New Doll

Said back in January I was going to get back to designing. I just finished a new doll. Her name is Daisy. She was fun to make and started me thinking about some other toys I would like to design. While I am mulling over the possibilities I have started a knitted blouse for our daughter. She is on oxygen therapy and the strap that holds her mobile unit tears the buttons off her blouses. Solution? Make a pull over, scoop neck, short sleeve sweater in yarn light enough that it can be worn as a blouse. Meanwhile here is Daisy's picture. The pattern is available in both my Ravelry and Etsy shops.

Ruffled Scarf Solution

Had a great Christmas at our oldest daughter's home. While there our daughter, who has to be on oxygen, mentioned she could not wear a necklace or earrings because of the cannula feeding oxygen to her. She said she was tired of looking so drab when they went out and thought a pretty scarf would help. It seems many of the women in her community were wearing the new ruffled scarves. I took that as a hint that should I knit her one she would appreciate it. I ordered several balls of the new ruffled yarns and while waiting for delivery watched some videos on how to knit it. Appeared to be a snap, and when it came I opened the yarn with eager anticipation. I got out the recomended needles and began knitting. All the loops soon slipped off the needle. If you have not tried this, when the loops slip off the needle the entire scarf immediately unravels. I started over, got about 3 inches done and all the stitches slipped of the needle again. Wait a minute. This was highly touted by the yarn companies as easy. After repeated attempts I gave up. I thought about a possible solution, and here is what I came up with, a latch hook.

Here is how I made a very nice, flouncy scarf. Using the latch hook I picked up 10 loops, you can pick up as many as you want, then I picked up 1 more loop and making sure that loop was under the hook and the latch was closed I drew it gently through the 10 previous loops. Then I picked up 10 more loops , the one still on the hook made the 11 I needed, and again making sure the 11th stitch was under the hook and the latch closed drew it through the loops on the hook. I continued this way until there was just enough yarn to finish and finished as the yarn company advises. Gently pull the ruffles and arrange them. Give your scarf a good shake and it is ready to wear. This method is so easy and fast you can make a scarf in about half an hour once you get the hang of it. And a tip. Clip a clothes pin on your latch hook when laying it down. This will trap any loops on the hook keeping them from sliding off... .