Better Late Than Never!

I didn't realize it's been over 5 months since I updated my crochet blog! So without further adieu, let's start with the Barbie I completed in May. This is Miss July 1993 from the Annie's Attic Victorian series.

My next project was the elegant 1876 Debutante Ball Gown from Paradise Publications. I decided to make her gown in two shades of sage with a cream underskirt rather than the lavender and white called for in the pattern. As usual, I used my beloved discontinued Opera #10 thread for this gown and the one above.

Then I felt like going back to making a few baby items. I had a large amount on hand of Herrschner's 2-ply Afghan Yarn in pale sage, so I decided to make a baby ghan. This pattern had a 7-inch border of large hearts done in popcorn stitches, which was beautiful, but I decided it would be too tedious and take too long. So I just did the last few rounds of the border, and still ended up with a pretty blankie suitable for a small baby.

I was working on the above afghan at my friend Dianne's house when I realized I had not brought the pattern with me and had gotten to a point where I needed it. So I looked through her many crochet magazines for something I could work on that evening with the same yarn and found a cute little shell stitch baby jacket. It was cute and easy to make. I borrowed the magazine from her so that I could copy the pattern and use it again.

I still had some of the pale sage yarn left after completing the above two projects, so I made a post stitch baby bonnet and booties.

Though I am winding down on making the fancy Barbie gowns due to lack of display space (and a desire to concentrate more on baby items for charity or possible sale), I still had a few dolls I plan to create outfits for, including two Stacies (Barbie's little sister). I knew the "Teatime Party Dress" would work up quickly compared to the more elaborate gowns, so I made it for one of my Stacies.

In my Sept. 2011 entry on this blog, I posted a picture of a "Sweet Pea" ripple dress I made with the #5 pearl cotton the pattern called for, and mentioned that though the dress was fun to make and pretty, I wanted to try making it in yarn in the future. I decided to do just that using the "Cloudsoft" yarn from Herrschners that I'd used for the bonnet and booties pictured at the end of my last entry in March. I love the way this little dress turned out with the "Cloudsoft" yarn. I love this yarn and plan to stock up next time I order from Herrschners, and will also make more of the "Sweet Pea" dresses in the future.

My latest project was the shell and ripple stitch baby jacket and bonnet pictured below. The DK weight yarn is from an eBay seller in China and is an interesting hand washable blend of 40% cashmere, 30% milk fiber and 30% cotton. Though the yarn is soft and nice to work with, and I like this pattern, I feel the shell and ripple stitches don't show up as well as I'd like with the bright variegated yarn. So I'll try this pattern in a solid pastel next time.

The projects I'm working on now will be possible Christmas presents, so that's all I'll say about those for now. I'll post pictures and descriptions of those in December. Thanks for looking!