small projects: french knit bows

I have been obsessed with making bows with this french knitter I bought in December. You might be familiar with this little doodad (this whosit, this whatsit). I've also seen them called knitting nancys (nancies?) and tricot knitters. The impression I've gotten is that it's kind of a child's activity?? Which makes sense, since it's a fairly simple activity once all the steps are learned. But you use the pegs on top to knit an icord. It's a super stretchy cord! I believe I have crocheted an icord before, but I hated doing it, so I thought buying one of these little things might help.

I have made so many bows now... more than pictured here!

I made a modest number of bows to attach to a couple of pairs of mitts I sold at the craft market I did last month, but I only had time to do a few bows. I was slower at the knitting process than I am now. I intend to use the majority of these bows on crocheted items: mitts, and maybe I'll do a scarf dotted in bows! Not sure yet, but it seems delightful. I might make barrettes or something too.

Right now I've been making a couple of bows every night before I retire, as if journaling or darning socks by firelight. It's been quite nice, and I've had to fight off a temptation to start collecting french knitters due to my affection for this one. There are so many shaped like MUSHROOMS, and oh my word, it's hard to resist those especially... I might have bought one already. The literal only thing stopping me from getting more is that I've already scratched and scraped this one so much, by knitting with a tapestry needle. I don't want to buy a bunch of knitters and then not use them, but I don't have the heart to scrape them all up.

(BTW, I love this blush colored yarn!)

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small projects: crochet strawberries and hearts

Still feeling really crochet-y, by some miracle! Been working up some small items, like this strawberry applique (which I made by following this video). Last year at this time I made these crochet strawberry bags... been really into the strawberry thing for a while now, I think! I want to turn these into mitts, either by granny square-ifying them or perhaps just having them be appliques.

I also made some more hearts. I still have about half of the ones I made several years ago (almost ten years, in fact). I even reminded myself how to do them via the same video tutorial. And used the same sheet of scrapbook paper for a background!

As you can imagine, the strawberries and hearts are made quite similarly, but the strawberry has a lot more steps. The heart is incredibly easy to memorize. Do it once and you'll not need the tutorial again! But I can't seem to memorize the strawberry part of the strawberry, haha. The stem and leaves, I don't need the tutorial for, but I keep having to refer back for the actual fruit part! Stitching on the seeds also makes a strawberry take longer than one of these little two-minute hearts.

This is really really pleasing to me right now, filling up a little bag with hearts and berries!

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new year, new girl (jail for One Thousand Years)

Happy 2024 and all that, but aaah! The Blythe I bought myself for my Craft Market Success arrived, and she is a BEAUT. She's unique in my collection. A) She's an anniversary doll -- my first! B) She's got translucent skin -- for me, another first! C) She's the first Blythe I've bought that's been produced under the Good Smile Company rather than Takara.

Also, she's so fance~

I of course made an unboxing video, should you like to see!

I have named her Miette... after the cat!

Five Blythes in a single year is a lot, I know... some of the most substantial growth my collection's seen in many years! But this year I've enjoyed Blythe more than I have in the longest time. I always enjoy this hobby in a neutral way, but I did a lot of sewing this year, and therefore bonding with my girls. Besides crochet, which I technically did far more of, I had the most fun with my doll hobby this past year out of all of my many other hobbies.

Right now the dream consists of sewing and crocheting while I hang with the girls (the new girls especially), window shopping for Miette, and working on a dolly dressup video for Zasha.

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