Sweet Màiri Rose’s third birthday gift.  I hemmed and hawed about making her, but in the end I’m so glad that I did.  Along with a book, her birthday sweater and one little thing I’ll share later, these were her gifts from us this year.  When I set up her birthday table, I purposely kept Rose aside in a different room.  I don’t like the idea of wrapping dolls.  When I was a little girl my dolls were very real to me and it was upsetting to see them under packaging.  Though in our house it’s a bit different since all the gifts were wrapped in play silks.

After she had finished opening everything else; the little gifts from her brothers, a pretty pair of shoes purchased with the money Grandma sent, and so forth, we told her there was still one more special present.  It was then that I went into the other room, as I was walking back, I heard her exclaim in tiptoe bouncing anticipation, “Oh, I hope it’s a baby!”  And the fact that I actually got to place a baby in her arms, all wrapped up in a blanket that was hers as a newborn, made all of the late night sewing worthwhile.

I used the 16″ Starbright Baby pattern from Sarah’s Dolls.  My machine was still in the shop at the time, so little Rosie was sew entirely by hand.  I triple sewed all of the seams and I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that she holds up well!

So, Rosebud got her new baby, but no clothes for said baby, as I wasn’t about to undertake that by hand as well.  Until I can get around to it, her brothers were kind enough to loan her some old doll clothes of their own.

This was my first button jointed dolly and the first I’ve made with a belly button and sculpted bottom as well.  The novelty was very well received in this house full of simple, mama-made dolls.

They are very happy together.

Back to Christmas! (yet again)

Pattern: Nesting Dolls by Kate Startzman

Yarn: various scraps

Made for: Màiri Rose

This was one of my favorite gifts of the Christmas season, both to make and to give.

When I was a little girl, we used to go to this fancy doll shop, with big wooden cases full of porcelain dolls of every sort; characters from fairy tales, princesses, and life like babies of every sort and style.  And on top of each of those cases were rows of hand painted matryoshka, some very traditional and some not at all.  Some held all the characters of a story, some were of animals, some were ladies from a foreign land, some soldiers, and I was fascinated by all of them.  I knew when I saw this pattern that I just had to make them.

The knitting and felting went very quick and easy, while the embroidery was quick time consuming, but so sweet!

One of Little Rosebud’s favorite games right now is “Where’s the baby?”, where we set them all up and hide the littlest one in one of the others, while she closes her eyes (occasionally peeking just a tiny bit through her fingers).

“Where’s baby??”

“There she is!”

“You start with good thoughts, good intentions, prayers,” Clayton says when I ask how they begin each planting season. “Once you begin the seasonal cycle, taking care of the earth, it should be on your mind every day. You complete the process. It becomes a responsibility for taking care of the earth. So each day you have to be aware of what you started and where you want to take it.”

~The Earth Knows My Name; Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans, by Patricia Klindienst

This quote spoke to me this morning when I read it. I believe it’s as true for growing children as it is for growing gardens.

Today went a lot smoother then yesterday, thank goodness. We are enjoying the kind of weather that I never knew as a child; sunny warm days with lots of snow still left on the ground.
I eaves dropped on an amusing convesation the children were having about their baby dolls and how they needed “baby milk” for them, not goat’s milk, because “baby milk” will keep them well.

I started work on a little spring flower fairy.

The only shadow over the day was the fact that my littlest love is having a really rough time. He’s cutting his first set of molars and he’s awfully uncomfortable. He’s feeling so out of sorts that he keeps falling down and hitting his head. Poor little guy, he’s being so brave and strong about it. Neither him, nor I seem to be able to get any rest though. He’s up and down all night and nursing all the times in-between. Being close to me seems to be a comfort, so I’m keeping him in slings for the most part when he’s tired. That way he can at least occasionally squeeze in a little cat nap.

I can’t believe that I never posted pictures of this. I think this is probably my favorite present of all time. This is the doll that Iain made me for my birthday. It was his idea, his design and completely made entirely by him and him alone. I really love her.

And while I’m talking about Iain, here is a poem that he wrote for Elijah a couple of months back.

This is the newest member of our ever growing doll family. She was designed by and for Elijah. The request I got was as follows; a girl doll in a fuzzy purple and pink dress, with blue eyes like Elijah, no nose (I have no idea why my children are so against noses these days… weird) and lots and lots of golden curly hair. I may well have gone a bit overboard on the last request!

She isn’t quite done yet. I still need to pink her checks. Since this picture was taken I’ve braided her hair into pigtails. I’m going to make her a pink jumper with purple trim and a matching hat.

I made her body out of purple cotton stretch velvet, so it always looks like she is dressed. I the past Elijah’s dolls have had a nasty habit of misplacing their clothes.

And yes, Iain is already designing his next doll. “Well, you made Elijah one!!” Never mind that I promised to make one for Elijah because he was upset about the knot doll that I let Iain design at Christmas time. Oye. Luckily, Galen isn’t that articulate yet…

It’s sounding like Iain’s is going to be a boy, with dreadlocks and rainbow sweater, named Clove.

Did I mention that Elijah has a pen pal now too? He’s now writing to a little friend in Canada. They are going to send pictures and short notes written by mommies. For his first letter he decided to send a picture of Violet. I thought it turned out really well!

On the back he asked me to write “This is my doll Violet.” It was very important that the note be written in purple so that the little boy knows that’s his favorite color! He wrote his name underneath.

Steve fixed the hard drive, so now I can post pictures again. Yay!

These are the butterfly/fairy wings that I made for the dolls’ stockings for Christmas. It turns out that the dolls like to play ‘dress ups’ too!

I finished Elijah’s doll, but I still need to make all of her clothes.

I’d say I’m about a third of the way done Steve’s Valentine’s Day gift. I should really be much further along by now. I just got to a step that is somewhat tedious and while normally I wouldn’t mind I haven’t been in the right head space for it lately. I like to be able to make things with loving intention. Forcing myself to work on it when I’m having trouble paying attention just seems wrong, so I’ve been putting it off. I’ve been regressing health-wise lately and I’ve forgotten how much of an impact that has on my work.

We are having some cold weather here now, though not nearly as cold as in some parts of the country I’m told. Over the weekend I found that Galen suddenly didn’t have anything for his feet. He has some thin socks, but all of his booties where suddenly either lost or dirty, too small or in need of repair. So on Sunday I knitted him a pair of thick socks. I’ve got a second pair on needles now (I’m about to turn the heel on the first sock).

I have a lot of work to do. I haven’t started the boys’ Valentine’s presents yet. Galen’s first birthday is exactly a week after Valentine’s day. I have his present planned out, but I’m still in the gathering supplies phase. I still want to make him some slippers as well. And my parents are coming for a couple of days in this time. I guess I’ll be rather busy for a couple of weeks!

Note: This is a post from last week. I was having trouble with the photos so I never published it. Steve seems to have things working again, so here you go…

We’ve been busy lately. Everyone had a cold, now we are busy getting back into the swing of things, picking up with the school work where we left off before the holidays.

It’s so bright and sunny out this morning. I love how the evergreens look all studded with snow with the light shining down through them. We had lots of fun this morning checking out all of the animal tracks around our house. The delicate little bird and mouse prints make the snow look like lace. We got to follow the prints from a pair of foxes who walked around our house in the night.

Here are some random little crafty things from the last couple of months.

Steve misunderstood what I was looking for and brought me home some roving. I spun it up into a thick and thin yarn and then knitted this one night just for kicks. The colors remind me of play dough when it gets all squished together. I wanted to make a little pouch or something for the kids, but I didn’t have enough yarn so I made an over-sized pot-holder/trivet thing. I felted it for extra insulation.

These were the veggies I knitted for the kids play kitchen.

The gnomes that I tucked in the top of the boys’ stockings.

Iain’s pencil case. I didn’t have enough of any one, or two pieces of felt, so it ended up very patchy and kind of funky as I was half asleep while sewing it.