Stashbuster Spirals III

There have been a number of pairs of handknitted socks sitting in my mending bag for a very long time. Most of them were badly damaged and I postponed dealing with them for as long as I could. But spring brings with it an urge to spring clean and in an attempt to tidy up my craft space, I decided to sort them out. I frogged four pairs of socks, mostly dicarding the foot portions and salvaging the yarn from leg portions of the sock. I decided to reknit them. I got two pairs out of it.

This is the first one. It is the third time I have knit the pattern. It is just a very good wzy to knit up leftover/ oddball yarns into a beautiful pair of socks.
These turned out pretty good. I was a but worried how the socks would hold up but I have worn them for a few days and they are doing fine.
I am almost done with the second pair too, and will show you in the next post.

P.S. The pattern is no longer published on the internet, but there is a internet archive link in the comment section of the ravelry pattern page that will take you to it.

Little Backpacks

A few months ago, my daughter (the middle one) asked me to make her a little doll-size backpack. She drew me a picture to explain her specifications.

It took me a while to get to this project but she persevered all along, reminding me of the promise that I would make it "some day, soon". Impressed by her tenacity,  I finally made the four-inch backpacks. Notice the plural, as her youger sister has to have everything that she has. Also, I made three as the prototype needed a few improvements.

Here are all three backpacks, complete with zippers, glue on pearls and all. The green prototype was gifted to a friend while my girls claimed the other two.

By the time of this post, it has been several weeks since the completion of the backpacks and the girls have moved onto newer toys. But they had a good run and are still intact, just hibernating for now. 

Northern Wind Cardigan

The only cardigan I knit this winter is for my eldest daughter. My husband picked out the color and yarn, while my daughter selected the design. The yarn is some Turkish acrylic from our local yarn shop. The design is a free DROPS pattern.

It was a fairly straightforward knit, nothing too exciting or boring. I managed to finish without running out of yarn which was a win. The real callange was getting the lower scalloped edge to not curl. I crocheted two rows of slip sts to counteract that and it works for now.

My daughter is happy with it and that is what I was aiming for. Next up are a few smaller projects.

Little Knits

This winter, my knitting has been sporadic at best. I just managed to finish a few small projects and worked on and off on a larger one. The first small project that got completed was a vest for my seven-year-old. It was entirely a utility project as my daughter needed a warm underlayer to her winter clothes and I needed to use up some yarn that I quite disliked. So there it is.

The second small project was a pair of fingerless gloves for my daughter's friend. The design was selected by the recipient. This pair knit up quick and again used up some of my stash.

 The bigger project that is so near completion is a sweater for my eldest daughter. Hope to get it done this weekend and share it soon afterwards, in sha Allah.

The Dollhouse

The dollhouse was finally finished last month. It took me fourteen months of off and on work to get it done. And it was the most exciting and enjoyable experience. It got a lot of appreciation from family, friends and strangers, which was very gratifying too. Here is the grand tour of the completed dollhouse for my blog.

This is the front of the house, which is detachable. The brick and stone detailing is all egg-carton painted and cut into form. The door and window panes are out of popsicle sticks.

 The larger plants are from craft store while I made the flowers for the window boxes out of air-dry clay. These are detachable and the girls can rearrange them according to their preference.

My father-in-law made me the awesome hinges for the door. I fashioned the lock from my jewelry making supplies.

The night view.

The right side of the house is simply wall with some windows. Same goes for the back.

The left side of the housed is more interesting with a balcony and a chimney below it, which houses the batteries for the house lights.

This is the front of the house, detached.

And its inner view.

Coming to the interior of the house, it has a living room and a kitchen on the ground floor and the bedroom and the washroom on the top floor.

The circular staircase leads up from the kitchen to the bedroom.

I probably blogged about the living room earlier, but here it is again in its completed state.

All the furnishing were made from scratch, except for the flower on the side table which is actually an eraser and has been placed by my daughter as an accent piece.

The sofa turned out just perfect but as I was just starting when I put together this living room, the curtains and wood paneling are not very finely done.

The doorway leading into the kitchen. Again the stairs are a bit crude, them too being an earlier construction.

This is one of the cutest corners of the house. The dining set is simple and sturdy and the curtains tie together the look. I added the picture frame and the clock as last-minute details.

The kitchen cabinents, sink and stove were all custom-made to fit into the available space. The shelf doors are a bit wonky (again the learning curve thing)but they do open, as do the shelves under the sink, the oven and the drawers.

There is the frigde tucked into the conrner. It was a tricky piece to make.

Moving onto the top floor, here is the balcony. This is another one of my favorite parts of the house. It has large-sliding doors which lead into the bedroom. I thought it would be cool to have the vine climbing around to the side wall from the front.

I made a lounging chair for the balcony,

...and a laundry rack. Both are made of popsicle sticks and are foldable.

Interior view from the balcony.

The bedroom still need a rug and I might crochet one some day.

The bunk bed was a requested piece and the one which made me realize just how tall the barbie dolls are. It also made me revise the house master plan and construct a dormer window, as I did not want the barbie bumping her head against the low ceiling.

The wardrobe with sliding doors was also a requested piece but it has proven to be inadequate to accommodate the barbies' expanding wardrobe. We might have to add some more storage soon.

The dressing table corner is another cute one. It leads to the bathroom.

 

 

 Of course the dollhouse MUST have a fully detailed bathroom, no matter that most of it is hidden behind a curtain (which is also a MUST, a doll needs its privacy).

This concludes the very picture-intensive dollhouse tour. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed making and sharing this project.

I'm Back

This blog has been badly ignored, almost abandoned, for the last seven months. I have nothing better in the way of excuse other than that life got in the way.  I put away my needles for the summer and all the other crafts also took a back seat to my family obligations. The next few months are also going to be busy but I hope to put up a few posts now and then.
In knitting news, I only restarted knitting last month and have knitted only two pairs of fingerless gloves.

The first one was a DROPS design that I made on comission. I always enjoy colorwork so it was a breeze. Once it was done, I wanted to knit another.

This design was reverse-engineered from an pin on pinterest. It has some embroidery too, in the form of a flower an the back of the wrist, and I add some pearl beads for good measure. I guess my eldest daughter will be claiming this pair.

  In other news, my biggest project of the year (fourteen months to be exact), the dollhouse, is nearing completion. I just need to add a few minor things and take pictures.

  Other than that, our life has been most ordinary and routine, Alhamdulillah. The weather is slowly turning milder and I feel knitting beckoning me once more. Letvus see how much I can manage in the coming months.

Spring Knitting And Sewing

The spring in definitely in the air, here in Islamabad. The winter chill is gone and we have days at a stretch, of warm sunshine, interspersed with spring showers. My latest projects suit this change in weather.

My old reader might know that I have a thing for girl dresses with knitted bodices. So, I recently got hold of two balls of cotton yarn, in light fingering weight, to make a couple of spring dresses for my 6-year-old. I bought the yarn online and was a bit worried about running out. But in the end, I managed two get both bodices done, using down to the last inch of both yarns.

Next, I went to shop for matching fabrics and thankfully found some suitable ones quickly. It took one evening to sew up the dresses and another to sew on the buttons.

I love these part-knit part-sewn dresses and would love to test some other stitch patterns in the futre, insha Allah.

In other accomplishments, I did an early spring-cleaning of my craft closet and it has made me resolved to use up some of my stash. I'm still undecided about what to cast on next, socks maybe, or a stole.