Hoodies Galore

Been absolutely loving the Blythe hoodie pattern by NxtDrGrrl. I've just knit two more to go along with the orange one I started with...

I used the sock knitters trick of knitting two at the same time to avoid pattern fatigue. One is in a nice self striping wool, and the other is a beautiful sequined blue. I'd run out of the cute little millefiori beads I'd used for buttons on the last one so I used large seed beads on the new hoodies... with I think very good results.

The pearl blue colored ones go particularly well with the icy blue yarn. I will most certainly be making more of these in the future. : )

Happy 50th Doctor!

Sophie... a gift bought for me by my husband at the 1st and only Doctor Who convention I'd ever been to. Now fully restored and with a new pull charm and a 4th Doctor scarf knitted on the day of the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who!

As it's been 50 years I just had to do something to mark the occasion. The scarf was knit all in one day. A quickish knit, but oh so many ends to weave in...

A Little Christmas Treat

You know what your Blythe needs for Christmas? You guessed it! Fruitcake!

 Here's how I made some Blythe sized fruitcake myself (yes I know I'm a bit strange).

First I took some of those polystyrene crystals one gets in the Makit Bakit kits and spread them out on an oven safe surface (Any pan that can go in the oven with a bit of aluminum foil over it will do nicely, I use a ceramic workplate, but that's just me). You'll want to spread these out a bit so they are not touching, otherwise they will do what they are meant to do and glom together, you don't want that, so spread them out like so...

I used mostly red and green to simulate candied cherries, but I also threw in some yellow, black, and brown for pineapple, currents, raisins, ect... Then you pop them in the oven at the recommended temperature about (375 F) and bake them until they soften and turn into little hemispheres, like this...

Then you take them out of the oven and let them cool completely. Remove them from the pan and set them aside. Reduce the oven temperature to that recommended for polymer clay (275 F) and while it gets to the proper temperature you can begin sculpting a cake out of brown polymer clay. Like so...

In this particular picture I'm shaping a bunt cake and removing the center with a plastic straw, but you can just as easily shape it into a loaf or brick fruitcake if you like.

Once you've got the cake shape the way you like it you then take your newly rounded crystals and decorate the top of the cake with them rounded side up...

... and with the flat side sticking outward on the cut side of the cake, (as you see in the pic I cut away some of the cake so the the "fruit" on the inside could be seen). On those vertical edges you place the crystals with the flat side sticking outward so it has that "cut" look. In the case of a loaf cake you'd simply do this on the end of the loaf. Make sure that when you put your crystals in that you sink them far enough that they look aesthetically pleasing but are unlikely to fall out later.

Then bake your cake! The polystyrene crystals will not melt anymore, it's not hot enough for them, but the polymer clay will harden up around them. Remove your cake from the oven and let cool, seal with a matte varnish (this helps seal in the crystals), and viola...

After all WHO doesn't love fruitcake?