Tag Archives: little darlings

“Catching Snowflakes”

Catching snowflakes was easy peasy this weekend as they fell practically the whole weekend long. I think we got about 4 inches on Saturday night with another 8 inches or so on Sunday! It’s a white winter wonderland out there, and I am VERY happy to be warm and cozy inside my house.

I finished up Lucy’s new ensemble yesterday, then we had our photo shoot. I definitely wanted to use the snowy landscape as a back drop. I brought out my studio light for front lighting. It was perfect . . . and quick—my favorite kind of photo shoot.

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Lucy’s eyelet capelet has 7 panels which are perfect for embellishing. I’ve embroidered different snowflake compositions on each panel using mohair/silk yarn for snowflakes, white pearlized seed beads for tiny flakes, and clear seed beads for ice crystals.

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Lucy’s vintage-styled headband earwarmer uses two strands of lace yarn to give it more thickness. Each side is embellished with an aqua blue snowflake and matching seed beads.

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The little muff hand warmer is the perfect size for Lucy’s hands, and is also embellished with an aqua snowflake. The bracelet is incorporated into the muff as a handle. You can see Lucy’s prized snowflake memento charm. She will always remember this magical pre Christmas snowfall.

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Lucy’s “Catching Snowflakes” ensemble will be available tonight (December 12, 2016) at 7:00 pm CST, cindyricedesigns.com.

Have a great week everyone!

Bye for now!

A New Knitting Pattern

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A beret knitting pattern is now available for the Little Darlings! The pattern will also fit other dolls who wear a size 7-8 wig such as Linda Macario’s Penny and Polly.

This beret is knit in the round on DPNs with fingering weight wool. If you’re looking to learn how to knit on DPNs here’s a quick project for you. While you’re learning something new, you can make something cute at the same time. I include tips that helped me learn this technique.

It took me quite a few tries to finally get comfortable with DPNs, and now that I have, it’s one of my favorite ways of knitting. There are three reasons for this: no purling, no seams to sew up, and a nicer looking piece. The hats especially benefit from being knit in the round. I don’t like how the seam ruins the patterning of the decreases, and adds stiffness.

Out of all the YouTube videos this one was the one I watched again and again. I remember watching it for the first time and thinking to myself, “no way was I ever going to be able to knit with all those needles”. It seems very daunting at first, but once you get it you wonder why it seemed so hard.

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Does your Little Darling need a new beret . . . or two . . . or three? How about one in every color?

The beret pattern can be purchased on Ravelry.

“A Nostalgic Christmas”

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Hello everyone, from snowy Illinois. It snowed all day on Sunday! We ended up breaking a record for getting this much snow during the first December snow (or something like that). With even colder temperatures arriving, this white stuff will stick around for a while. I’m not sure how I feel about that . . . so far so good though. I’m surviving!

Yes, Alice is here again to show you something new. Nelly’s dolls have a muted rosiness that I notice above their eyes; it’s kind of a vintage look. The colors in this ensemble are perfect with her coloring, so she gets another chance. I love how all the artists paint the Little Darlings a bit different.

I wanted to photograph my newest outfit this past Sunday. I think I fussed around with the photos all day. The Christmas tree seemed so busy and the color wasn’t as pretty as I wanted it to be. Finally, my husband gave me some tips (he was probably tired of hearing me complain–lol). He had me put a different lens on my camera, so I could stand back and zoom in on Alice. I also put Alice farther from the tree and opened up my f-stop as much as I could. The result was that I got a somewhat blurry tree with Alice all in focus. My favorite photos were taken when it was around 4:00 in the afternoon! It was quite dark in the room, but I had the tripod set up and Alice stayed as still as possible.

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This isn’t a typical Christmas print for a Christmas ensemble, but it kept calling to me to be made into one, so I did. The colors in this ensemble are shades of mauve, a little deep red, warm pink, salmon. They all go together beautifully because all the colors are neutral, nothing is bright. I even added a little bit of plumminess with the organza ribbon used for the sash and present.

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The embroidered motifs, are all slightly different compositions, both on the sweater and cuddle cap. I used four shades of floss to shade the roses. Ecru colonial knot buds add a bit of bright and the perfect shade of green foliage ties the blossoms together.

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Alice’s sweater is knit with Peruvian Highland wool and her 1950s style cuddle cap is knit with a wool/angora blend. Her scarf is knit with a lighter shade of mauve, also in Peruvian Highland wool.

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