Autumn's Pink Blanket

I love a pattern I have for a round garter stitch knit blanket. I have made four of them for four out of my five grandchildren. My oldest granddaughter Autumn, soon to be six, never got one. When I questioned her mom, my daughter, if Autumn would like one her mom said – and I quote exactly – "Autumn could give a rat's a** about blankies." Well – OK, then – guess I will not invest my time making her one. But then I felt guilty. She should have one whether she wanted it or not. In writing this post I searched for a "waste of time" image and came across a poster that quips "Love is a Waste of Time" and I thought, "What better way to waste my time?" Instead I found this graphic I like much better. (The clever heart with yarn image is from Smithsonian Associates.)

Then my daughter let slip that Autumn was curled up under her brother Isaiah's blanket. That clinched it. I was most definitely compelled to make Autumn one and I just completed it in two tones of pink. Twelve wedges form a circle and each one takes about two hours or less to knit. It uses two strands of worsted with yarn and size 10½ straight needles. This is not a huge time investment nor a complicated pattern. It is a methodic, yoga-like activity that is much more productive than say playing solitaire on the computer or web surfing. I chose a pale "pink" and a medium "candy pink" for Autumn's blanket. How wrong can you go with pink for a young girl?

The Snuggly Wuggly™ Yarn by Loops & Threads® comes from Michael's in 5oz/141g skeins. I used less than three skeins of each color. The entire blanket, with doubled yarn, takes less than 30 oz. One skein pair of light and dark completes four wedges and lasts part way into a fifth wedge. See four completed wedges in the next photo.

The darker color typically runs out of yardage first. Hmmm... is this chance or does dark dye weigh more so there is less yardage? See how much more of the pale I have?

In the fifth wedge, I was able to complete up to the row where 52 stitches had been knitted and 18 stitches remained to be worked. I've repeated the instructions below:

• Cast on 70.
• Knit 2 (toward center), TURN, knit back over those 2 (toward outer edge).
• Knit 4 (toward center), TURN, knit back over those 4 (toward outer edge).
• Knit 6(toward center), TURN, knit back over those 6 (toward outer edge).
• Can you see a wedge developing?
• Continue this way. Two short rows of 8, then 10, then 12, then 14, etc. up to 70.
• Once you've knitted across 70 stitches, turned, and knitted back you've finished the first wedge.
• Do 12 wedges and you have finished your blanket. Just sew your last row to your first cast on row.

Once I completed the blanket, the leftover yarn was 1.85 oz pale "pink" and 1.95 oz medium "candy pink".

Finished, the blanket measured about ~48" to ~50". Here it is plopped on the floor with out making much effort to spread it out. The metal tape measure shown for scale in the photo is locked in at 4 feet.

I love how this combination of yarn and needle size drapes to make a truly cuddly blankie.

I kept a history of my other color combinations. The top row of three is for my son's three children and the bottom row of two is for my daughter's two children. The first two for Vivian and Lillian were made with two strands of a variegated yarn. With two strands of the same variegation, the look is a bit more muted because the colors from the two strands do not align with each other. The last three were knit with two strands of solid yarn. This combination gives a more tweedy/heather look.

Posts for previous blankets with color callouts, some with back stories and some with poems, are at these links:

• Vivian 12/26/13 a-blankie-for-christmas
• Lillian 3/21/16 circling-blanket-tradition 
• Isaiah 12/17/16 going-in-circles-again 
• William 12/20/17 round-blue-blanket-for-baby-boy

I have not yet decided if I am going to mail it to her in Oklahoma for her mid-October birthday or wait until she comes out to California to visit us at Thanksgiving. I would love to give it to her personally but then it would need to be hauled back in a suitcase, which is often cramped for room. I have time to make up my mind. I will just enjoy looking at it for a while.

A Sewing Lesson with Hansel & Gretel

Hard to believe that my previous post was three weeks ago. It was about completing a set of Goldilocks and the Three Bears stuffed toys before a convening of girl cousins. Here the girls are enjoying those dolls, from left to right, ages 5½, 2, and 4.

Now I have my 4 year old granddaughter Vivian staying with me for a few days. I started a set of Hansel and Gretel dolls, also a Stacy Iest Hsu design, a set I had made a few months ago for her now 5½ year old cousin Autumn and blogged about in my 10/11/17 post. The panel it started from is shown in the next photo. The set has two dolls, a skirt with gathering belt for the girl doll, a small stuffed bear, a smaller stuffed bunny, a blanket, and a pillow.

I made the boy and girl doll first since they are the most difficult to stuff. The Clover Hera marker, a tool I found best for coaxing the stuffing down into the arms and legs, is visible on the far left at Gretel's waistline.

I found that sewing a stitching line across where the limbs join the torso is best accomplished by starting in the center of the leg joint and working back and forth toward each edge. With this approach, the side seams are not askew.

There! A closeup reveals that all four legs are bendable at the hip with side seams exactly where they should be. The process is repeated where the arms join the torso.

I made the skirt/belt and two animal pets but only partially completed the pillow and quilt. I would leave those two items to finish with Vivian when she was here; I prepped them before her arrival by sewing right sides together for the pillow and the quilt, and then turning them right side out. With her on my lap, I planned for her to do the straight line quilting on the doll blanket.

Vivian was quite intent and really concentrated.  I kept my hands over hers to keep her fingers shielded from the needle, so she would not be afraid and I managed the foot speed control, keeping it slow enough she could be in charge of the steering.

I gradually raised my hands once she was comfortable and left her on her own to feed the mini-coverlet under the pressure foot.  I kept reminding her, "Hands real soft, like fluffy clouds," and "No bumps before the toes of the pressure foot" going forward. She soon got the knack of it.

Voila! She was on her own! She stayed on the lines very well needing me only to help with the 90° turning at the edges.

Just look at that grin of success! Perhaps we may have another quilter in the family.

Of course we also went through the requisite "Show and Tell" portion of any completed project. Vivian was very proud.

For the pillow of the set, I left the stuffing of it up to her. 

 She got to decide just how "squishy" she wanted it.

When it came time to stitch up the opening I called her over to my collection of threads and asked her to pick a color. I thought this would be a lesson in matching on my part and that I'd wisely guide her toward the closer of a pale pink like the top or an olive green like the bottom. Nope. She wanted bright pink! Matches nothing. But it is pretty and she likes it. I fought back my urge to persuade her to follow my matchy-matchy disposition and allowed her to express her creativity in contrast. It was a struggle for me but I acquiesced to her choice.

I did point out to her on the girl and boy dolls that if she picked a matching thread color, the whip stitches closing the opening would be "almost invisible".

"But I want them to show," she countered. "I like pink." Her she is enjoying the fruit of our labors.

A bear and pillow closeup reveal their cuteness. I think the bunny had hopped off under a chair at the time of this photo.

Let's face it. They are precious toys and it was a fun, memorable experience making them.

Memories come flooding. When Vivian's dad and aunt (my son Dan and daughter Robin ) were little, I would have them help stuff the Christmas ornaments. I even brought ones I had stitched ahead of time with us on summer vacations and we would turn them and put the batting in during the evenings while winding down for bed. Our 2015 Christmas tree displayed about half the collection over the years. Others were hung in doorways and on curtain rods in windows. It was a very social activity much like the quilting link party Let's Bee Social #239.

Goldilocks and the Five Bears

My two-year old granddaughter was visiting for a week while her dad, my son, worked a local renovation job. It gave us some one on one time which was great. Before she left with her dad to return home to her mom, older 4 year old sister, and younger 3 month old brother, I wanted to whip up a toy for her to take with her. All I managed to eke out was the Goldilocks and Baby Bear from a Stacy Hsu panel. I had no spare time to blog about it. The morning before she left to go home, Lillian, Goldilocks, and Baby Bear intently watched the video Frozen together. I would not have enough free time to sew Mama Bear and Papa Bear until after Lillian left. Hmmm ... can't imagine why... This post is about the remainder of the menagerie, hence the title Goldilocks and the Five Bears.

Lillian and her dad left on a Thursday and on Friday I completed the set. Papa Bear's bow tie is as cute as can be. After its completion, I decided it was well worth the royal pain to manipulate the three tiny pieces that make it up and add a minuscule strip of Velcro.

The designer Stacy Hsu has produced several of these doll type panels. I have bought every one and have made most for my grandchildren: Lil Red - red riding hood (3 times), Coral Queen of the Sea mermaid (3 times), Howdy Lil Lady and Howdy Lil Cowboy (1 pair made, 1 pair pending),  Lil Superheroes (1 pair was enough), Hansel and Gretel dolls (1 pair made, 1 pair pending). This panel is of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. These are not complicated but do not assume you will whip one out in an evening for a gift the next day. Cutting out Goldilocks, each of the bears, and all the clothing took me well over an hour. Sewing, turning, and stuffing the dolls plus hemming and gathering the clothes took about six - eight hours. True, I took breaks, but still making the whole set is a bit time consuming.

My post for March 8, 2016 described my process when I first made these dolls, starting with Lil Red. Turning and stuffing those long slender legs is a challenge but I finally settled on the easiest way for me to do it. My current array of tools has consistently boiled down to these: The turner tongs on the far left work best for roughly turning the dolls right side out after sewing. Tweezers and a hemmer ruler work well for the clothes. The feather shaped white tool, a Dritz point turner and seam creaser, is good for smoothing out the doll seams before stuffing. The paddle end of the white Clover Hera  Marker is great for manipulating the stuffing into the legs and arms. Rotating that paddle puts the stuffing exactly where you want it. Do not be so aggressive though that the point pokes through. I had no accident that way but I could easily see it happening. Also take care not to stab your palm with the pointy end.

A glutton for punishment, I decided that since Lillian and her sister Vivian were going to be visited this weekend by their out of state cousin Autumn, Autumn needed a Goldilocks set also to play with  at the same time and side by side. I used to make a set for each girl but that got tedious and Lillian and Vivian's mom insisted the sisters could share when they played together. My new rule: one set per household not one set per child. I had made three each of the Lil Red and three each of the mermaid but they only had one doll per panel. The cowboy panel pairs and the superheroes panel pairs had two dolls to share. I wanted Autumn's Goldilocks set to be distinguished in some way from her cousins' set. I chose to do an extra line of stitching along the ears of the bears and the hair bun of the doll. This detail is not obvious enough to make the toys different or better, but distinguishable enough to tell whose is whose.

On the removable clothing items I also did an extra line of stitching along the waistlines of the skirts and shorts.

The completed set of four figures looked cute perched along my baseboard outside my sewing room. They lingered there only long enough for me to snap a photo. Then they were unceremoniously stuffed in a box with the other Mama Bear and Papa Bear to be shipped off to Southern California in time for the cousin get together. The girl cousins are 2, 4 and 5½ years old. I had better sew up whatever other panels I have in my stash before they get beyond the playing with dolls age. If they are already beyond that phase, please do not tell me and break my bubble yet.

When I cut out these panels I save the outer edging and some of the illustration from the instructions. You never know when those images would look cute in a doll or baby quilt and the edging might make coordinating sashings or block borders. Linking up to share with Let's Bee Social #236.