A Passion for Purple

My favorite color swap came in. And as you might have guessed. The color was PURPLE!

My swap partner, Anne of AnneArchy, sent me the most wonderful stuff. There were some wonderful crafting materials which I can't wait to break into. As well as two hats, a sweater top and skirt set, and a lovely green and purple sweater. They are all so perfect. She definitely has skills!

This is Betts in the little sweater set... so sophisticated!

And Cheri in the purple and green number

Moonyeen and Wren quickly snatched up the hats for themselves...

...and even little Ivy (yep that's her name now) "borrowed" the gnome's hat and claimed the My Little Pony :)

All in all this was an awesome swap to participate in, I had fun creating and picking out the items to send and I received the most wonderful things! Who would have thought that just color alone would make such a fulfilling theme : )

In the Pink

March's theme for the Blythe swap was favorite color. I knew I had to join in with this one as it seemed like it would be terribly fun, and it was. My swap recipient chose the color baby pink, and here's what I sent...

This is Betts and Moonyeen in an Edwardian tea dress and a kimono respectively.

And the view from the back. I just had to show off the Obi.

And an assortment of very pink things. The pull string bag has many little secret pockets inside and was sewn by my mother-in-law Joan. It was Hello Kitty and baby pink so I thought it would work out nicely for storing shoes and accessories for photo shoots. The pressed penny is from Hawaii, she said she collected pressed pennies so I thought she might like one from the Aloha state. The shoes are MiMi Woo. And the rest is candy, assorted hair chips (note the bunny ears... I couldn't resist!), and some hounds tooth fabric in baby pink for her to play with. I have to say this was a pretty fun swap. With just color as the theme the territory was pretty open. I had a wonderful time of it!

Back from Paradise

Well we're back from the Big Island. Had a really wonderful time in Captain Cook and hanging out in the Kona area. Very fun! As you can see Wren and Cheri got the chance to sport their new swimsuits...

Oh... and here is my mother-in-law's doll Noni. I gave it to her as a gift years ago and I gifted her the houndstooth jacket and bowler hat she's wearing here.

But I think the most exciting thing I did craft wise was working with Joan (my mother-in-law) and finally creating a relatively decent pair of holokuu dresses for the girls, we decided to do a modification of the A line dress featured on pucci collective and we came up with these...

And this is Wren next to a lovely Ohia blossom. sporting one of the little Hawaiian shirts I made.

 And here's Cheri hanging at a little salt and pepper snorkel beach...

But I think the most fun we had was on the black sand beach. Where we had the luck of seeing five (FIVE!) turtles come up onto the beach to sun themselves on the warm sand...

I couldn't get all five into the shot but you get the picture, it was a pretty exciting day.

And thanks to Joan I had use of some fantastic hula props for the pictures...

As you can see Cheri is holding a pair of Pu'ili (a sort of slatted bamboo slap stick) which Joan lent to me, and Wren has next to her a nice 'Uli 'Uli or feathered gourd, which was a gift from Joan. : )

And this was just for fun.




Much love and Aloha to you all. And mahalo to our friends in Hawaii, you made us feel so welcome!

In Celebration of Hawaii...

I've decided to share one of my older patterns in celebration of my upcoming trip to the Big Island. Here is the pattern for my one piece swimsuit for Blythe (been working on a few of these for the trip myself).

For these you have to know how to knit garter stitch in the round and flat, and it's knit in size 10 crochet thread so be aware of that.

If you want to sell finished products made from my patterns you may, but please give me credit as the designer in all listings. The pattern itself is copyrighted and no part of it may be reproduced (by any means) for sale. © Monica Bovee

Using size 10 crochet thread and size 0 needles
Cast 42 stitches on to size 0 double points. Distribute the stitches evenly (if you are using a set of 4 double
points that's 14 stitches per three needles)
1. Purl one round, as you work place a marker at the beginning and 21 stitches in (splitting the round into two
sets of 21 stitches each). You can just use the cast on tail at the beginning as a marker if you like.
2. *k 9 stitches, slip 1, k2tog, psso, knit to marker* Repeat on second set of stitches. (38 stitches remaining)
3. purl the round.
4. *k 8 stitches, slip 1, k2tog, psso, knit to marker* Repeat on second set of stitches. (34 stitches remaining)
5. Purl the round.
6. *k 7 stitches, slip 1, k2tog, psso, knit to marker* Repeat on second set of stitches. (30 stitches remaining)
7. Purl the round
8. k 6 stitches, slip 1, k2tog, psso, knit to marker* Repeat on second set of stitches. (26 stitches remaining)
9. Purl the round.
10. k2tog, k to two stitches before marker, k2tog, k to end (24 stitches remaining)
11. P2tog, p to two stitches before marker, p2tog, purl to end (22 stitches remaining)
12. Repeat row 10 (20 stitches remaining)
Do 11 more rounds in garter stitch starting with a purl row.
24. Bind off 8 stitches. Transfer remaining stitches to a single needle, you will now be working flat. k 5, transfer
the last two knit stitches back on to the left hand needle, drop the 1st of those two stitches that you transferred
over the 2nd, then slip the 2nd stitch back on to the right hand needle. Bind off 1 stitch and then knit the final 4
stitches.
23. K5, cast on 2, k5.
Work in garter stitch for 8 more rows then bind off leaving a long tail. Draw a bit of the same color crochet thread
up though the peephole and tie up the middle section to form the cups for the breasts, then attach two braided
straps to the top corners to tie around the doll's neck. Sew 2 or 3 stitches at the crotch and tie off. Weave in ends.

Enjoy : )

A Bee for Wren...

Finally found the perfect bee charm for wren.

It is now affixed to the back of her Celtic knot charm. I'd been looking for a bee for her ever since I'd finished her and took her outside for her first photo shoot (see older pics). A great big bee sat right on her nose and wouldn't move for several minutes!

She looks a bit frazzled here but I can hardly blame her. Well if some naming ceremony stories are to be believed then when the baby is first brought out of the hut, the first animal it encounters is what its named for to commemorate the event. So the charm finally helps commemorate that. And who knows, since Wren will be one of the girls I'm taking to Hawaii with me ( I haven't chosen the other girl yet) I may just find out what the Hawaiian for bee is and give her a second name or a surname : )

Naming the Green Girl...

Well my nameless girl has successfully had her hair dyed green : )

I still haven't decided what to name her yet... a few names I've been rolling around in my head: Lotus, Ivy, or Envy (as in green with). The color turned out so well I'm looking forward to doing another girl pink or mango : )

The wearing of the green...

I've got a new little petite (no name yet, I bought her strictly for customizing) and I'm dying her hair green...

Please if you can try to ignore my cluttered kitchen. : )

I used the same technique here with the petite's hair that I do with full size Blythes which is as follows...

"Wash the hair first. Use just enough water to submerge the scalp in. Add a pinch of salt, a little laundry detergent and the RIT package. Stir it while it heats up and, when it comes to a good, roiling boil let it sit for another minute or so. If it starts to bubble up, just keep blowing on it.

Then dunk/swirl the hair around until you get the color you want. If you need to, you can heat the water back up on the stove. Rinse until the water runs clear and then wash the hair with dish soap to get all of the excess color out."

These instructions for hair dying were given to me ages ago by a helpful This is Blythe forum member who's name I've long since forgotton, but if you are the one who helped me out and you see this post give me a shout and I'll credit the technique to you straight away. : )

Now when I did this to Wren's hair I removed her scalp entirely so there was no chance of the doll's head getting stained, and for those who don't want to remove the scalp, I understand that a lot of people tape off the doll's "skin" or wrap the doll in Seran wrap before dying the hair to keep the dye off the body. But in the case of this petite I simply dunked her hair in and gently swirled her about in the dye while letting the color wick it's way up to the scalp. It seems to have taken quite well but we shall see...

In the meanwhile...

...a little something to groom her bangs back into place. I have no headband for her of course, but this little fruit band seems to be doing the trick. I'll give an update on how she looks when her hair drys out.