Sisters is really coming together. Last night I finished the dress for Team Pink. I was hoping to get more work done on the toy than I actually did, but it's okay. I was able to start the head for one of the sisters. I'm tempted to frog it and start over because I made some wrong stitches and there are little holes. I hate giving things that aren't right. But I'm going to wait and see how it looks once's it stuffed and finished. I won't cut the yarn and weave in any ends until then. If I'm happy with it at that point, I'll leave it. Otherwise, I'll just frog and start again. The heads are small, so it doesn't take long. I was able to get 1/2 a head done in about 30 minutes (should be faster the next time around). I think these last parts of the dolls will knit up quite fast. They're small parts so there is almost instant gratification.
The most tedious part is going to be finishing. All the small parts to start attaching. I do some finishing work as I go so there isn't so much to do at the end, and it's nice to see the pieces coming together to form the end product!
Last night I spent some time playing with just the dresses. I was folding them inside and out of one another, just to sort of see the mechanics of the toy. It was fun to see how they fit together so nicely, I can understand why both children and adults like to play with these reversible toys. It had me engaged for a few minutes at least, it was just the dresses - no finished dolls! haha
Finally, I thought I would mention my latest discovery. I'm sure more experienced knitters (especially toy knitters) out there have heard of this man, but I found his designs and work after reading through some of the toy knitting threads on Ravelry. Alan Dart is a knit toys designer. His work is so impressively classic and beautiful. To me, his work has a more polished, finished look to it, which I really appreciate. He has patterns that are published in Simply Knitting once a month, that are exclusive to the magazine.
So what did I do? I went on a hunt for this magazine. I was bummed though, when I went to the site and wasn't able to get the magazines shipped to my house. The magazine is out of the UK so it's more expensive to get it here. I could pay an arm and a leg (or at least what I consider to be one) to get the subscription through Amazon.com. I did see that some Barnes & Noble stores carry the magazines. So that'll be something I'll have to keep my eye out for each time I go to the bookstore. Some patterns that Alan has written aren't available any longer because the license has expired and that issue of the magazine is out of print. He has started a website where you can view and purchase some of his patterns, but most all of his older patterns are not available there. I wish I could have found a Wallace & Gromit pattern earlier, and I may have to do some digging for the patterns somewhere because my sister would LOVE these knit up.
So anyway - that's some of my new inspiration. I've already downloaded a couple patterns from Alan's website to try. One is a Tabby Cat, which I'd like to do in Orange for my MIL. Another is an angel that I think my mom will love. The third is Jack Frost from those old kids' Christmas movies that I loved so much when I was little. This one is for me! So once Christmas is past, I think I'll start working on some of these. They'll take me out of the Christmas time knitting, but will keep me going and should be fun to see completed.
I'm always amazed at how vast the world of knitting is. At this point, I never plan on knitting sweaters for myself (maybe for my son) and never socks, but hats and scarves and toys - possibly shawls or something await me in the future - but I certainly don't fear running out of ideas!
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