue #4. I like how the bird's eye section ended. I can't wait to see what the next section will be. I wonder if it will open up again and have a different stitch pattern in the center? The shawl is still fun and a fast knit. I got the clue this morning and finished it this evening. I didn't knit on it constantly all day either. I could have stretched more for this picture, but I didn't feel like getting a larger piece of black fabric out. All of the circles on the edges look weird, but that's just because they weren't stretched properly. They look really cool when they're stretched out. When I block this shawl, I'm going to really stretch it out. In this picture, it is around 24 inches wide and 26 inches long. This one is done and is now resting on my desk again.

Speaking of fast knits, here is my progress on my Gothic Irtfa'a. I'm finished with the shawl portion and I'm into the endless edging. The edging on this side is slow going because it's in reverse stockinette. I've read that the second half of the edging is faster going and I really hope so. I'm using my knit backwards technique to do this part.

Besides knitting shawls, I took some time out to color with E and D today. We're not finished, but I'll put those up when we're done. The sheets were from a book with tessellations and geometric designs. D had tessellating fish. E had flowers in a geometric design. Mine was a tessellation too. It was a lot of fun coloring, but my hands aren't used to that kind of motion. I must be getting old if coloring wears out my hand. ;-)

Lessons are going great. This past weekend, I bought a handwriting workbook at Sam's. It has print and cursive practice sheets in it. E has started on the print section and she did great today. She really likes these types of workbooks and usually finds them fun. I should include them into our lessons more.

I have to include a little rant section today. It's so freakin' cold!!!! I don't like seeing single digits or days where the high doesn't get above freezing. Then there is the interest rate decreases. Yuck. Are we the only people that actually save money and want to earn interest on it? Oh yeah, we can invest it, but look at the stock market. Ick!

Enough of that...I hope everyone is having a great week. Keep your eyes out for a finished Irtfa'a shawl.