Knitting in the New Year

The big kids made a goal to stay up until midnight last night. So, to keep myself awake, I cast on a pair of mittens for The Younger.

I have had my eye on these mittens for years, and since I have a toddler to put in them, now seemed like the time. This one took all of Wreck-It Ralph and about a third of The Hobbit.
The Younger lasted until 11 or so, but The Elder made it until 12.
I was very impressed with her stamina, given that I needed a 10 minute cat nap at 11:30.

How was your New Year's Eve?
A friend just posted a goal for herself that she wanted to knit 10,000 yards in the new year, which got me wondering how many yards I knitted in the past year.
I went over to my long-neglected knitmeter.com account and put in the projects that I knitted for the family this year (I don't keep track of what I knit for customers) and the results show that I knitted a lot.
This is somewhat of a happy surprise, since I was feeling not all that productive this year.

Yarn Along

Time to Yarn Along with Ginny.
I'm quite excited to say that I have made a little progress on the yoke of a sweater that's been on the needles for a long, LONG time.
I started it 3 years ago, and just haven't had the right recipe for the yoke.
I've started it 3 times, with 3 different patterns. I thought about designing it myself, and was too busy to sit down and do it.
Then, last week I spotted a darling sweater on Ravelry with a sweet patterned yoke. I thought I had better just jump in or I would never get it finished.

It's taken a little fudging to get my already established pattern to gel with the chart from the Drops cardi, but I think I have it in the right place now.
So, a few minutes stolen here and there and I should be able to make some headway this week!
I haven't had much time to devote to A Dance with Dragons lately, but I have read Blueberries for Sal about 10 times in the past few days. It's a good thing that book never gets old.

What's on your needles lately?

Cat Hat

A couple of weeks ago The Younger asked me to make him a hat that looked like a cat, and I finished it up last night.
He gave it its first test-drive today and pronounced it good. (despite his sister saying that the nose and whiskers looked like a spider)
Anyone else have something fun coming from your needles?

Yarn Along

It's Wednesday, and that means it's time to Yarn Along with Ginny!
The Younger requested a hat that looks like a cat. We went to the Yarnery and he chose his own yarn, and now I am about 2/3 of the way through. It came out just a bit short, so I'll add some ear flaps after I get the cat ears done on the top.
Also, this week, I did a little revision on the hair of this dolly. To make her hair I crocheted a circle of mohair and attached it to her head. It came out a little renaissance looking -

so I gave her some buns and softened the lines around her face.

In reading news, I finished up Bossypants, it was (unsurprisingly) hilarious.
I was laughing so hard at one point I had to put down the book and take a break.
Now I'm back into A Dance with Dragons.
It's the last book in the series for now, and I don't want to finish it too quickly, but I really want to know what's going to happen to all of my favorite characters!
Joining Ginny this morning, head over there to see more knitting fun and great book suggestions.

A Birthday Gift

I love to sew and knit and generally make stuff. 

You may have seen evidence of that on the old fifthlampdown once or twice. 

One side-effect of this love of making is that both of the older kids have many, many dolls. 

I love when the kids are invited out to birthday parties, because it means that I can make dolls who get to live elsewhere.

The Youngest was invited to a 1st birthday this evening, and I spent today making this little lady.

I used this pattern from Storybook Toys - 

I did the hair shorter, I may add little buns, I haven't decided. 

I also skipped the bottom of the feet, since I was really procrastinating and that part of the assembly would be fussy and time-consuming and I had about 5 minutes to sew the pieces together with the machine this morning.

 I had a vision of a little pair of red overall shorts, so I knitted up a pair for her.

The consensus is that she needs a little shirt too, so I think I'll whip up one of those as well.

You may ask, why still work on it if the party is today, and my reason is that The Youngest looked like this the last time I saw her awake 

I think we'll just have to get the dolly to our friend at another time, so I have a little extra time to fuss with her.
Happy Weekend, All.

Making Merry

Thank you all for your lovely comments about this sweater on Wednesday. They made my day!

Here it is finished. I may add sleeves at some future point, but in the interest of time I made the executive decision to make it a vest.

When I saw this a couple of weeks ago, I knew that I had to make it for the Elder.
In true Jess fashion, I procrastinated until the very last minute and I didn't start her until Thursday night.
Last night there were two services at church and I knew I would have a 3 hour window between them, so I did all of the machine sewing yesterday morning, and I (mostly) finished her up there.My ringlets came out a little wonky, but overall I am pretty pleased with the look.
She came home without legs, and I think I should redo the eyes, I didn't have access to the online photo of Clara, so I just made her face up.
Anyway, I stuffed and attached her legs last night/this morning, and I got a good start on the Nutcracker. Unfortunately I didn't get to his legs, so, for now at least, he is a finger puppet.
That story went over o.k., so I might not have to go further with him.
I should, however, get going on Clara's ballet slippers. Those shouldn't take too much time, and I think they'll complete her outfit nicely.

Happy Christmas to those who Christmas, and Happy Weekend to those who don't!