Owlishly

How I... stuff a doll

I don't know if I'd ever mentioned before how I like to stuff my little dolls. I'd taken pictures a while ago to help illustrate what I do, but I don't remember ever having gotten around to using them. I get questions from time to time about how to get even looking heads (specifically) and body pieces so I thought I'd show and tell how I do it.

First and foremost, crochet your stitches as absolutely tight and uniform as possible.  This is very important so that there won't be gaping holes where you see the fiberfil/roving when you get it stuffed as full as you can. 

The amount of fiberfil that is used is a very large amount in comparison to the size of the head.  It usually ends up being double the amount that you think will suffice, and even then you might want to stuff it even fuller. 

I've found that lumpiness and odd shapes are reduced when I use a great deal of small bits of fiberfil as opposed to using a big lump of it.  You get a small tuft of the fiberfill and then pull at it, stretching it apart until it's barely held together, then at that point it's ready to be inserted.  While inserting the fiberfil, take care to place it as evenly distributed as possible around the shape you're stuffing.

As I fill I make sure to stretch the fabric of whatever shape I'm stuffing from the inside, pulling and shaping from the outside and using a scraping motion on the inside with the back of my crochet hook or whatever other tool I'm using to help stuff.

Just keep stuffing, pretty much until the head becomes a little hard ball, and can't be stuffed anymore.

At the point that no more fiberfil will fit, finish crocheting the shape taking care that your stitches are still tight and uniform and seal the hole.

Remember all that fiberfil in the first image? Even though the head already looked full, all of the fiberfil shown with it was stuffed into the head.  This makes for a very hardheaded little doll which makes them perfect representations of my stubborn little kids :)

Bunting

I think that's what you call it. 

I got distracted this evening making hexagons and swatching granny squares for a bunting or garland.  I guess it's called either word, just depends which one you like more.  Anyway, I think I'd mentioned it before but my husband is in the service and left today to be gone until Christmas so I was trying to distract my kids most of the evening with stuff they wanted to do. 

My daughter decided she wanted to decorate around her bed and asked me to make something.  I'd been planning on doing granny-ish type squares in a sort of papel picado type design, but then I thought I'd try hexagons too, since I wanted those :)

I also made a bunch of 1" pin back buttons for my son of all his favorite Star Wars lego characters.  I had him choose right before bed, so in the morning he should be happy to see them all pinned to his backpack. 

So the pattern writing had to wait, I'm going to try to get to it tomorrow morning after I drop the kids off and get the PTO agenda typed up.

Guess who I've finished making?

Oh yeah! I finished the hula girl.  After like six or seven attempts on the lei, I got it just how I wanted it for the pattern.  I'd made a couple that I liked the look of, but were way too complicated to even want to try to explain in a pattern, and then the easy to explain ones were funky, but finally I think this one is just right- a good balance between looking detailed enough, but also something that I think will be understandable when you're reading the pattern.

I'll have to take some more pictures in better lighting for the pattern, but I hate posting without an image, and I wanted to share since I think she's really cute, and I hope you do too.

So, I have an appointment to take my computer in to get the topcase replaced, and it may be a week before I get it back so I'm hoping I can get the pattern done within the next couple of days so that it doesn't turn into a couple week wait!

This and that

I've tried to sit down and crochet a couple of times lately, but I've been getting to distracted with other things.  So I'm going to do a brain dump to purge it all out and see if that'll get me back on track with the Hula girl pattern I'm working on. 

Well. First off, I've always had fairly sensitive skin and with the hives thing the summer before last I've been super careful about what I put on my skin.  But lately I've been in the mood to find a good makeup foundation.  This seriously has been an off and on quest since I started wearing makeup as a teenager.  I don't really have complexion problems so it's never felt like a must, but I'll like to have it in my repertoire just in case :)

Before having kids I used to wear makeup a lot, never gobs of it, but it was fun to play with and I'd gotten pretty adept, but never found a good foundation.  I suck at color matching and now recently with having to be more careful about what I put on my face I was thinking about trying Bare Minerals, and did a couple of times have people at a BM store, or Sephora try it on me and the four times I did it, I had four different color recommendations.  Not really fueling my confidence in the makeup artists either :) 

Anyway, I'd have them apply it in the morning and I'd wear it through the day to see how it felt, and every single time my face itched at the slightest appearance of sweat.  I live in southern California, there's no way I could not sweat, and at first I was thinking maybe it was the brushes, but upon further research I think it's maybe a combination of the rough brushes, and the bismuth oxychloride perhaps?  So I've been looking at different mineral makeup that's bismuth oxychloride free. 

So far, I've tried Jane Iredale and it's been lovely, no problems and it's felt good all day long, but the makeup artist that tried it on me last week was having a hard time matching my face too.  I'm hispanic with light tan skin, but I think I'm a cool and have naturally rosy cheeks so while there were a lot of colors in my range, neither of us were exactly sure which to go with the two closest matches were latte and natural for those of you familiar with the range.

I was thinking about Mineral Hygienics, but have heard/read a lot of either love it or hate it about them, and then kept finding my way to the Everyday Minerals site too.  So anyway, in a roundabout way, have any of you tried and had success with any of the above-mentioned?

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Next up has been a bunch of crafting for new babies.

A friend had a preemie last week, so I've been sewing a couple blankets & knitting & crocheting a bunch of hats for him since they were completely unprepared and there were no complications up until that day.  Luckily, he was born at almost 33 weeks and was around 4.5 lbs so he'll only be in the hospital a couple of weeks.  It just seems really strange because the majority of babies that've been born lately amongst my family and friends seem to be preemies.

One of my cousins also had a baby on the 8th so I've been trying to make some stuff for her little cutie too.  I've been putting off going to see the baby because I wanted to give my cousin a chance to rest up a bit, and to get stuff made beforehand.

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Also, I've been intrigued lately with woodburning.  Too many whims I tell you! I did buy a woodburning tool at Joann's a couple of weeks ago to try out, and I've been burning a ton of little dolls for my little ones, but haven't thought until now to take any pictures.  I get a little obsessive when trying something new to find out absolutely as much as possible about whatever it is I'm obsessing about, and with the wood thing, it's been trying to find a natural finish.  I think I'm going to try a mixture of walnut oil and beeswax since no one I'd be giving the toys to has nut allergies.  I was thinking of just buying a salad bowl type of finish, but where's the fun in that- I like to making things harder for myself ;)

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Anyhoo, what's been sending you off on wild internet searches lately?

Zoe

 

Is the name I decided upon for the newest doll that I made.  The pattern will be released super soon since it's all typed up and proofed, I just need to add pictures and proof it one last time.  I just hadn't shared any of it because it was my mom's Christmas gift and I didn't want her to see it before then.

I'm on my way out the door to have lunch with my grandma and then spend the afternoon with my little sister in a glee-a-thon(!), but I wanted to share a quick picture since I haven't finished any new patterns in a while :)

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!

Life is getting in the way

I can't believe how quiet I've been lately, but too many things have been going on that are just sucking up all available time and preventing me from getting anything finished craft-wise.

These are the two things that I've been able to work on in between sick kids, dentist appointments, an emergency appendectomy for my husband, t-ball, preschool and trying to cook & clean more than I like too :)

This doily is something I've been working on for quite some time now.  I like the peacock feather/fan things, or whatever they're called.  Anyway, they're always my favorite designs to look at, and the ones I'm drawn to over and over again.  I thought it'd be nice to crochet & frame for my bedroom, since I think it'll turn out fairly large.  I intended to make it bigger and am using size 3 mercerized teal thread which compliments the rest of the blues and greens in our room.

The doll had been a zebra in my mind, but when I started making it I kept having problems with the stripes.  I changed it 3 or 4 times before deciding that it was never going to be the zebra that I wanted, and it made a better cow girl. Sewing on the felt is what's taking longer than normal, but I keep thinking about working on it when it's not with me.  Or when I do have it around, I have to use the time to do something else. 

I'm hoping to have it finished soon, especially since a couple of the keys on my laptop have decided they'd rather pop off every time I type and I'm going to take my computer in to have the entire keyboard replaced. I have an appt. tomorrow for that, but I may be rescheduling.

Some more randomness to note, last weekend I'd gone to the LA and Costa Mesa Kinokuniya's looking for some Japanese crochet books, but sadly there were barely any that were interesting to me.  It may've been because there weren't very many in either section.  There were a lot of clay, sewing, quilting, jewelry making books, so I'm wondering if they just don't carry as many fiber related ones as the weather heats up, or maybe I was there after someone came and bought up all the good books. I don't know. It was just strange.

Also, my books came in that I'd ordered, or at least two of the three.  The Japanese doily one is perfectly lovely as usual.  I have to spend some time with the Spanish one to see how much I like it, but as noted before, I haven't had time for anything I find particularly interesting of late. Dang it. Soon I hope!

Japanese crochet book seller, Spanish books too!- Crochet Style etc./Creative Yarn Source

English too, but the foreign language books are harder to find I suppose.

I've decided to try the charts for the patterns in Spanish language books, so I'd read about this online store called Crochet Style etc./Creative Yarn Source over at Crochetville & thought I'd try it out.  I've been really busy and uninspired lately without time to crochet, as a result I've been a little crankier than usual, so I thought I'd look for outside inspiration by way of a new book :)

I'd been wanting to get the Pineapple Lace Stitch Doily book by Nihon Vogue too, so I bought one Japanese crochet book and 2 Spanish booklets- Muestras y Motivas Especial Puntillas 5 originales y clásicas, and Especial Paños No. 12.

This Puntillas 5 one is all borders, so hopefully I can use this one to get away with not crocheting an entire thread tablecloth for my mom.

Then this Paños No. 12 looks like it's mainly doilies.  Its funny because I think they're really pretty, but never get around to making them.  Eventually, I guess.

I'll try to remember to report back when I get them, and their ease of use, etc.  By the way, there's an interesting selection of yarns & threads to try too, but I really have to get through more of my stash before buying more!

New puppy ;)

Doll!

I finished the doll this afternoon while hanging out in bed and nursing a horrid cold.  I'm really pleased with the little collar, for some reason that's my favorite part.  There are so many different types of dogs, and I was hesitant to make one since I wanted it looking like a dog (obviously), but I wasn't ever sure what kind. My own childhood dog was a dachshund, and I love them so hopefully this resembles our old Zoe. Or actually, hopefully it looks like a puppy! I have all the pictures for the pattern taken except the main pictures of the completed pup.

I'm hoping to get some good ones outside tomorrow but I'll be pretty busy.  I have to go register my little guy for kindergarten & pack because we're headed to Iowa on Tuesday- my husband's grandmother passed this morning. It's very sad, but after all the pain she was in, we're thankful that she's finally gone home.

Addi comfort grip hooks & a giveaway

One of my favorite local yarn stores has sadly announced that they will be closing the store because of what's been going on in our economy.  It's sad because I really like that shop, it's close to a shopping/entertainment center, but still has that main street sort of feel to it.

After (yet another) dentist appointment to finally get a crown on my tooth, and right before I had to pick up my little boy from preschool I stopped by to see if they had any hooks left. I guess depending on the way you see it, luckily there aren't a bunch of crocheters, so there was still a good amount of hooks left.

I have some of the addi comfort grip hooks already, but I thought I'd fill in the gaps. I couldn't remember exactly which ones I had, so I bought some of the smaller ones, and some of the larger ones.  Unfortunately, I was hurrying and didn't go over the hooks to make sure there weren't doubles and ended up purchasing 2 5.5mm/I hooks. 

Fortunately for you, I have no reason to have 2 of the same rarely used hook size, so I'd like to give it away :)

Here are the rules:

• Leave a comment.
• Comment on what your favorite hook (brand and size would be nice) is.
• Do this by April 16th 10pm PST.

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