Dreams...

 

I took this picture sometime last year as the sun was setting in and the light was just perfect. When I look at this image it evokes a dreamy world of endless possibilities. It also reminds me of my last year e-book project Baba Yaga's House a whimsical collection of knitting patterns, recipes, and images. 

This month knit-a-long is all about small and fun projects that can be knit up quick and used as a small whimsical decoration for Halloween, like this broomstick:

...or maybe an eyeball or two, or a whole jar of them, or an eyeball coaster:

Patterns links:

Baba Yaga's House

Broomstick

Deadline Morning Coaster

Eyeballs

My plan was to sent out my first newsletter last month, but the computer decided to stop working and took a long spa vacation at the hands of a computer specialist. After the unplanned break things are getting back to normal and hopefully the first newsletter will go out sometime this month. Don't forget to sign up for it here on my website:

Stana's Critters Etc 

Thank you for visiting and reading.

Bernie's Doll

 

Remember how in January of 2021 Bernie Sanders and his knitted mittens were all over the Internet? 
In a sense it feels such a long time ago, yet it's less then five months ago. 

This knitted Bernie’s doll is inspired by the images I have seen. I started to work on this doll at the end of January, see my first blog post about it here: Work in progress - Bernie's doll  Somehow to knit this doll took much longer then usually, see my March work in progress blog post with a picture of still unfinished Bernie's doll. But in the end I have finished the doll sometimes at the end of March, Work in progress blog post from the beginning of April finally have a finished Bernie's doll picture. 

It took almost equally long to type up the pattern into a PDF file from my handwritten notes. You can see that part of work in progress in the picture bellow. 

Finally, the pattern is available to all, and it's free, my gift to you. You can get it by visiting my Ravelry designer page: My designs or you can download it from Ravelry by clicking on the download now link  bellow. At some point in the next week I will add the pattern to Lovecraft website as well. 

download now

The doll is knit in worsted weight yarn and it uses several knitting techniques: knit in the round, increases, decreases, I-cord, short rows, Grafting (Kitchener stitch), Bobbles, Loop Stitch, stranded colorwork and stripes.

I have to say that my knitted dolls designs have been improving over the years as I try to get more realistic and 3D appeal to them. In the pictures bellow you can see how the dolls have changed from my first doll designs to the latest by using a variety of knitting techniques and adding the clothes as separate layers instead of knitting them as the part of the dolls.  It started with the Man with the Yellow Hat, through the Spider Man, Iron Man, Batman and Robin, Pat and Mat, Luki's doll, Baba Yaga, and now Bernie's doll.

All of the dolls, except Baba Yaga are available as free patterns. There is no pattern for Luki's doll as that was a very special design for one boy based on his drawing. 

See all the toys in the pictures bellow. 

Thank you for visiting.