Owlishly

Let's play catch up

It's been a while hasn't it? 2009 just hasn't been a good year for blogging for me, sorry about that. 

Well, that little Magdalena doll that I showed you last month- she's a free pattern for The Saturday Evening Post.   

 

Her pattern is a bit different than my usually patterns offered- it's a small pdf with one image of the completed doll & instruction.  She's somewhat simpler also, since there's no leg joining, and she'd be cute in so many different colors too! 

This one was made in all (mostly from my stash) Malabrigo since I was curious to see what it would feel like, and while it does feel super soft and warm and squishy, I don't think I'll continue to do more in all Malabrigo, it seems like it would pill if it was played with vigorously.  This one's for my mom though, so it's not going to be handled very much.

Other than that, there hasn't been much yarn involved crafting.  Being sick and passing it around back and forth between the kids an I just wasn't conducive to feeling like doing anything.  I had to finish up the kid's costumes, so I did spend some time at my sister's sewing my niece & daughter's ladybug costumes, and then I needed a teeny break before getting to my son's spider costume- he wanted to be a big hairy spider- completely disgusting!

I've started on a couple of things lately, but have barely progressed enough to mention it, and won't be able to spend much time doing anything yarny anytime soon either.  My youngest sister's birthday is next week, and then my niece's is the next week, with my mother-in-law and brother-in-law are coming the week of Thanksgiving. Needless to say, I'm getting to the point where I'm thinking about pulling out all my hair since I still have some portrait editing to do for my sister, and curtains and a duvet to make before my nieces birthday, and then just general visiting guests stress :)

I'm finding that I've become a technological issues magnet lately too. My camera is acting up, or at least the connection to upload images- I can't tell, so no new pictures except this one-

  

It was taken with my computer.  It's of the Girl's capped sleeved spring shirt by Shellee Floyd and of a Littlest Pet Shop Lamb that my little girl gave me, since I like wool and she remembered that wool comes from sheep and said I should take a picture of the lamb with her little sweater :)

The rest of October pattern sale

 

So, I'd signed up for an Artfire account last spring, and then never put any patterns in the shop over there.  I thought I'd try it out, but maybe I'm just used to Etsy's format because I don't think it's as easy to find the patterns over at Artfire.  Anyway, maybe there's just a learning curve that I've yet to master.

But in effort to kick things off there, I'm having a better deal than the one I'm going to offer on Etsy- you can use the coupon code OCTOBER DEAL to get 20% Off on orders that totals above $18.00 in my Artfire studio. In addition to that, the first 10 sales made will get an free Chester the turkey boy pattern thrown in.  This sale will end at 11:59pm October 31st.

In my Etsy shop, if you enter the OCTOBER DEAL in the note to seller section, I'll refund 15% of the purchase price on orders that total above $18.00. This sale too ends at 11:59pm October 31st.

Custom Mere with a Hollyhock tail

Since I'm in a blogging mood...

I was asked to make another Mere doll that looked like the one I did for Plush You! so this was the result.  I think now you can sort of see it seaweed that I did to tie the hair back, since the red sea star didn't go so well with the colors of the tail.

I modified the tail a tiny bit, but not very much. I don't know if it's noticeable, but otherwise, everything else about her is the same.  I did use a yarn needle when I embroidered the fly stitch scales on the tail and it was so much smoother than when I used an embroidery needle, probably due to the blunt tip.

I hadn't been able to work on any new patterns lately, but now that I've finished up all my custom work, I'm hoping to get a couple finished up.  And I finally added all my patterns to my Artfire shop, I'll probably create a separate post about that and the special that's going on over there in yet another post :)

Magdalena

Is this little doll that I just made.  She's for a project that I'll let you in on in a couple of weeks if all goes according to plan, but I couldn't wait on sharing the picture of her :) There'll be more details on yarns, etc. later.

So, about stuffing.

Well, as mentioned, I wanted to talk about stuffing a doll. I like to try out different types of fiberfill/stuffing/filling/roving etc. for dolls but I have to keep coming back to the regular Poly-fil.

This bamboo one is 100% Bamboo, made by Fairfield and part of their Nature-fil line. It was too smooth, and when I really packed it in a doll the way I typically do, it made the doll feel slightly heavier than they regularly are, and when you squeezed the body or head, it didn't bounce back- it had to be manipulated back into shape.  I really want this one to work out, but I think that for the types of dolls that I make I need to use something different.

This one is Mountain Mist EcoCraft Fibre, a fiberfill that's derived from corn which is turned into Ingeo™ or PLA.  So far this one is a lot easier to use than the bamboo for the type of doll I make.  It's soft, but still is lofty and maintains the springiness that I like. I bought it at my local Jo-Ann's, but haven't seen it as readily available.  Fairfield, the same company that makes the rest of the fiberfills that I'm discussing, does have a PLA Corn product called Nature-Fil Corn Fiber, but I have yet to try that one.

This is Soft-Touch poly-fil Supreme, and according to the Fairfield website, the fibers are siliconized to make it feel softer and silkier.  I use this type interchangeably with the regular Poly-fil (both are 100% polyester), and like them about the same for my dolls. 

This Poly-fil is the one that I use the most, I like it's loftiness and springiness, and it's the one that I have the most bags of ;)  I usually keep a bag in the trunk of both of our cars since I typically have a yarn project with me when I go places, but it gets unwieldy having to carry this in and out of the house every time I leave, and I don't have to keep stopping to get it when we take off on a whim.

I've yet to try wool roving/batting to stuff a doll because to be honest, I don't know exactly where to get it in bulk.  I've been poking around Waldorf Doll making sites looking for info on making a doll for my niece & daughter for Christmas gifts, and also to find information about wool, and so far I read that West Earl Woolen Mill (717-859-2241- there's no website!) is the place to go for carded wool batting, but I haven't called them yet.

Tips

When I stuff a doll, to get the best looking doll I take my time.  Most of the time I use the Clover Soft Touch crochet hooks when I crochet a doll, so I just use the handle to stretch and shape the doll limb or body to prep it before stuffing it. 

I pull off very small amounts of the fiberfill and then pull it apart so that it's just barely held together and it's nice and fluffy before stuffing it into a doll part.  Then, it just becomes a matter of layering it in. And it's important to not try to hurry and put clumps in, because then your doll is just lumpy and misshapen.

It is time consuming, especially because I try to get as much in as possible. In the picture above, I used the amount of fiberfill that's behind the doll head to stuff another head the exact same size as the one shown, and I needed a little more before I was finished.

For tighter spots, like the legs and feet of my dolls, I use the handle of my crochet hook to push the fiberfill in, and that way I can get it situated exactly where I want it. And then when it's time to seal off a head, or body I fill up that part as much as I can, and then decrease my stitches until there's just a tiny hole left, and then I stuff even more in.  It really helps to retain the integrity of the shape if the doll is stuffed to the gills :)

I hope that helps, and if I've forgotten anything please feel free to add to this in the comments, the more shared information, the better!

Stuffing a doll...

... is something I want to talk about soon :)

The perfect skin tone?

I'm reblogging a picture because I have a question for you... What yarns do you like to use that are close to accurate skin tones?

This has been an ongoing search for me, and I'd like to post about yarns that have colors similar to skin tones that are useful.  It doesn't matter what brand or fiber content it is, I'd love to hear from you on your favorite skin tone yarn & I'll start- mine is TLC Cotton Plus in tan.

That's the best tan color that I've been able to find.  I'd love to find it in a wool, but for now a cotton/acrylic blend is what I have to use.  I do have others that I like to use as well, and will share those, but it'll be a lot more fun to share what others have found and like to use as well, so please, speak up!

By the way, the top is a knit picks cotton blend, the middle are alpaca, and the bottom 3 are Cascade 220, but I'm seriously on the lookout for the perfect tan!

Bess pattern winners...

and

Thanks to everyone who let me in on some of their favorite names, it was really fun reading all the names and why you love them so much.  I guess I should let you in on some of my favorites too!  I have a little notebook that I've had forever and it has lists of names that I like at any given moment.  Off the top of my head, I really like Asher and Ryan for boys and Rebekah, Kate and Liza for girls.  It's interesting how many names from your favorites are in my notebook though!

So, again, thanks for entering everyone, and Josefin & Alissia check your email for the pattern!

Bess the cow girl amigurumi pattern available & a giveaway!

First things first.  Wow. I was really touched by everyone who commented on the last post or sent emails, I really appreciate the thoughtfulness of your kind words.  We're still trying to figure things out on this end, and there will probably end up being some type of upheaval soon, but hopefully nothing too drastic.

Well, the cow girl pattern is now available.  I've finally finished it, and the kinks have all been ironed out.  I was waiting on someone to agree to let me use her name for the pattern, but unfortunately I never heard back, so instead I named her after my grandpa's sister Bess.  It seems like a very cow-ish name to me.

I was going to include templates for the spots, but have decided that it's really a rather personal choice, I gave instruction, but every time I made templates for the spots I just didn't like them.  There are templates for the ears and the udder, and for this one you should probably be familiar with a couple of embroidery stitches- the blanket stitch, and the detached chain stitch (click on the little magnifying glass next to each stitch to see illustrations of the stitch).

The pattern ended up being 7 pages long, with 14 images and 2 illustrations.  To make this little girl, you'll need:
C/2.5mm and E/3.5mm crochet hooks
Worsted weight yarn in a flesh color, white and black
Locking stitch markers
Yarn & Embroidery needles
DMC Embroidery floss in 310, 777, and 152
DMC perle cotton in tan
Black & pink felt
6mm craft eyes
polyfil/wool roving to stuff the cow girl!

ETA, I forgot to add that the pattern is available at both Etsy & Ravelry for those interested :)

A couple of other random things before getting down to the giveaway part...

I have a couple of dolls that I think I'm going to start working on soon, before I can get to them I have to make a couple of dolls for the Plush You! show up at Schmancy this fall. They're due next month and I'm not 100% certain which dolls I'm going to make.

Additionally, I just wanted to kind of purge a bit more and get off my chest that another reason I've been silent of late is that while most of the time I have awesome interactions with customers, there were a couple of VERY problematic ones last month that drug on and on that just sort of left me feeling burnt out.  Hopefully by mentioning it, it'll stop lingering and let me just move on.

So, with that in mind, let's discuss the giveaway :)

To enter the contest, all you have to do to enter to win a free Bess pattern is leave a comment and tell me- What is your favorite name? And if you want to tell me why, that's always even more fun. Only one comment counts per person, and no comments will be entered after noon PST Wednesday.

Sneak peak of a little cow girl...

I was taking pictures this afternoon for the pattern, and thought I'd share a couple with you.

I ended up embroidering her markings on her & prefer the way they look as opposed to crocheted ones.

It was a little frustrating trying to get all the stray tan fibers out of her hair, and the black ones off of her white suit.  This time it'd probably have been better to use acrylic yarns because of all the fiber transfer, but I think she's still pretty cute :)

I think I want to take a couple more pictures tomorrow before I'm comfy with the amount I have for the pattern, but hopefully it'll be ready by Monday.