craft » Loobylu

Old Noey & New Noey

Noey 2005

2005 Noey and 2010 Noey Redux

New Noey in old (washed and pressed) dress

I have just finished working on a special project.

The top photo is Old Noey, first made and sold in February 2005. She was one of my very first batch of kitten softies. After Noey travelled across the sea, she was given to a little girl and was much loved and cuddled – for almost five fabulous years. But after all that cuddling she started to wear thin. Stuffing started to come out and her head had become distorted. There was a little breakfast cereal on her stockings and my hand stitching had started to unravel — so much so there was a fair chance that her head would come off altogether. So Old Noey came back here again for some R & R, special stuffing based chicken soup, and Australian sunshine. She’s had a good holiday and now has roses in her cheeks and a fresh spring in her step. She’s packed her new spare sundress and her journal and she’s heading back to Georgia, USA to little Tess who has been waiting patiently for her return.

Give Away and small knitted hat tutorial

knit2

kni3

I have been making little ornaments for gifts and thought I would share my super simple knitted hat pattern with you. (please use it for personal use and gifts only! Thanks folks).

The little wooden blank dolls are from Winterwood but you can get loads on etsy from sellers such as Goose Greese Undone or Gemmielou. The head diameter of the ones I use is about 2cm.

I use 4 ply sock wool and I like using the variegated stuff (is that what a yarn buff would call it? the Patons stuff is called “Patonyle”) so that I get spontaneous stripes and patterns. My needles are size 2 3/4 (that’s 12 English size and 2 US size apparently!).

So; make a cup of tea, crack out the gingerbread, wield your long skinny needles and…

Cast on 20 stitches

Row 1: Knit 2, purl 2 and repeat until the end of the row

Repeat for two more rows to make the ribbing.

Next row: Knit row

Next row: Purl row

Next row: You will now begin to decrease to make the pointed hat. Knit 2 together and then knit to the end of the row.

Next row: Purl 2 together and then purl to the end of the row.

Repeat until you have one stitch left on your needle. Cast off.

Turn right sides together and sew sides together using row ends, leaving the bottom of the hat open. Turn inside out, using a chop stick or a knitting needle head to push the tip through. Embelish with sequins and beads or with simple embroidered details. Glue it to your little doll’s head.

And now the give away part – I will be making three of these little christmas ornaments to hang on the tree and will give them away to three lucky commenters. All you need to do is leave a (one only) comment (of the creative and eloquent kind – natch!) on this post and I will draw three random numbers out of the hat next week. Comments will be closed on Monday 14th December 2009 7am Australian EST. Thanks! xx

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

Edit to say: Comments now closed! Thank you. I will draw three winners later today.

A birthday present

christinadoll02

christinadoll01

Greetings from Sleep Deprivation Land! Woah – sick kids and no sleep are beginning to get to me… I have tried to edit this post over 24 hours and I just can’t get a nice flow so publish and be damned, I say, and sorry it isn’t more sparkly:

I have just finished this doll to give to a good friend on her big 4-0. I based the idea for this doll on a quick doodle I did last year. She’s a bit more clown-like, but I quite like her. I made up a new pattern using elements of my punkdorf doll pattern (arms and legs – less seam allowance), and a crazy adaptation of my marshamllow rabbits, believe it or not. Her legs are attached with buttons – a technique I learnt from Mimi and her fabulous felt doll tutorial at Purl Bee. Her dress is lifted directly from Fiona’s gorgeous Poppy Doll pattern (such a good pattern!) which was so quick and easy to make that I am looking forward to finding some time to make an actual Poppy doll. I used wool fleece to stuff my doll which was a great choice for something that needed a strong form and not much squish. Even so, I had to stablise her neck with half a paddle pop stick and it still has wrinkles (grr).

Off to have a coffee (my best friend).

Tomorrow we are off to Byron Bay but I am going to auto-publish next week’s What’s Hot and What’s Not on Wednesday so join me then – hopefully the widget works. xx

Painstaking Coraline

I was doing some searches on “doll hair” (because I am making a new doll for the Softies for Mirabel project, are you?) and I found an interview with Suzanne Moulten, head of the hair department on the movie Coraline. It’s pretty cool to think that you might spend you whole working life carefully making beautiful stop-motion hair.

I went on to find another crafty Coraline video – Althea Crome’s tiny knitting. It really is incredible to see such beautiful, tiny knitted pieces.

I spent so much of my childhood making tiny things to fit out my doll’s house. There were hours spent tinkering away at little tissue boxes and christmas puddings with my friend Pia. Pia had the patience and the inspiration (and the endless supply of Liberty scraps) to make the most breathtaking little bits. I just did a web search to see if I could find Pia and HEY there she is! She’s got her own crafty label. Hello Pia – if you ever google yourself and eventually come across this post. Glad to see you are still making.

“When one shrinks a craft or a skill into something so tiny it asks the viewer to imagine how it was done”

Now I am off to make some really tiny jars of cumquat marmalade.

Starry Serenade Redwork Pattern

I’ve been working on my contribution to Kirsty’s Rework Quilt Project and have been enjoying the gentle, repetitive stitching.

I drew up my pattern in Adobe Illustrator so thought it would be easy to write up some accompanying instructions, save it all as a pdf and put it up here as a downloadable embroidery pattern – for you! From me! For freee!

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print off this file, which is available for free here.

The pattern and instructions are copyright and are for personal use only. Please don’t copy and redistribute it, or sell items made from the work. But you know all that. Thank you.

Let me know what you think - I might do some more in the future.

< adverting spot > Don’t forget the prints and rabbits and kokeshi dolls – all available now but selling fast! < / advertising spot >