Category Archives: Knitting

“A Plummy Fall”

I love this fabric so much! I’ve been hoarding my one half yard bit of it . . . saving it for someone special, wondering and wondering . . . who would that be? That special someone turned out to be Gracie.

This fabric is probably the most colorful and detailed rose print I’ve seen in this small of a scale. That being said, I should have saved it for one of my many smaller dolls, but I couldn’t help using it for Gracie. The ground color is a light plum color and looks gorgeous next to Gracie, as does this color of yarn.

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I recently told you about getting on a Craftsy kick again. My latest “aha moment” happened while watching Wee Ones Seamless Knit Toys by Susan B. Anderson. Susan knits her toy animal bodies from the top down just like how I knit my sweaters. She knits the arms to her animal bodies with double pointed needles to knit them in the round. I don’t do that with my sleeves, but how cool would that be! I needed to move around some increases and decreases and get comfortable picking up stitches, but the end result was that this technique did work for my sweaters! Oh happy day!

I love learning new processes or techniques; it keeps me excited to continue designing and making. Do you thrive on learning new things?

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You can see the smooth underarm area without the added bulk of a seam. The longer sleeved sweaters and those knit with heavier yarn will benefit the most from this technique.

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Gracie and I thank you for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed seeing her new fall ensemble.

Gracie’s new ensemble, “A Plummy Fall”, will be available tonight (September 15, 2016) at 7:00 pm CST at cindyricedesigns.com.

Making Room for New

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As I mentioned in my last post, we got back from our “vacation” in Florida late Friday night. I put vacation in quotes because it wasn’t really a vacation in the sense that we think of vacations.

My entire family—brother, sisters, their husbands and wife, all my nieces and nephews—all gathered for my parent’s memorial service last weekend. My dad passed away in February and my mom in April. It took this long for everyone to be able to be together, and that was the most beautiful thing, that we were all together to celebrate my parent’s life! So, even though it was a sad weekend because they weren’t with us in body, they were with us in spirit. I know it made them happy that we were all together.

My sisters and I also had the job of going through their home and either donating or taking things that we wanted to keep with us. We donated bags and bags of basic items, but those special things that had memories for us got saved.

My mom loved music, and while planning my parent’s memorial mass, we couldn’t remember if my mom’s favorite song was Ave Maria or Amazing Grace, so we had both at their mass. Afterwards, I found a little music box, that plays a song as you wind the crank, in my mom’s dresser. I thought it was cute, so took it home with me not knowing the song it played. When I got home I took the time to listen to its tune—it played Ave Maria. Okay, Mom, I get it, Ave Maria was your favorite. ❤ ❤ ❤

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There were a few sets of items that needed to be divided up because the memories were so dear. For instance, a set of porcelain ducks and bunnies, four total—two of each, my sister and I each took a duck, and my other sister took the set of bunnies. My mom couldn’t part with the bunnies either; she inherited them when my grandmother passed, so she had all four pieces. These were Easter table decorations from when I was quite young; the ducks were at our house and the bunnies were at my grandparent’s house.

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My little duck will be residing in this display cabinet. He will hang out with the two Kitchen Fairies, which were gifts to my mom from my daughter.

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My mom’s two squirrels (the larger squirrels) are visiting us at the moment. They will travel around visiting other family members throughout the years (my brother’s creative idea!). They even made a new squirrel friend at our house. Hmm, wonder where they will go next.

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It was a full weekend finding the perfect spot for our new mementos. Being surrounded by some of my parent’s things is like a warm hug from them both; everywhere I look are memories of them.

I felt since I was bringing in so much new, I had to get rid of some of the old, so we went through our stuff and donated what we no longer wanted or needed.

As far as dolly related working goes, this is all I managed to get done over the past couple of weeks—five sweaters knitted! I will get them blocked today . . . at least. Don’t they look a mess right off the needles? Thank goodness for blocking.

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Well, I’d better get started with my day. I need to go to the post office and collect two weeks worth of mail, yikes. As for dolly things, hopefully, I’ll be able to do more than block those sweaters.

Have a great day everyone! Thanks for reading.

Oh, I have a new doll on the way! I can’t wait to introduce her to you!

A Lesson for Knitters: Changing Yarn and/or Needle Size

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Say you have a pattern for a doll dress or sweater, but you want to use a different yarn than the one specified. Or, you want to use a smaller needle size than the one specified. If I want a denser fabric I will go down one needle size. You can refigure the pattern for your new yarn or needle size change. I recommend small changes to begin with. My yarn changes are usually very minimal and needle changes are up or down one size.

I almost always start knitting from the top down (neckline), so that is how I will explain this example to you. The first pattern change you will need to make will be the cast on number. Here’s a quick overview of what I do.

To start, you’ll need the gauge and the cast on number for the original, so write that down on a piece of paper. You’ll also have to figure the new gauge using the new needles and/or yarn that you’ll be using. I use 1″ for measuring gauge for doll clothes even though 4″ is used in the industry for human sized clothes. So, knit a swatch (larger than an inch) and figure out your new gauge and write that down. Hopefully you already know how to swatch and figure gauge. Staci at Very Pink Knits has a You Tube video about figuring gauge here if you need a refresher.

Here is an example using made up numbers for refiguring the number of cast on stitches. Your original pattern gauge is 10 stitches/1″. The pattern says to cast on 30 stitches for the neckline. You need to figure out how many inches the neckline needs to be. This is the equation: 30 (cast on number) divided by 10 (stitches per inch gauge) is 3″. This means you’ll need to recreate 3″ with the new yarn/needles. You have hopefully figured out your new stitch gauge and it is (for example) 12 stitches/1″. (FYI, when you get more stitches per inch, the stitches are smaller because more stitches fit within 1″, so your fabric will be stiffer and denser.) Take the new stitches per inch (12) and multiply by the inches you need for the neckline (3″). 12 x 3 =36 You’ll need to cast on 36 stitches with the new yarn and/or different needles to get the 3″ for the neckline.

Figuring rows uses the same equation. If you’re going in the reverse direction, larger needles and/or yarn, the same equation will work. Sometimes you will need to round the stitch counts or row counts up or down. Usually it is close enough as knitwear stretches.

Here’s some homework for you: Answer is below.

Original pattern gauge is 14 stitches per inch and cast on 60 stitches. Figure new cast on number. The yarn you want to use has a gauge of 13 stitches per inch. Your new yarn is a bit bulkier and you are getting less stitches per inch. How many stitches should you cast on?

Answer: About 56 stitches (60 divided by 14 = 4.28″; 4.28 x 13 = 55.64) You can make the decision to round up or down, depending on if you need an even or odd number of stitches. In some cases it doesn’t matter.