Tag Archives: kish

“Santa’s Helper”

It’s been many years since I’ve made anything new for my Kish Riley, but she finally has something new to show you. This ensemble came about by accident. If you remember, I made the Santa hat (that is now Riley’s) thinking it was for one of the tiny dolls, but I was mistakenly following the pattern for Gina (the pages were next to each other in my book). Because I was using a thinner yarn on smaller needles it came out too small for Gina with way too many stitches for the tinies. Well, it fit Riley perfectly and was the beginning of this ensemble for her. This is her first sweater dress; it took two tries to get the perfect fit, but it was worth the effort, I think.

Look at those rosy cheeks on little Riley! Oh, I’ve missed dressing her!

I just LOVE embroidered sweater dresses on dolls, don’t you?

Here is the photo of my four dolls in their coordinating outfits that I showed you a couple of weeks ago. Like I had said in a previous post, I didn’t plan on making four sets that looked so sweet all together. It was a pleasant surprise!

Riley is my last doll to show you her little ensemble; I think she felt a little bad because she is last. I told her that I am saving the best for last which made her feel oh, so special.

For more information on “Santa’s Helper”, please visit my “Shop What’s New” page at cindyricedesigns.com.

P.S. Riley made me promise to mention to you all that she would LOVE to know how cute you think she is all dressed up for Christmas. Bye for now!

Getting Sidetracked and Silly Mistakes

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I got all the way through knitting this Santa hat for Amelia Thimble before I realized I was following a pattern written for the Little Darlings. (I do things like this ~~sometimes~~ often.) Now you would think, no problem, Gina has a new hat. Nope, the problem is that it came out much smaller because I was using lace weight yarn and the sized needles that I normally use for knitting Amelia’s things. So what I have is a Santa hat that is too small for the Little Darlings and too large for Amelia Thimble. Does this sound like a Goldilocks and 3 Bears dilemma?

Now I’m off to see which (if any) doll this will fit. Kish Alisha? No, too small. Pukipuki Sugar? No, too big. Kish Riley? Just right! Anyone interested in a Santa hat for Riley?

As planned, I took my photos yesterday… evening, right before it got too dark. Remember my morning photo of my three girls who were standing around waiting for the photo shoot to begin?

Well, I mistakenly or stupidly thought that the f-stop of 6.3 would be okay. No, it wasn’t okay. I think Gina’s photos might work (just barely), but Millie’s and Sugar’s are most definitely not useable. Their faces are in focus, but their clothing is not. They are smaller, so I shot the photos from a shorter distance, it’s funny how that works. Since Sugar is the smallest doll, her photo are the worst. The embroidery on the waistline of her dress is even out of focus. Time for a do over on those two.

Hopefully, today will go better. I started Patience’s dress, the pieces are cut out, but not sewn. Bye for now, I need to get to work and stay on track today.

This Past Week & Looking Ahead

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I wonder… do your days and weeks fly by fast, fast, fast? I try to hold onto each day, but it just seems to slip through my fingers before I can get a hold of it, and before I know it the entire week is over.

So, I am wondering, what did I accomplish this week that is out of the ordinary? Anything? Well, here are a few things that happened… ordinary or not.

This week I added a link to my Instagram account. The link is located within the right column’s paragraph below my photo right here on this blog. I am trying to keep my Instagram photos casual and different than those you will see elsewhere, so you might want to follow me, or if you don’t have an Instagram account you can click that link every now and then to see what I am up to. Here is the link to my Instagram account too. My Instagram is still very small and new, but everything takes time, right? I only have 5 followers right now, so if you follow me I will greatly appreciate it!

I spent the entire day on Thursday photographing my next set of dolls that are looking for new homes. There will be 5 of them on eBay tonight and will start as the other two auctions are ending. Thanks to everyone who is willing to bring my dolls into their homes; it helps me a lot knowing where they will be going. Here are a few preview photos.

Kish Tamsin is one of Helen’s bent leg vinyl babies who fit nicely with the 14″ Chrysalis girls. She was very attached to Song (who is up for adoption now) and spent her time in Song’s lap while living with me. Wish I had a photo to show you of the two of them together, they were so cute.

I have 5 Riley and friends dolls. My daughter has fond memories of Riley and Tulah, so I am keeping those two dolls. I have decided to part with Avery, Zsu Zse, and Anjali. All three have had a successful modeling career with me, so are used dolls and quite nude as their outfits are long gone. It was very heart breaking to me was when I pulled Avery from her storage box and saw that one of her thumbs had a brownish stain. I have no idea where that came from and had never seen it on her before. Boo hoo, poor thing! A little doll manicure is what she needs.

Aside from a few rubs on their vinyl, Zsu Zse and Anjali are in good shape. Their hair has been taken out of pigtails and braids, but can be put back to its original style.

My last doll that I am putting up for adoption this week is the only doll that I have ever bought from a local doll shop, long since closed; all my other dolls have been purchased online. It is funny, but when I purchased her I had no idea what her body would be like underneath that rabbit costume. The costume was stuffed with fiberfill and it looked like she was a stuffie with a vinyl head and hands, but I bought her anyway. She is the 12-1/2″ White Rabbit doll, companion to the 16″ Alice in Wonderland from 1996. Now that I have read Helen Kish: The Artist and Her Dolls by Louise Fecher, I know that The White Rabbit is part of Helen’s first multi-jointed vinyl dolls and is the Jesse sculpt (a boy doll). I made a few dresses for this doll, but mainly used her (or him) as the Easter Bunny for the Riley and friends line. Oh, Kish and Company graciously restrung her for me a while back, so her elastic is nice and fresh.

White Rabbit’s 2-piece bunny costume is made out of a nice wool felt and has a fluffy bunny tail. I didn’t use the vest when White Rabbit was acting as the Easter Bunny.

To be taken to my eBay “items for sale” page click to the photo in the right column. These 5 dolls will be available for bidding at 9:00 pm CST, tonight.

Also this week, I finished knitting Talyssa’s sweater in Diadem, a super luxurious (mulberry silk/baby alpaca) single ply yarn, and yesterday I completed the embroidery on it. Working with a single ply yarn did get easier after I got used to it, but I cannot say that I would buy more single plied yarn. It is very slow going as you have to be careful to catch all of those threads with every stitch. With multi-plied yarn each strand is twisted together, so it tends to stick together. On the plus side, the sweater is very soft and slightly fluffy with a beautiful sheen from the silk. Her new ensemble will be available very soon.

I have to share this one last photo with you. It was about 7:00 in the morning and this little bunny was enjoying an apple that had fallen from our apple tree. I had to take this photo from inside the house, so I didn’t scare it. It had already seen me however, and had stopped munching.