a tea set knitalong - with dolls and everything!

  

fiesta tea set in Sugar 'n Cream

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The tea party's still going strong, although I think I'm gonna call mine done sans creamer. Who needs cream anyway, right? Just take some more sugar, okay? At tea parties elsewhere, Georgia is all done with her crazy colors tea set and the recipient loved it! Hooray! And Helene, knitter of our fabulous mascot, Miss Muffin, found a couple of finished best friend dolls ready for tea. Here's Hanne's with a wardrobe to die for, and Vaire's with electric blue hair. I love them!

In the pool, Barbara finished her pooling scarf. It's incredible! What an inspiration for some of us who have gotten discouraged. Yes, Virginia, there is pooling! Barbara has posted some details here of how she got her scarf to work for those who are still struggling.

I hope you checked out Eklectika's finished pictures of her linen drape tank. And Laetitia's finished a beautiful tank herself. So purty.

And look, another pair of finished sweat pants! Come on, now that you've seen Melissa's, you gotta admit, they're cool. Okay, and a little ridiculous. But, WE MADE SWEATPANTS! COOL!

And did you see that the new edition of Magknits is out? Gonna be some knitalongs there, I bet! Anyone else gotta have an Ubernatural like me?

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The Olympic medals contest is officially closed. I'll be having the hubby work up some computerized random name/number picker/generator thingy to make selection easier. And I'll post the winners tomorrow!

the tea party

I haven't touched my tea set, but my sure boys have! I've still got the creamer to make, but that doesn't keep them from playing with it now. Of course, their version of playing with the set involves throwing each piece up into the air as far as they can. When asked to put them all back, this is how they left everything.

all cleaned up, mama

In knitalong news, Helene has finished our tea party mascot, Miss Muffin. What a perfect hostess she is, complete with goodies and everything! Jackie has completed her first best friend doll for her tea party. Laura has finished these dolls and another one. I absolutely love these dolls and Laura, you are truly the master!

And now the fiestaware. Julia is working on an exquisite set of vintage looking teacups. Marti's finished her first tea cup. Peggy has a whole stack of teacups done. Christina's made one place setting, another place setting and a creamer (the same piece that I still have to finish!). Lisa has also completed a creamer and cup and saucer. And Gaile's getting started by blocking her first teacup.

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linen drape-along

am I a table mat or am I a tank?

I finally got my linen drape gift pack for resubscribing to the Rowan International club. So many people have gotten theirs and been less than excited at the idea of making a table runner. I was feeling the same way and had planed to use the LD to make a tank of some sort. But then they sent these colors which are perfect for my dining room. Although they would also look good striped in a tank. Now, I'm conflicted.

So how are my linen drapers doing out there? Well, let's see. Eklectica is almost done! Her beautiful purple tank is blocking as we speak. Go check it out! And Monica finished her Flame tank. You have to see the pictures - she looks gorgeous in it! Laetitia has finished the back of her linen drape project. It's got a beautiful lace border. Kyra has posted a pic of her stripey linen drape halter underway. So cool! And Lynn (who was my linen drape trading partner and who just started blogging - you've got to see her great projects!), has finished the back of her gorgeous Salsa cardigan.

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the pool

not quite in the deep end yet

As you can see, I stepped out of the pool for a bit. I ripped, I retried. Now think of me recouperating in a louge chair at poolside. Like Jenn, I wasn't so sure about how the lace pattern was coming out. But, look, she's restarted hers and has convinced me that I should give mine another try as well. She was inspired to restart by the great success of Brynne and Rae, who have beautiful pooling scarves in progress. Poor Peggy is going mad with frustration trying to get her colors to line up. I think all of us in the pool have been there, right?! Hey, Peggy, pull up a chair and join me for a cool refreshing drink. We can dive in again later.

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Man, I love knitalongs! Any other knitalong updates to share with me?

Hey, that's not a creamer!

Whoops, thought maybe I could sneak that in. I guess after making six pieces of the tea set, I've sort of lost my momentum. But look how the boys help out mommy:

"...and one boifday hat for you and one for you..."

Well, now that all evidence of my lack of progress has been hidden by birthday hats, let's move on to the other tea parties out there. Melanie's tea set is complete and has gotten the official seal of approval. Check out the pics - too sweet! Jessica's also finished her set - I love the black tea kettle. Sarah made a bowl for the tea party and is even sharing the pattern with us all! Lisa has finished her first piece, and Teresa has bought her yarn - pretty colors.

Three more pieces to the fiesta tea set.

coffee mug, sugar bowl, and cup & saucer

And let's see how the others are doing.... Melanie is almost done. Laura has finished her first best friend doll and started a second one! Peggy's blocking her first cup. And you have to see Georgia's positively psychedelic set!

Doesn't ava's first sleeve look a little long to you??

uh oh.

Oh yeah, all the way down to the first knuckle on my fingers. So, out it goes. I'll be ripping back to the last increase to shorten it (and narrow it - as long as I'm ripping...). Luckily, I have yet to start the second sleeve, so I can just knit it once to match this one. Once again, sew-as-you-go saves the day! Still, I hate taking out seams and reknitting. Aaaargh!

To cheer myself up, I started another piece of the fiesta tea set. Here's the sugar bowl blocking.

any UVa fans out there?

Finally finished sewing in ends, adding handles, and blocking the first three pieces of the tea set. What a difference those handles made! They're so cute, I almost can't stand to make anymore. But don't worry, I will.

Tea totals so far: Angela has one perfect pink cup. Melanie's just finished a beautiful blue pitcher. Jessica's made a cup and a creamer which perfectly match her real tea set. Ali has enough for tea for one. And fellow Knitsmith, Lisa, is crocheting her set in record time! Helene has finished knitting all the pieces of our mascot, Miss Muffin. And word even has it that Laura has finished a best friend doll with a lovely dress. No pictures on her site yet - let's go beg for pictures!

Some updates for the tea party ladies.

Christine has just posted her pattern for a crocheted version of the fiesta tea set. Her cups and saucers look great and the pattern seems very clear. And I can really imagine that the crochet would be much easier on the hands.

If you're making the best friend dolls, be aware that there is a correction to the pattern.

Now check out Melanie's perfect little orange teacup, Jessica's first teacup blocking on a beer bottle, and the beginnings of Cat's crazy teeny-tiny cup made with thread and size 0000 needles!

Still blocking here:

Maggie.

Oh how lovely the linen drape feels again after all that Sugar 'n Cream on US3's. The back here has turned out a bit small, I think. I did get gauge, but for some reason didn't keep it. Ha ha. My plan is to wash this piece and see what size it is after washing. I'll adjust the numbers for the front depending on whether it shrinks or grows and how much stretch it seems to have, to give me the breathing room I need. I'd hate to lose out on all the promised drapey-ness of the fabric by making the top too snug.

But why is maggie coming to tea? Well, I've found a use for the toilet paper roll from the linen drape balls - it's perfect for blocking the tea kettle of my fiesta tea set!

I'll show you pics of the tea set so far later this week, after blocking and finishing. But first a little more linen drape therapy is in order.

...to a summer tea party knitalong.

Helene's already on board. Go look at the amazing little set she's made! Too cute with the pastries and everything. Her set is from Jean Greenhowe's Little Dumpling Dolls Part One and is a part of Miss Muffin's Tea Shoppe. I'm working on the Fiesta tea set, of course. Any other great patterns out there?

So who else is coming to the tea party?

Update: Jackie's joining the party - check out her tea set so far!

Update: Like me, Laura wants to make the little best friend dolls that Kerstin made (see Kerstin's here). Wouldn't they be perfect guests at the tea party?! Anyone planning on making them, join the tea party.

UPDATE: The Summer 2002 Interweave Knits issue where the Best Friend dolls pattern was published is out of print. No more copies are available from the publisher. Sorry!

I can't stop making this little tea set! I finished another saucer yesterday. I still haven't blocked any of the pieces yet and the cups still need i-cord handles, but all I want to do is start another. I love 'em!

Kerstin asked in the comments yesterday if the pattern wasn't a bit fiddly. Oh yeah, it's fiddly as all get out! There's tons of little increases to make, purling in the round, and then a bi#*ch of an i-cord bind off that takes me hours to do. I know, I know, I usually can't stand fiddly, double-pointed-needle projects, but I can't help it, I'm loving this one. The only thing I don't like is that the pieces are knit tightly so the knitting goes a lot slower. I'm used to having many inches of progress in front of me after an evening of knitting. But with these I'm averaging a day and a half's worth of knitting for each piece. That's a lot when you consider there's still the tea kettle, the sugar bowl, the creamer and more cups and saucers to come. I think each family member should have a cup and saucer, don't you? I saw on craftster.org that someone had modified the pattern to make a coffee mug - I may have to do that for hubby's! Too fun.

And proof that I've completely lost my mind: once I'm done with the tea set, I really want to make one of these little dolls that Kerstin just finished!

I've been looking for some "short knitting" to bring along with me when I take the boys to the playground. Short knitting is the way I think of small, but interesting, portable projects. Like the short game in golf, small projects can be good practice for improving your knitting overall - when the whole project is only a few inches big, it's important to do a good job. They're shorter, not necessarily easier (case in point: the little stuffed giraffe I just finished). Well, we all know that I don't really like knitting socks, so that's out. And the sleeves of ava are pretty boring and will quickly become long, so I'd rather not bring them. As the boys say, "what'da gonna do?"

Annie Modesitt to the rescue! After seeing her Fiesta Tea Set in this summer's Interweave Knits, I knew I'd found some fun, short playground knitting. Here's this week's progress. One saucer and most of a cup.

I just happened to have vaguely Wedgwood-y colors in my little stash of Sugar n Cream (perfect name for yarn to make a tea set, don't you think?!) I made most of the saucer at the playground yesterday. Note: we were at the playground a LONG time. Knitting the worsted weight Sugar n Cream down on US3's goes slow and it's none too good on my fingers, let me tell you. It's like one never-ending Bottoms-Up brim. Oh heck, I'm breaking in summer sandals anyway, what's a few calluses on the fingers!

This little tea set is going to look great on the dining room table. I've had to leave the table bare (no flowers, no vases, no candles, no nothing) because the boys tend to push whatever's on the table on to the floor so they can play with their cars on it. Here's hoping an indestructible tea set will be a good compromise.