This week’s Yarn Along (via Small Things) looks very like last week’s. The cardigan has come on – a bit – though it doesn’t much look like it. I’ve completed the yoke, so now I’m slogging my way down the body in small snatched of time (usually after meals, waiting for the children to finish.) It’s great fun to wallow in my own yarn though – something I haven’t really had chance to do for a little while.

(I’m biased but I think it’s great stuff.)

Book-wise, I have managed to get hold of a large chunk of the Little House on the Prairie series through our local charity shops. They are 60′s-70′s Puffin editions, and all (except The Long Winter) are in very good condition. I grew up with this era of paperbacks (though I’m only 33!) so they fit right into our bookshelves and already feel very familiar. I’ve never actually read the series before, but I started Little House on the Prairie while waiting for the washing to dry at the weekend and really enjoyed it.

I’m finding the parenting is a great excuse to finally read/re-read all those classic children’s books that have been on my list for years.

W read original version of The Wind in Willows at the end of the last year and had a great time. I bought my sister Swallows and Amazons (to go with her theatre tickets to see the musical), at christmas, and got myself a copy while I was at it. And after crying at the end of a very, very heavily abridged version of The Railway Children (father steps off the train and I’m a puddle of tears!) I’ve promised myself some time with the original novel at some point this year.

Excitingly, you can get a load of these classic texts for free via Project Gutenberg, which works well if you have some sort of digital reader. Mind you I’m a sucker for a second-hand edition from amazon or charity shops.

So let’s see.

There have been camera troubles. Multiple camera troubles.

There has been a feverish little girl and a couple of nights with very little sleep.

There have been problems with the blog (hey I’m not even meant to be here today!)

There have been deadlines that are hoving into view and are taking up every minute I am not around two small children (of which there is a limited amount.

Life is sort of tricky right now, it has to be said.

So here is some knitting and a book. (I felt the call of the Small Things‘ yarn along.) The knitting is an upsidedown Sweet Bunting that I am knitting for LR to wear to her auntie’s wedding in the summer. The book is The Crafter’s Guide to Taking Great Photos by Heidi Adnum, which I treated myself to just before christmas. I’d love to tell you I’ve read loads of it… but, well, see above basically.

And on that note…

I love the inner workings of a 2 1/2 year old brain.

In the lead up to Easter we have eaten a lot of hot cross buns, which means we have to sing ‘Hot Cross Buns‘ and I keep asking FB who we give them to if we don’t have any daughters?

Turns out: If you have no daughters, give them to your tortoise!

Can’t argue with that. ;)

So easter…

(LR got a goose. Knit in OxfordKitchenYarns Aran in white and marmalade. Nice.)

This year I made some knitted animals from Knitted Animals – I’ve been wanting to knit things from this book for ages. And now I have.

They are great simple knits, which work up really well – though I will say that they Goose pattern was missing information about how to knit the beak, and they tried to explain that they wanted you to use yarn overs, without using the words ‘yarn over’ which was unnecessarily confusing. But to be honest if you’re a knitter with a reasonable amount of confidence you’re going to work things out without any real problem. Or you’re going to wing it and be fine. :)

(LOOOOM!)

The goose is lovely though, and was a very quick knit. It’s just the right size for an inquisitive 6 month old.

FB got chickens! In erm… something from my stash. But equally nice. Certainly the chicks are part proper angora – which is a bit mad really since it was expensive and then I didn’t know what to do with it once I’d bought it. But I still have lots left, and anyway it gives them (there are three more waiting in the wings to be sew up) a really fluffy chick halo.

The buttons are a superb idea and actually come from The Children’s Year.

The chickens were just the right size that their ‘eggs’ could be small chocolate ones. Very pleasing. :)

I have been working away at some knits for No.2. Some have stalled, and I need to sit down and finish them, some are still waiting in the wings and might have be dropped (depending on when he/she arrives.)

However these got finished, and I’m really happy with them:

Oh Baby Booties! (Ravelry) – I think I love this pattern! I’ve made another pair for FB’s Waldorf Doll (which I’ll post about soon), and I’m sure there will be more on my needles very soon. These are knit in test yarns from when Oxford Kitchen Yarns was really in it’s infancy.

Pilot Hat (ravelry) – This was made using 21st Century Yarns left overs from two previous projects. (Lovely stuff!) This was another really fun, quick knit, and again I can see myself knitting more of these if they prove useful.

This is a non-lace February Baby Sweater (ravelry) which I knit AGES ago out of handspun. This is not really showing it in it’s best light – it’s definately bright, but that’s not such a bad thing, and it will go with lots of the baby clothes. I love how there is unintentional two row striping which is just down to the length the rows happened to be.  I still haven’t decided if there should be buttons or not. I’m edging towards not, but we’ll see…

(You can read more about my adventures making my first Waldorf Doll here.)

Hair.

This was the part that I was really nervous about. I knew that I wanted the doll to have a shaggy haircut, because the little boy who’s going to play with him has shaggy hair too. And I think it’s the most appealing ‘boy’ haircut. Particularly for dolls.

But even the book warned that it was pretty much the hardest hairstyle to pull off. So I went in, expect it to take ages. Luckily I read (somewhere on the ravelry waldorf dolls group forum – though I can’t find the exact post now), that someone was using the knitting pattern stitch from Grrr by ‘Housemate Alice‘ (because sometimes the world is that small. :) which I thought seemed like a genius idea.

So I played around with a bit of a swatch to work out my gauge, measured around the head and got stuck in.

The yarn is Oxford Kitchen Yarn sock yarn in Biscuit (the other half of the ball used to make the Earl Grey Tea and Biscuit sock) which I held double, to get as much hair as I could.

I don’t have an exact pattern – basically the plan is to make a close fitting cap, so I decreased pretty much as I would for a hat, all be it one where I didn’t want the decreases to line up exactly. After a while, with the decreases it becomes a bit of a judgement call as to whether you should knit two loop stitches in a row, or alternate them as usual. But it’s not that hard – I just erred on the side of not wanting any bald spots.

The knitting probably took me a couple of days. The loop stitch looks complicated when you first try it but becomes second nature very quickly so I was able to knit in the garden while FB played without him being any the wiser.

Once the cap was complete I got to do what turned out to be the BEST BIT.

I cut all the loops and suddenly had hair in my hands.

(Cousin IT?)

After that it was just a case of fitting the cap to the head and sewing it down.

One of the things I love about this stitch is that tugging the hair actually tightens the stitch, so it should be able to handle being played with by a toddler. :)

So there you go – I made a boy, with hair!

In conclusion – making shaggy doll hair is really not hard. It also didn’t take very long in the grand scheme of things. And it was fun.

And, personally I’m really happy with the results.

More soon.