December 30

With less than two days left for 2012, I guess I'd better  conclude my blog posts for the year by summarizing the past few days.

Things got a little tense for me on December 21 as I frantically tried to finish a "Pookie" as a gift for a friend's little girl. I was knitting happily when suddenly the power went out, due to a heavy wind storm. Daylight was leaving us, and I could see the handwriting on the wall, so to speak.

I resorted to knitting by candle light as best I could, using the flashlight occasionally to make sure I was following the printed directions correctly.

The doll's clothes got finished in the nick of time. That became a rather stressful issue, too, when I could not for the life of me figure out what was wrong with the short-sleeved cardigan pictured here. I finished the right front with no problem; it was the left front that baffled me by having several stitches too few when I finished it. I googled the pattern and discovered other knitters had had the same problem. One knitter mentioned she'd contacted the pattern designer but never got a reply. What to do?

Finally, with a fresh start the next morning, I discovered the pattern called for decreasing at the beginning of every row of the left front, when in fact the decreases should be for the first four rows only. When I get around to posting this project on Ravelry, I'll mention the error and the solution to it.

So the doll clothes for Haley got finished in time, as did the Pookies.

Christmas morning did just what a Christmas morning is supposed to do in Maine: it snowed! I'd been a little disappointed to see we might have a brown Christmas, but Mother Nature came through for us at the last minute, and it snowed all day.

I immediately hung out one of our favorite gifts: this round-caged feeder for small birds. As you can see, the little birds love it. We've seen 12-15 birds crowding into it at a time, and they've emptied the seed silo in a day, easily.

Violet enjoyed her new clothes for Haley. She received not only the ones from me, but also some from her grandparents, so that doll will now have a hard time deciding what to wear each day.

One morning I was watching the birds at the feeder just in time to see a bird land on the arm, where this top bird is sitting, and suddenly slide down the length of it. I guess there was some unexpected ice covering the arm.

Our friends who gave us this feeder ordered it from Gardener's Supply. My sister, though, said she saw one similar to it in Home Depot or Lowe's, I've forgotten which.

Apparently the small birds love it because they feel protected from the big birds while inside the cage. We've had gold finches, purple finches, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, and others all crowded together in the feeder, having themselves a feeding frenzy.

Another favorite Christmas gift is my chocolate Lab slippers from LL Bean. I put them on in the morning and there they stay unless I go outdoors during the day.

We received more snow yesterday and last night. This could mean we'll get out on our cross-country skis or snowshoes soon. Last winter we didn't use them at all, because we had very little snow.

That's it for 2012. Best wishes to my blogging friends in 2013!

Advice taken!

In my last post I mentioned I had made a couple of doll outfits for our special great niece, Violet. Two of my blogging friends, Linda and Sally urged me to forget, or at least put aside for awhile, the many other things needing to be done as Christmas approaches and concentrate on making a doll's owner happy.

I was immediately reminded of the little blue sweater my mother knitted for my doll when I was sick in bed with the mumps for three weeks as a third-grader. I've never forgotten my mother's doing that for me, sitting by me on the sofa during the long days, knitting away on the doll's sweater.


So I've taken their advice.

But this current little cardigan, currently on my needles, has got to be the final item for "Haley" the doll.

Christmas cards are still waiting to be addressed; gifts are awaiting their wrapping and tags.

It'll all get done.

Meanwhile, I'm having fun.

Getting into the spirit of Christmas, sorta

I thought I was fully into the spirit of Christmas about two weeks ago when I found myself madly Christmas shopping and wrapping gifts.

Then things came to a screeching halt. I have no idea why.

I did force myself to spend about an hour yesterday putting ribbons, bows, and tags on wrapped gifts, but I soon tired of that and promised myself I'd continue the task today.

But I haven't. Yet. And it's 2:30 p.m. already, so I probably won't today.

I haven't even thought about putting up the tree.

And Christmas cards? Haven't addressed a single one, although I do have the cards and stamps on hand.

What I have been doing is knitting doll clothes. When our niece Violet visited a couple of weeks ago, I realized how much she loves clothes for her dolls. That's what she bought, a dress for Haley, when we went to the craft show. Nothing else there, and there were plenty of things there, interested her. It was an outfit for Haley that she badly needed.

Although Haley isn't an official American Girl doll, she is an 18" doll, so that's what matters. I began looking on the internet for knitting patterns for 18" dolls and hit the jackpot.

Elaine Baker's free, easy patterns for 18" dolls are just the ticket, as far as I'm concerned.

I've knitted a blue button-up vest, which was supposed to be a sweater but I ran out of yarn. (This particular pattern is not by Elaine Baker but from Classic Elite Yarns.)

Back to the Baker designs. I've completed a pale beige dress to go under the blue vest and have started a pale green dress to go with the yellow cardigan.

Today I added a little blue flower to the skirt of the beige dress so the outfit would look a bit more "coordinated." One's doll must wear coordinating outfits, for heaven's sake.

And at the same time, my little collection of animals has grown by three but decreased by one. A second Pookie, in raspberry and purple, has joined the group, and two rhinos have also found their way to my house, but one of the baby bunnies, with nappy and blankie, has gone to Virginia to live with a little girl named Phoebe. Phoebe was due December 31 but decided to arrive November 27, much to her parents' and grandparents' surprise.

But what I really need to be doing is decorating the tree, wrapping gifts, and addressing cards. Yikes.