Tag Archives: Ann Estelle

Sophie is My “Lavender Lovely”

Hello to you! I hope you are having a very nice weekend. It’s nice and hot here in northern Illinois–very summery feeling.

This month is flying by, and I don’t have much dolly-related making to show for it. Granted I have been taking a lot of time to enjoy spring and all the beautiful flowers. And, we have had a birthday and a college graduation to celebrate this month. May has been busy. There hasn’t been much time to settle down and create in my studio.

Last month I started a new ensemble for Sophie and it is now complete. Sophie is a Mary Engelbreit doll by Robert Tonner. She is the best friend to Ann Estelle. Do you remember those adorable paper dolls Mary added to her Home Companion magazine? These dolls are those paper dolls come to life. The dolls were first sold in the early 2000s and were very popular among doll collectors. At one time I had Gracie and Georgia too. Sophie is my only remaining M. E. doll. By the way, she shares the same body as the newer Patsy doll by Robert Tonner.

Sophie’s cropped cardigan is knit with lace weight merino that I hand dyed to a pink violet. I used six different shades of violet and pink for the roses. I mixed them up in different combinations, tiny rose jewels. I used Patsy’s cardigan pattern to knit this sweater for Sophie.

Oh, this fabric! I think it’s one of my favorites. It’s a Kaufman lawn, Sevenberry Petite Garden is a line of small scale florals from Japan. I originally purchased it from fabric.com. They don’t have this exact print anymore, but they have some other lovely prints to choose from.

I crocheted Sophie’s summer hat using three strands: #10 cotton, #10 bamboo, and #20 cotton. To decorate the hat I used lace that matches the dress and muted turquoise velvet ribbon. I hand tacked both separately and pulled snugly on the trims so that they hugged the hat neatly. I LOVE mother-of-pearl and happily used one of my mother-of-pearl buttons for this hat!

I think Sophie is thrilled with her new ensemble. She’s been waiting patiently for one of her own that she can keep.

I published a new YouTube video showing bits of this ensemble in progress.

Wishing you all a great ‘last week in May’ ! 🤗💜

This Past Week

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Another week has come and gone… quickly. We had some beautiful days this week; one of them even got into the 60s. My daughter and I visited the Chicago Botanic Gardens on Wednesday. Not too much was growing yet. We saw lots of Snowdrops, a lone crocus, and a few iris reticulata.

Can’t wait to see what 26,000 tulips looks like. You can see they are barely starting to emerge from winter hibernation.

One of my favorite gardens is the English Walled Garden. It has cozy spots to sit, sounds of trickling water (not yet though) and lots and lots of flowers sooner than later. Today, you can see the architectural elements of this garden. Oh, we found snowdrops and 3 tiny iris reticulate here too.

I find the Japanese Garden inspiring, peaceful and beautiful. It is on a manmade 2-island plot which is connected with 2 different bridges. Cherry blossoms as well as lilac rhododendron will soon be in bloom in this garden.

On Thursday I walked around our yard to see what I could see. The crocuses are fully in bloom. The magnolia buds look to be plumping up.

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Dolly news! I bought a new Ann Estelle to dress one of my new outfits in. The other outfit is being worn by my Ann Estelle model. One 10″ AE (I have Sophie) is enough for me, so my doll will accompany this ensemble. These are for my brother-in-law’s wife’s good friend. Her and her husband generously put us up this past summer for a family reunion. I was so touched by her hospitality; she didn’t even know us and was very welcoming. I think these will be decorating the bedrooms of her little granddaughters.

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I am still working on a set of hat knitting patterns (one written pattern–4 hats) for 4″ Amelia Thimble and Pukipuki. I want to test them out first. It’s been so long since I started writing the pattern; I want to make sure that it all makes sense.

I wish you all a beautiful weekend. I’m afraid this next photo sums up ours, weatherwise. Not quite a big snowfall (I hope), though flurries with lots of wind is forecast.

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Thank you for stopping by, my friends! ❤

September

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Hello, September! And hello, my friends! How are you?

early sunrise before storm

It was a stormy day yesterday, Saturday, and a thunderstorm-y rumbly Saturday night/Sunday morning. At times the rain came down so hard that I wondered where it would go (yes, the storms woke me up). I was up very early Saturday morning and caught this fleeting yet beautiful sunrise before it got dark and then rainy. Aren’t the colors gorgeous?

Yesterday I finished up Ann Estelle’s ensemble, “Tiny Dancer”. Well, almost, I just need to make her a pair of tights. Here’s a quick photo I took of her. I think she loves it judging by her happy expression. Little girls love pink and lilac—big girls too. These two colors were my grandmother’s favorites.

Ann’s cardigan was knit from my “Light Cardigan” pattern for Patsy and Ann. I used Knit Picks Aloft in Pennyroyal. For embellishment, I added some delicate beadwork to the cardigan. Ann’s dress was made with the teensiest ballerinas that I’ve ever seen. It’s part of Lecien’s Minny Muu collection. Ann wears a beaded crocheted headband and holds a tiny crocheted drawstring bag.

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I told you about the dyeing I did last weekend. This past week I started knitting a Simple Yet Effective Cowl designed by Tin Can Knits. I like long cowls and needed two skeins of DK for this one, so am combining the two blue skeins I dyed. I am alternating between the two skeins every three rows for a sort of stripey look. I’m not sure if I’ll like it; it looks very masculine to me, but I will finish it; it just may make a nice basic when the cold weather is here.

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Here’s the yarn before I started knitting with it. It looks so much more colorful. Something I’ve learned after dyeing a number of skeins is that knitting blends the yarn together so that it looks more muted. I’ve seen this happen every time.

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These are the other three skeins I dyed last week to make the Jodi Shawl by Joji Locatelli. I want the border to be considerably brighter than the rest, however, I’m thinking this peach won’t be bright enough. Maybe it will go back in the dye pot for some pink and warm red speckles or splotches.

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Oh, and I mentioned trying out avocado pit dyeing. The tank top sat in the pot for a short time and most of the dye washed right out. I did want it pastel though. I’m curious as to how it will wash. I saved the dye to use again; the shade of pink is a favorite of mine.

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