Red Riding Hood!

She's finished!

The only thing I have left to do is to glue the flower to her hand and the basket onto her arm; I don't want them to be removable. I am also going to sew the hood onto her clothes in the back because I don't want that removable either.

When I start making my dolls, I draw a picture first to get an idea of how I want her to look, with some directions regarding color:

As I create the different parts of the clothing and sew them together, I usually decide to make some changes if something doesn't look like how I thought it would. This was taken before I made the apron:

On the front of her dress I tried out a few different stitch patterns at the bottom for a little variety. I alternated the knit and purl stitches. I did that on the basket of goodies as well but since it is so small it is hardly noticeable.

The apron was fun to make and I liked putting the little pockets on.

At first I was going to use ribbons for her hair at the bottom of the braids but then I decided to just keep everything yarn, including the flower. I decided to make the flower blue to compliment her blue eyes. At first I was going to make a red rose, but I figured with all the red she was wearing it wouldn't stand out very well.

I decided not to make the wolf. At first I thought it might be fun to have the wolf off in the background of the picture, blurry but recognizable. But it came out fine without him. He wouldn't have been made using a coffee can, I would have just made him and stuffed him. But since she isn't really a toy, I decided not to make him.

New doll started!

I started my next coffee can doll! I won't tell you who it is this time until I'm almost ready to post pictures. But suffice it to say she is truly scrumptious! I really only have 2 more pieces to knit to complete it, aside from sewing the pieces together. I'm excited!

Free Yarn from Freecycle

Here is my generous pile of yarn, given to me for free simply because I asked for it on Freecycle.com! I'm a member in my local area and I asked for yarn. When my daughter saw the pile of yarn, she said, "It looks like a yarn pool." The pool measures 3 feet by 3 feet, and there area many colors and sizes as you can see!

Little Bo Peep is Done!

Now the complete set of Little Bo Peep with her lamb is done! After painting the shepherd's crook 4 times, I glued it to her hand and placed two paint bottles underneath it to keep it straight while it dried:

Once it was dry, and it stopped raining outside for a day or two, I took her outside for her glamour shots:

During the week I thought about adding a ribbon and a little bell around her lambkin's neck, to add that extra touch of authenticity. The bell would let Bo Peep know where lambkin was at all times. But I decided against it; I felt the ribbon and bell would be a little bit too much. Lambkin looked just fine without it.

Shepherd's Crook is Coming Along

Had a chance to paint Little Bo Peep's crook today after I bought the acrylic paint yesterday at the craft store, 2 for $1. I wasn't sure which color brown I wanted, so I bought these two: brown and espresso.

I settled on the Espresso and got started. It matched the color of her hair better. As I painted it, the smell of the paint reminded me of when I used to paint in grammar school, and that was a pleasant memory.

It went on relatively smooth, but it didn't cover extremely well. I know I will wind up giving it two or three coats before I'm done. And I forgot to look at the paint carefully when I was in the store to see if it was glossy or matte. Of course, it doesn't say, so I'll have to wait and find out after it dries.

I painted it on wax paper, but after I started I thought of a better way to paint it. I have a pencil holder, and I could have gotten it painted all over by standing it up in the pencil holder and painting it instead of lying it flat. But it's too late now. Maybe when the other side dries I'll try it that way.

I like how the color turned out, though it is blotching in places, which is what I suspected.

Lambkin is Done!

Here's Bo Peep's Lambkin:

I really hadn't thought of a name for the lamb, so I guess Lambkin will do; it's kind of cute. I used flexible aluminum wire for the legs and sewed them inside the body. At first I was going to bend the wire and sew it along the inside bottom of Lambkin's belly, but the legs simply wouldn't stand up that way. So I finally sewed the wire in a straight line, and the legs stand up just fine.

Bo Peep's Lamb Companion

Here's my progress on Bo Peep's lambkin so far:






The front end is where the yarn needle is pointing. I have been adding more black yarn to the hooves to prevent the wire I used to stabilize the legs from poking through. I just need to stuff it and sew on the head, and it will be done! Soon Bo Peep will be ready for her closeup!

The Shepherd's Crook

I was pretty busy this weekend with promoting my new website so I didn't get to make the shepherd's crook for Bo Peep until Monday evening. Here's the clay I used:

My wife had bought it for me as a present for my birthday. I won't tell you how long ago that was, but I knew one day I would use it. Originally I wanted to try and sculpt my own dolls with it, but the shepherd's crook was the first project I used it for. Perhaps because it had been sitting for awhile it was stiff to work with at first. I found that I didn't need a very large piece to roll out thin enough for a staff. Once I kneaded it a bit, it became easier to work with and I was able to easily shape it into a crook. It was rather limp, so I wasn't sure if it was going need some extra support inside. I put it in the oven on a round tray (which was too small for it and I hoped it wouldn't wilt as a result - it didn't).

I'm not sure what it smelled like as I baked it because I baked a tuna casserole and I'm sure one smell overpowered the other. I also thought it would change colors after baking but it didn't. It felt firm after I took it out of the oven and put it aside to cool. Here it is all cooled off. Now I have to get some brown acrylic paint to paint it. The surface of the crook is bumpy, and I wanted it that way, as though the crook were made of a piece of natural wood.

Now the trick will be attaching it to her hand. I know I want to use glue, but I'm not sure about how to hold it in the position I want it in until the glue dries. Plus I don't want globs of glue dripping down her hand on her dress. I suppose I could put fabric over her dress to protect it.

I had thought about using a stick pin to hold the crook in position in her hand while the glue sets; we'll see if that turns out to be a good idea.

New Loom Knitting Website

Please join me for the launch of my new loom knitting website, www.LoomDude.com ! There you can read the story about how I got interested in loom knitting in the first place, see the projects I'm currently working on, and browse the neat items I have for sale in my online stores. I hope you'll choose to stay connected with me by following me on my blog and returning to my website often to see what's new. Let me know what you think! And if you'd like me to knit something special for you, let me know!