Linda's Fish Bug

Hmm, perhaps a bit too close-up. Ah well. Same basic technique as the one I made from Bobbie, but intentionally different. Stitches this time are a multiple of 6 instead of five, there's an elongated nose (for a while, it looked as if I was crocheting a multicolored nipple...), there's a dorsal fin and the fins are shaped differently & have a sort of ruffled edge. The legs are made in one piece instead of individually (which is a good thing, as I accidentally put them on one side to begin with & had to frog 'em & put 'em on the bottom). Antennae were made to curl too.

Linda likes it, but it's nowhere near as big a hit as the zombie dolly. She was smacking it against the wall this evening, trying to squish it I assume (Rob has taught them to squish bugs on sight).

Today's non-crochet anecdote:

There are two local papers. We have home delivery of one, and buy the other (and also USA Today during the week; I'm a total newspaper slut). Well, we decided around four this afternoon that it was time to get dressed & go get the Star-Bulletin. Everyone was dressed and ready and literally walking to the door when Rob stopped to get the keys...And they weren't on the hook.

Thus commenced an epic search for the keys. We looked upstairs. We looked downstairs. We cleaned and organized as we went. No sign of the keys. We'd had them just the day before, when we went to buy some groceries. It quickly became obvious that, for them to be lost as quickly & thoroughly as they had been, one or both of the children had to be the culprit.

I sent Rob out to the van, thinking that my set of keys was in the diaper bag. Of course, the van was locked, so he had to break into it. Luckily, my husband is one of those people who frequently locks his own keys in his vehicle (something I have never done), so he's rather handy at it. But they weren't there. Which meant the children had absconded with my keys as well.

Right around dusk (mind you, the search had been going on literally hours by this time), I decided to go outside & look for them again. The girls play out on the front porch quite a bit, and I thought perhaps they'd managed to shove them into one of the two sheds out there.

To understand the denoument of the story, you must know a small bit about the set-up here. We live in a sort of townhouse unit, and the porches are separated by cinderblock walls, which for some reason have holes in them, so that there are little openings between the porches. When I went out initially this afternoon to look in their toys, I peeked through to the porch next door, where lives a little girl about Bobbie's age to whom she frequently passes toys.

What I neglected to do was get down on a child's level.

When I went out this evening, though, I knelt down and looked through the bottom of the holes. Sure enough, there was the silhouette of my much-gnawed leather Texas. I reached through and retrieved my keys. I couldn't see any others, but it stood to reason that his would also be there, and so they were.

Thank God they were within easy reach. I'd have hated to have to go to the neighbors and ask them to give us back our van keys...

Fish Bug

So Bobbie announced yesterday that she wanted a fish bug. We had been to the Commissary earlier in the day, & of course every time we go there she has to look at the tank with the live crabs & lobsters. I can only assume that, when she said "fish bug," in reality she meant lobster. (Crabs she knows. Lobsters not so much so.)

But at any rate, it gave me an idea, so I decided to make her a fish bug:
It looks vaguely butterfly-ish, but that wasn't on purpose, though from now on I will swear it was. It went together quite quickly and easily, being just BLO sc in the head/body. No eyes, because I just wasn't in the mood to embroider tonight. It really took maybe an hour or two, total. I'll give it to Bobbie tomorrow after I make another one for Linda.

Finished Fairy Dolls

OK, they can't rightly be called fairy dolls, as I don't like either well enough to actually use the wire wing forms Rob made. So they're wingless, and fairies should have wings. But still, they're cute enough for the girls:

The one on the left, the purple one, is the first I made. I used the same techniques as for the zombie dolls, but with a different multiple, & of course these have figures too. No idea what yarn, even what weight, I used for the body. The hair is a varigated worsted weight, but no clue what brand. I used up some of the mystery yarn in my stash on these things! The skirt is Jamie baby fingering weight yarn. That was simple enough. Started out at the wide end and made a triangle by decreasing on one side only, then crocheted a simple lattice stitch edging around two of the sides.

The green one...Weird that I'm less happy with the second attempt. In theory, number two should be to refine techniques, but I just don't like the changes I made. Well, I like some of them. I like the torso much more, and the hair is great even though it was a total pain to do & I'm certain I made it more difficult than necessary. But I don't like the bottom of the torso where I made the legs, I'm not too happy with the legs themselves, and the seam where the arms are sewn to the torso looks odd & I think it's because of the arms themselves. What's neat about it is I used a pompadour yarn for the body, so it's kind of shiny, and I still am enamoured of the yellow-green yarn I used for the hair.

Now, the skirt on that one was a trip to make. It's a floral trellis stitch. Forget the name of the book offhand; it's one of those collections of stitch patterns. It has both written directions & a chart, and all I can say is thank God for that chart, because the directions make zero sense after the first row. They seriously do not match the chart or what obviously needs to be done. It's a very pretty pattern, but it's a pain in the rear to do for other reasons, so I don't see myself utilizing it too often. But it worked for a fairy.

I'm keeping these back from the kidlets until the new baby is here, or until I am in labor at least. Something to distract them and make them feel special, I hope. Of course, this means I have to hide them until then! They've both been trying to steal them as I was making them.

Who knew...Zombie dolls keep away monsters.

Bobbie is at that age where things sometimes get scary. We'd had a nightlight in her room, but it's burnt out and none of the others we have on hand work either. So she was flipping out in her room alone. I told her to come into the room with Linda and I for a few minutes and told Robert to go find her zombie doll. While he was off looking for it (last I saw of it, it was in the toy closet, which is our walk-in closet under the stairs that is about knee-deep in toys), I explained to her that he was going to go get her zombie doll, because zombie dolls keep away monsters. I told her to keep her zombie doll with her for protection.

And...it worked. Robert brought her zombie doll upstairs & told her the same thing I'd told her, then walked her back to her room. She cuddled up in bed with it and went right to sleep.

Talismans are a good thing at this age too.

I'm working on another doll already. I've got enough baby stuff to keep me happy, and I'm feeling rather over-babied, but I look on the dolls as little sculptures, and if the girls get use out of them, then so much the better. This fairy doll is going to be done 99% in purples. I've got most of the head done right now, and took a break after busting my butt trying to get the facial embroidery right. I finally have something I'm mostly happy with. Still not totally satisfied with the mouth especially, but it's as good as I'm going to get right now. So I'm moving on. The eyes are dark blue & the mouth is pink, but the skin is purple and the hair will be a variegated purple/white yarn that I have, and the clothing (which I am making separate) will be purple as well. Not sure how I'm going to do the wings yet, but I've got the rest of it well in-hand. A good mental picture of it, at least.

Second zombie dolly.

I finished Linda's today. She loves it, & has been carrying it around pretty much since I gave it to her. Not to mention she started demanding it long before I finished. I guess eventually I'll have to make them normal-looking toys, LOL.
Despite how it looks in the picture, the legs are actually the same length. I think it's because of how the skirt is hanging that they look off. I did a few things different with this one, obviously. The color scheme is different, of course. The hair is styled. The facial embroidery is a bit different. The sleeves are different, and of course so is the skirt. I should have taken another picture of it standing up so you could see the skirt better, but oh well. It's sort of an evening gown, thus the updo. ;-)

It started out so innocently...

Over at Crochetville, Sue89 posted a thread with her Little People Doll. Thought the picture was cute, and I am always on the lookout for crocheted dolls, having some long-standing fantasy about making my girls their very own crocheted dolls/doll wardrobes.

She was kind enough to post a link to the pattern, Little People to Crochet. The yarn it calls for is apparently discontinued, and it calls for an E hook, but hey, they're dolls. If you can't substitute material with dolls, what can you substitute it with? No one's going to wear it, no one's going to smack you upside your head for not checking the gauge.

Now, Sue's doll is cute. Adorable little thing that I think any little girl would be proud of. I used her picture for the copy of the pattern I downloaded, in fact. 'Cause if I was thinking whatever I made would come out looking like the dolls in the pattern itself, I'd never make it. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've passed over the pattern in the past because of the sheer hideousness of the model dolls. (Even if you don't want to make it yourself, click on that link to see the ugliness.)

So I printed it out last night, thinking I'd make one for Smoochie once I was finished with the baby shirt I was working on. Finished that pretty early today, since I only had to put on sleeves. Now, to begin with when I was planning to make this doll, I was planning to do a nice, normal doll. Unfortunately, I wound up being influenced by Lady Linoleum's recent zombie asparagus post, and a chance still from Tim Burton's upcoming film Corpse Bride. And so, I made this:

It's actually a pretty straightforward reproduction of the pattern. I went off on my own way with the face, the arms (long scs to achieve a ragged look, in case you're curious), the hair, & obviously also the skirt. This one is actually going to Linda, since Bobbie asked me about fifty times as I was crocheting if I was making it for her. I'm going to make another one, but green instead of gray, & give that one to Bobbie.

Sad thing is, it's still not as ugly as the original dolls, and I made a point of making it ugly...

***

One last comment about Lady Linoleum's post that I linked above. It's all well & good to make fun of vintage books (hey, I've spent my fair share of time at The Institute of Official Cheer). But I appreciate taking them seriously. Nothing wrong with Granny's crochet. Nothing wrong at all.

Quick finished project.

I love this set. I really must write a pattern for it. It actually turned out pretty much exactly the way I'd hoped. The hat, at least. The sockies too. They're surprisingly easy; much simpler I think than my previous attempt at newborn sockies, even the two-color version. I'll work up a pattern for them too.

This is another set I was going to send to Lackland, before they told my mother to tell me not to bother. Fine. I still would like to have a good source to send these to back home. I've not much patience with local "charity." Hawaii is willing to help if asked. Texas offered. I live in Honolulu, but I'm from San Antonio. That is a hard city to explain. Let me put it this way. They're having scheduling problems with the volunteers. Because so many want to volunteer. My mother called to ask about volunteering (my mother, who has never had a charitable bone in her life, except when it came to recieving, but that's another topic altogether) and they said it would be well more than a week before they could use her. Hey, it was less than 24 hours after I originally got the go-ahead from Lackland until they were overwhelmed with donations. And this isn't unusual. There is the annual Raul Jimenez Thanksgiving Dinner. Last year, they served close to 25,000 people and had 4,000 volunteers. And this has been going on as long as I have been alive. Nothing coming close exists anywhere else I have lived.

Sigh. None of that has to do with crocheting, of course. I'm pregnant enough that I can't sleep; I'm grouchier than usual.

New finished project.

First off, if anyone was planning to send stuff to Lackland, put a hold on it. I'm not sure what's going on. My mother spoke with someone at the Family Support Center on Friday who said donations would be welcome...Someone on one of the sites I posted the info on said that she called & was told they had all the item donations they needed right now. So, something funny is going on. Either hand A doesn't know what hand B is doing, and someone at Lackland is wrong about the status of donations (it's entirely possible that they have what they need for adults but could still use donations for the babies-to-be) and they DON'T have enough, or someone else is wrong and they really ARE swamped...Or someone doesn't want to deal with sorting donations...Or someone online is trying to make me look bad for an as-yet-unknown reason.

But until I know for sure what is going on, I cannot in good conscience ask anyone to send anything. I'll get it straightened out as soon as possible, but I'll tell you, if it turns out that whoever told my mother they needed things was wrong, I'm going to be highly pissed. Because that means that not only have I made an idiot out of myself several places online by asking for donations, it also means I spent money I can barely afford (as in, not really) on babies I thought were in need, and in the meantime put off buying stuff for my own baby yet another pay period.

On to happier stuff, though. I made a cute little girls' set today with no pattern that turned out so well I have to share a picture of it.

The center of the hat is part of a pattern from 99 Granny Squares to Crochet (#41, in case you're dying of curiosity). The sockies are my own pattern. Took some doing to figure out how to get the different colored toes and heels, but it wasn't really too hard. Just a matter of figuring out how many rounds to use for the toe. The pattern is such that the heel portion is obvious (as in my other sockie pattern, it's worked in rows instead of rounds). The whole thing just turned out so cute...

I've got another idea for a boy's hat that I'll get to work on shortly. Whether I wind up sending this stuff to Lackland or not is anyone's guess at this point. But I'm pregnant, so at any rate I'll get some use out of one set or the other!

Help for some of the Hurricane Victims

This is what I was talking about yesterday, and address we can send things to, for those of us who can't really afford to send money. This is for 31 at-term pregnant women who were evacuated from Keesler AFB in Mississippi to Lackland AFB in San Antonio. They're going to be there at least until they give birth. So they'll be needing all the sorts of things we mamas needed immediately postpartum.

I wasn't given any info on a specific person to send it to, so please mark whatever you send with who it's for.

Address

Lackland Family Support Center
2160 Kenly Dr Bldg 1249
Lackland AFB, TX 78236
(210) 671 - 3722 or (210) 671 - 2216

I'm sending onesies, crocheted hats & booties, that sort of thing. Whatever you needed postpartum, these mamas are going to need. If you can go through your closets & send along some newborn clothes even, that would be a big help. I know yesterday my mom mentioned they'd like to have recieving blankets.

I am worn out.

Just...aarrgh! Perhaps having Fox News wake me up in the mornings isn't my best idea. All the hurricane coverage is wearying. I cannot believe how this has brought out the worst in some people. I'd not be able to live with myself if I was acting the way some of these folks are. Just because the city is flooded doesn't mean you're to help yourself to whatever you can grab!

I have put aside crocheting things for myself & my baby right now. The Beginner Baby Set I posted at Crochetville is about to become my first big charity project. There are 31 at-term pregnant women from Keesler AFB in Mississippi being housed in guest quarters at Lackland AFB in San Antonio. I had my mother call over there today to try to get an address I can send stuff too. The Public Affairs office said they'd welcome whatever could be sent. I don't have an address yet because the volunteer office is handling that, & they closed at 3PM Central (I called my mother about 11:30 HST, which is an hour and a half too late). But I should have an address within the next couple of days, and I will post it here. I know a lot of people cannot really afford to give money, but a lot of us can crochet things, and just about all of us can go through our closets. I've got three boxes set up; I'm sending stuff to two specific families and I've got a box to send to Lackland as well. We went to the thrift store this evening and spent an hour or two in there. Managed to get some very nice baby things for 99-cents apiece. That's going in the Lackland box. I'd like to send some stuff for the mamas too, but I'm not sure what. I'd like to be able to give 31 copies of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. I'm funny that way.

I'm just tired out, though, from all the running and doing stuff we've been doing. I haven't sat down & read the papers today, and I've been buying stuff and crocheting stuff instead of killing time online, so I've not much relaxed. But I'm going to take my newspapers upstairs to lay down with my husband and read. And after I relax I'll go back to crocheting. I feel really glad I've found something I can do.

Linda's Outfit

Finally finished it up today. Really didn't take that long, just took getting around to. The skirt is a shrinking of the "simple skirt" pattern from Hip to Crochet. I used the new-to-me technique of increasing hook size to shape the skirt. Used 3.75, 4.0, 4.25, & 5.0 hooks (this was before I bought my 4.5 hook). The top started out as a shrinkage of a tank top pattern from Cool Crochet, but I decided to make it with straps instead of sleeveless. I need to go back & take about 5 rows off the straps, because it hangs a little too low here, but other than that it turned out well. I used only one size of hook here, 4.0. Both top & skirt use Bernat Softee Baby yarn.

The pattern for the skirt is very simple--one row of sc followed by one row of 2DC, sk 1 st, 2DC. The top pattern is 1SC, 1DC, but unusual in that it is bracketed by HDCs (the first & last st). It's a simpler variation of that particular pattern stitch. Made it easier to sew up too.

So, here are the photos:
Before I forget, I used a simple drawstring waist on the skirt, which is also intended to fall below her tummy.

And I promise I'll get the other patterns up on Crochetville shortly. I misplaced the tablet I had them written in, but have since found it.

Finally finished it all...

Got the hats & the sockies done & decided the outfit couldn't possibly be complete without a pair of shorts as well. Getting that to come together took another couple of days, though the finished product & pattern were done in a relatively short amount of time today. I woke up, frogged what I'd been working on yesterday, and started completely anew, then finished it up.

Now, for the photo:

I never find out which sex the baby is ahead of time, thus the two hat/sockie sets. I thought about also making two pairs of shorts, but decided to keep things somewhat simple.

The onesie I bought at the BX & decorated. In case it's hard to read, it says "freeborn", which is an allusion to homebirth (actually, a bit more controversial than that, but I'm not gonna go into it here, since this is a blog about crochet). I used a 4mm hook for the sockies, a 4.5 mm hook for the hats, and a 4.25 mm hook for the shorts. All of which are labeled as G. Three different brands--4.5 mm is Crystal, 4 mm is Susan Bates, 4.25 mm is Boye.

There was a conscious effort made to keep these simple enough for a beginner. The only stitches used are HDC, SC, SlSt, & HDC decl. And chain stitch, of course. I'll post the patterns on Crochetville shortly; I'm just not up to doing it right now.

The yarn of course is sport weight. The hat/sockie sets are Red Heart Soft Baby, the shorts are Red Heart Baby Econo. That's a rougher yarn than I'd normally used, but there's not spare yarn money right now, so I had to stick with what I have on hand.

I have two new patterns.

I am just waiting to make a second baby sockie before I take pix & post the patterns at Crochetville. The heel of the sock was a pain to figure out, but I love the finished product.

I've temporarily abandoned Linda's top to work on some baby stuff. I bought onesies over the weekend & embroidered them, so I figured I'd knock out a couple of hats & sockie sets so I have something for this little bugger to wear once it gets here. I've decided to do without most of the birth supplies I'd planned to order, only get stuff locally, so I won't be ordering the cap and shirt set I'd planned to get with the supplies. But babies still tend to need clothes, so I want to have a first outfit ready.

I have 56 days left, but I gave birth a month early last time, and as I've got feet sticking up into my ribs already, I won't be surprised to have the same happen again. So I'm starting to feel very nesty, and baby things are high up on my crochet list right now. Which means the more fun stuff is pushed aside.

I do have a new acquisition, however. When making Linda's skirt, I was switching hook sizes to shape it. I realized I have a 3.75 mm hook, a 4mm hook, a 4.25 mm hook...and then a 5mm (H) hook. Acting on a hunch--the Crystal brand F hook is 4mm--I went to the local craft store, and sure enough Crystal has a 4.5mm hook, marked as G. So I now have this spiffy new 4.5mm bamboo hook. I do have hopes of eventually finding a 4.75mm hook, but I'm not gonna sweat it.

(I will give the source for the booties in the previous post as soon as I find the booklet. I don't for the life of me remember the name right now, and I can't find the booklet, but I can say I found it at Wal-Mart. The booties are part of a layette of cap, booties, sweater, & blanket; they're on the front cover & there's a bunting bag on the back cover if I remember right.)

I actually followed a pattern.

Shock. Awe. Fright. I followed a pattern through to the end. And it was a pain. Literally, since it called for an E hook. Thin little thing hurts my fingers. But dear Lord, the end result is adorable:
Cute, aren't they? I am just nuts about the loop stitch that I finally figured out when working this pattern.

These are actually about a month old; I put them in a drawer before remembering to take a picture of them. They lack only a ribbon to thread through the eyelet round you can see.

I am still working on Linda's big sister skirt. Had to go buy another 4mm hook today, because I managed to lose the other one. Trying to save money, I bought the Susan Bates hook this time ($3 instead of $8). But it looks like a normal hook & is marked G, so I'm going to have to be careful.

Of course, what's funny is that I'm changing hook size for shaping of the skirt. And I just switched from a G hook to a G hook. ;-) Of course, before I had to go buy another 4mm hook, I'd switched from an F (3.75 mm) to an F (4mm). Uniformity is my dream...

Before Birth

Must resist the urge to use the punnish, overdone "womb with a view" line...

If I can get a better picture of it tomorrow, I will post one. Right now, nothing I could do about how the flash caught the baby.

This turned out better than I'd hoped. It wasn't particularly easy. I made a conscious effort to be more abstract, more random than I am used to being with my sculpture projects. It's pretty much impossible for me to shut off my brain in the necessary fashion.

The womb itself is black worsted weight yarn, Caron's Simply Soft. I chose the color to illustrate the darkness inside the body. It is purposely lumpy and uneven. I was trying for an organic, random feel. (Again, that word. Random.)

To the left of the picture is the placenta. It's the same brand and type of yarn as the uterus itself. I have always particularly liked this colorway, as it gives a sort of brocade look. (I think the actual name is 'autumn brocade', but don't quote me on it.) I chose it because of that look, because I wanted to capture the richness of the placenta, to give it a beauty equal to its importance.

Next, the baby. It looks a lot better tucked into the womb than it did on the outside. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and all that...Pretty simple peanut shape, actually out of the same yellow baby yarn I made Smoochie's dress out of. Arms and legs both are a sort of curve, not articulated. Again, on purpose. There is a slip stitch of the same yarn along the edge of the umbilicus, from the baby to the placenta (the main part of the umbilical cord was made from the same yarn as the placenta), to indicate the exchange that goes on between baby and placenta.

The hooks I used...4mm, 3.75 mm, and even 3.5 mm. The placenta & baby were both done with the 3.5 (E) hook, and the placenta at least was a real pain (literally) to work with. The combo, especially, of the worsted weight yarn and E hook makes a very stiff fabric. The main stitch was, again, SC and variations of it, with some HDCs and long HDCs thrown in for flavor.

Reposting my other sculptures.

Nothing fancy about this post, just photos & brief descriptions of my previous crochet sculptures, since the prior info all got eaten (ok, ok, erased).
Pregnancy Goddess. First piece. Birth art. A self-portrait of a sort. (Yeah, I do look pretty much like that right now. Except not being made of yarn.) Worsted weight yarn, H hook, mostly SC. Breasts are Tr clusters, tummy HDCs.
Uterus, complete with fallopian tubes, ovaries, & purple cervix. The yellow isn't a smilie face, it's a c-section scar. I've had two. More birth art. Worsted weight yarn again, again mostly SCs, this time BLSC. (back loop single crochet)
Totally mundane Black Lace Heart. Done for my husband as an apology for leaving the uterus on his keyboard as a joke. Yet again, worsted weight yarn & SCs. (Get the impression I find this the easiest stitch to create 3-D objects with?)
Vulva. The piece that convinced half my online acquaintances I'm insane. The rest already figured as much. For the record, I am far from the only person who crochets vulvas, though I haven't seen another as purposely accurate as this. (Yes, I know it's not 100% lifelike.) Worsted weight yarn & a huge variety of stitches. Made because I'm tired of the attitude that women should be ashamed of their 'private parts.' The closest my Libertarian self comes to feminism.

Bobbie's Fiona Dress

Finished the dress today. I shrunk it down from the pattern called Fiona in the Cool Crochet book (I love that book, in case you hadn't noticed; yept it's the same one I got the wire jewelry inspiration from). Here's the original dress:
This dress is my main reason for buying the book, actually. It's a great dress, and actually made out of (light) worsted weight yarn, even if it does call for tiny hooks.

I made Bobbie's Fiona dress out of yellow yarn that she chose from my yarn closet. It's the yellow sport weight yarn I used for the round baby blanket. Specifially, Lion Brand Pound of Love yarn. It's thicker than most sport weight yarn I'm used to, but it's soft, and for crying out loud I was able to make (half) a blanket and a dress out of it, and I still have some left! I think I spent something like $6 for it. Great deal.

The pattern in the book, like I said, calls for pretty small hooks. E & F, if memory serves. I know small hooks make for a fine fabric, and it's undoubtedly better to have itty-bitty stitches for an unlined dress like this, but I just don't have the patience. I used a G hook. So, smaller yarn but a bigger hook. I'm odd that way.


Here are the photos of Bobbie in her dress:


Cute, huh? I do need to straighten it out, maybe even block it. I had it all scrunched up in my lap just before these photos were taken, trying to finish it up before bedtime. She loves it when I make her things. Took a few days to crochet, but wouldn't have taken nearly as long if I'd put more effort into it. It makes a pretty sundress, I think. I like my daughters in yellow.

The dress is 90% straight DCs. That's what makes it so simple. The sort of spiderweb pattern at the top was a lot easier than it looked, but it involved trebles, which are my personal bane. I just can't make them flow as quickly as I can the other stitches. But I like the pattern stitch enough I can see myself using it to edge a shawl or baby blanket.

The straps are sc. Kind of an interesting technique there, make the chain, then sc back down it, then ch 2 to get around the "side" and sc'ing back up the other side of the chain. Lots of baby bootie patterns use a similar technique. It's not one I'd have thought to use on my own, but I like the effect it gave.

Other than using a different yarn and hook, and of course making it for a 3.5 year old, I stuck pretty much to the pattern for the dress. I get a kick out of shrinking stuff down like that. Too many patterns for baby & toddler clothes are just repetitive and, well, insipid. I have to be careful not to make something too sophisticated for a little girl, but I think this turned out well.

My next clothes project will be shrinking down a skirt pattern and maybe one of the halter top patterns from the same book for Linda. But I will have to measure her again I think; I'm not positive what I did with her measurements. It'll probably be a day or two before I even get started on that, to be honest.

I'm working on another sculpture. It is more abstract than what I've made in the past, more symbolic than exact, and more birth art. More than that I won't say til I'm done, which should be tomorrow. I actually took a break for a few hours from Bobbie's dress to work on the sculpture yesterday, which is how it is close to being finished already.

Wire necklace.

Apparently, thinner wire is not much less painful to work with. The silver wire in the photo is 28 gauge, the second-finest they had at the store. It was much easier to work with, though. If I had iron fingers, something like this would be excellent for a craft fair. The cost of the materials was approximately $4.50 (and keep in mind, everything is more expensive in Hawaii), but if you were a bit more talented at it than I, they could easily sell for $10 or $15, I'm thinking.

I do love the look of the necklace, though I don't see myself crocheting very often with wire. I just can't get a uniform look to the stitches, and if you think Fun Fur hates to frog, try frogging jewelry wire! BUT I adore the delicate look of the necklace. Perhaps at some point in the unknown future I will have opportunity to wear it. I haven't been to a party in about 4 1/2 years. Oddly, that doesn't really bother me.

This is my own pattern, by the way. Well, it wasn't really made from a pattern.

My current project is a dress for my older daughter based off the dress in Cool Crochet. It should be ridiculously simple, as there's not much need for shaping a dress for a 3.5 year old, when it's intended to be a pretty close-fitting dress. I should have it finished in the next few days. I was originally going to make it fairly long, but a review of the dress in the book shows it's only supposed to come just below the knee, so I'll need to remeasure Smoochie & adjust the length accordingly. (Less from a desire to be accurate than to finish sooner.) I love shrinking down adult patterns, and the kid can always use another sundress. I'm having hormone-induced daydreams of crocheting something for everyone in the family & then having a family portrait made after the new one gets here. I expect that particular haze to clear up shortly after my milk comes in fully once again. ;-) I will at least be making Linda an outfit based on patterns in the same book; can't make something for Bobbie without making something for Linda. I made Bobbie a big sister outfit last time, it's only fair I do it for both girls this time.

A painful medium.

Wire hurts. Above is my first finished example of wire-and-bead crochet. I wanted to make the necklace from Cool Crochet, but I was afraid I didn't have enough wire, so I decided to make a bracelet with what I did have. It turned out OK for a first attempt.

I'd like to see if I can find finer wire. I found it impossible to maintain a steady stitch size since I was having to fight the wire to get it to move through the chains. And my finger that I use to control tension just hurts now. But at least I've managed to demystify bead crochet. At least, for me. I'd like to see if I can't get more consistent results with wire, though. I think I'm going to preemptively bandage my finger; maybe a little padding will help keep it from cutting into my skin so much. We'll see.

Finished sweater set...

I finished up the dress last night & this morning. And I relearned that sleeves already sewn into the round are a pain in the rear to sew into place. But that's the way the pattern said to do it. Note to self: should you ever again be insane enough to make that dress, make the bodice, then the sleeves, then the skirt, that way you don't have to fight with round sleeves into an already-made bodice.

Again, I love the patterns in Candy Babies. I really do. I think they're incredibly innovative. Hmm, I guess I should say I love the garments in the book. The patterns, not so much so. I appreciate the knitting-pattern-style writing, where it says stuff like "work even until piece measures 7 inches" rather than "Rows 3 - 27: repeat row 2." But other facets, especially the joining of the various pieces, just don't work out as well.

So, on to the pictures. First photo--the dress alone:
I had to make a few changes to the pattern. The back of the bodice is supposed to be just straight HDC, but even using the same size hook, it was huge compared to the front, so I did the entire bodice in the pattern stitch, which I think looks nicer anyway. I also did several rows of the pattern stitch (2 repeats of the whole kit n kaboodle) on the skirt, which gave it a pretty nice look, but I'm still not certain I'm totally satisfied. And I made the sleeves shorter than the pattern called for, as on the model they came down to her elbows, & I wanted a short-sleeved dress.

Here are the dress and sweater together:
Cute, huh? I made the body of the sweater a size larger than the dress, but made sure the sleeves were short enough for the six months size. The sweater needs to be able to fit over the dress for them to be a true set. The sweater is a bit longer than I'd like--stupid me didn't adjust the length in the main part of that--but overall I think it's a very nice look.

And I have absolutely no plan for it...Sigh.

Today's noncrochet talk--Bobbie is has just about mastered the capital A and is moving on to the lowercase of the letter. I've got her the practice writing tablets like I remember writing on in school, but lines mean nothing to her, the dear. She writes as she lives--large & enthusiastic. There will be time for refinement later.

And the good news does not end there. Linda peed in the potty. IN the potty, rather than on the lid, or beside it, or in front of it. Which means she's getting better at feeling the urge to go, and I'm getting better at recognizing her signs and prompting her to get on the potty. Nope, I don't ascribe to the 'later is better' school of pottytraining, but that's all I'll say about that topic, since it is even more of a hot-button issue among mamas than abortion, it seems.