knitting – Yards of Happiness

Stitching Status: Color Inspiration

I’ve talked about my love of color here extensively but what I haven’t talked about is my fear of colorwork. Stranded, fair isle, intarsia…it’s all greek to me but as I see more and more colorful patterns I love I am realizing I need to get over my fears and get to learning!

7bb2397d-2a02-41e7-80dc-2428f15801ba — Left image via Vogue.com and Right image via Ravelry.com

On the left is a lovely knit suit from the Prada Fall 2017 Ready to Wear Collection. I saw another version of it in one of the September issues and it made me remember the Ravelry pattern on the right. The Shuffle Kimono and the Sunset Sails Jacket are both free patterns from Rowan that fill my color loving heart with joy and my knitting hands with fear. But this is my ultimate knit that will take some time to work up to but I’ve promised myself it will get knit.

Do any of you have knitting fears? Or projects you’re waiting until you’ve perfected a technique?

August 14, 2017August 14, 2017 by IamDWJ Categories: Color, Knitting, multi, Stitching Status, Wish ListTags: #yardsofhappiness, Color, colorful knits, colorwork, knitting, Prada Fall 2017 knits, Yarn 16 Comments

FO: Dolls and Diversity

While I was in Chicago I got the chance to finally meet up with an online friend in person. I’ve known my girlfriend Pem since back in my old blogging days. She worked for a brand I loved and we just clicked so we’ve always emailed and kept in touch via social media. She has two children and one day I saw a picture of her daughter holding a doll that looked nothing like her and I said to myself that I needed to make Leia a doll that mirrored what she saw in herself.

I made what is now affectionately known as Little Leia. This is the same doll pattern from the Susan B. Anderson Mary, Millie and Morgan doll I made previously for Maddie. I ordered the Knit Picks Brava Sport in the color almond to get a skin color close to Leia’s and when I did her hair I decided to cut it in a choppy little bob to mimick her own haircut.
Little Leia
For the record, growing up all the dolls in our home were black. These are my sister’s Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls (my sister’s name is Anne so clearly she had to have an Ann doll).
Durham
I didn’t even know Raggedy Ann and Andy were white until I saw a cartoon version of them and I thought, well that’s odd because our Ann and Andy are brown at home. That’s also how I felt about non-black Santa Clauses LOL. My mother believed that the dolls you play with should look like you and they should. I’ve taken that to heart and love making dolls when I can for friends. Seeing yourself in everyday things makes you feel more like you belong, like you’re the norm. And sadly in 2017 we still don’t have as much diversity in our products and mainstream culture as we should.
Untitled
So here’s Leia with the death grip on her doll. She was so excited. And here’s the great thing about when I gave her the doll, she looked at it and said, ‘that’s me!’ with such excitement and joy it made my heart want to explode. She pointed everything out to me and said, ‘that’s my hair, those are my eyes, that’s my button nose…’ She knew that doll was meant for her and Pem told me that when we left and they went to a museum later she told everyone that was her little Leia and fell asleep clutching her doll.

I can’t make a doll for everyone but I’m happy that I can make some of the little girls in my life dolls that show them how beautiful and special they really are in this world. Diversity matters. Representation in the world matters. And sometimes all it takes is seeing the joy in giving a little girl a doll to realize it.

August 9, 2017August 9, 2017 by IamDWJ Categories: Caron, Cascade, Color, FO: Finished Object, Knit Picks, Knitting, Things That Bring Me Joy, Toys, YarnTags: #yardsofhappiness, diversity matters, knit dolls, knit toys, knitting, Yarn 16 Comments

FO: Lucia for Safia

I’ve got not one but two good finished object posts for you this week! And since I didn’t write on Friday because I was in Chicago I thought I’d start off the week with the sweater I finished for her while I was in Chicago.

This is my three color Lucia Hoodie for Safia.

This silly girl gave me every single pose in the book when I asked her to pose for photographs. I will admit it was fun photographing someone other than myself who was willing to pose.

The original version of the sweater was done in one solid color but because I am me I knew I couldn’t do that. Plus I knew I’d be just short of the yardage I needed for the entire sweater if I did it just in the solid purple. I bought this Lion Brand Heartland yarn in purple and pink on a black Friday sale with Safia in mind last year but just hadn’t figured out exactly what I wanted to make her. Her favorite color is purple and I wanted to make her something that would be good all year round in Chicago so I settled on the Lucia hoodie. My only modifications were to shorten the sleeves and add more buttons. The pattern called for the sleeves to be 18 inches long when you attach them at the underarm but I know her arms are only 16 1/2 so I stopped at that length and it’s a perfect fit.

I also knew a single button wasn’t going to do against cold Chicago wind, so I added five so she could keep out the chill and button it all the way up. Mind you it was in the sixties while we were in Chicago and I had to wear my Royally Striped cardigan because I was cold! I brought it with me to wear in the car because my husband always wants it way colder than I do but it came in handy while we were running around outside. We drove to Chicago so by the time we arrived on Thursday I had finished all of the body and just had to do the final garter button band – that took forever. And I added in just a few rows of teal to give an extra pop of color. Plus that’s the color on the inside of the pockets so it was fun to add another color to this project.

In the end, I love the final results. It’s a great trio of colors that really pop against her skin. If you like bottom up sweaters and don’t mind a lot of garter stitch this might be the project for you!