From oldie-moldy to fabulous in 10 steps

Had a talk with Lolly from Lolly's Dollhouses and she went through the sequence of steps with me. For any of you doing a fixer-upper dollhouse this might be helpful:
1. Purchase windows to replace broken ones.
2. Adjust window openings to fit. The windows I bought are a bit smaller than the downstairs windows and larger than the current upstairs window openings. So I’ll cut some openings bigger and get wood of the same thickness as the house walls (1/4”) and wood glue it in to make some of the openings smaller.
3. Primer the entire house, inside and out, except for any floors I plan on staining. The primer will be a good base for glueing the siding on without the glue absorbing into the wood. Lolly tried to talk me into doing stucco. She showed me a gorgeous grey mansion she stuccoed with white window trim and navy shutters. All you do is put sand in your paint – very realistic looking. But, I’m attached to the idea of light pink wood siding. One of my siding problems is that the longest piece they sell is 24” and my house is 39” wide. Tim said if I join the siding pieces nicely it will look good. Remains to be seen.
4. Attach unprimered, unpainted siding. Hopefully you have the siding with a groove that lets the top poece lay seamlessly on the one beneath it. If not you can bevel the underside edge with an exacto. There is a magical glue (Beacon Multi grip glue) that must be used for siding. Put the glue on back of siding in a zig-zag fashion. Place on house and mush it around to get the glue evenly spread. Pull the siding away from the house so you have drippy strings of glue hanging in the air. Wait 5 seconds and put back down in permanent place. Lay heavy things on top of it. Primer and paint siding after it is all glued on.
5. Wire the entire house. Because of the thin walls (1/4”) I will need to do 4 smaller metal thingies to carry the current instead of 2 larger ones. The siding must already be on to support the hammering in of the doohickeys. No idea how this all works, but I do have to do all wiring first so that wallpaper goes over it. It’s carried by thin ribbons of metal so you won’t see it under the paint/wallpaper. Even though I won’t have purchased the fixtures by now I should have the wiring go all the way to the location of each light. I also must remember to take a pic of the house all wired so if there is an electrical problem in the future I will know where the lines run. Lolly said it would be about $80 to wire the whole house.
6. Do not put windows in yet. Time to cover the inside walls. Any rooms I wallpaper, the window holes can be razor bladed out so that there is no working around window trim. Also, painting of inside rooms is faster not working around trim.
7. Put in windows.
8. Floors – paint, hardwood, tile, etc.
9. Trim out windows and do optional baseboards, moldings, etc.
10. Furnish

The house has mold!

So, waking up, the morning after ripping off all of the siding, it was really hard to breathe--like I slept in a house full of cats. I had a closer look at the house and on the sides near the bottom there was some white mold. Lolly (from Lolly’s Dollhouses and Miniatures, my local mini store) said if the mold is white or green you are fine, but “if it’s black take it back!” She said to wear gloves and a mask, make a solution of 1 part bleach to 3 parts water and scrub/wipe the entire house with it and then set it in the sun. At least I know that the dolls that used to live there didn’t have a tiny little meth lab in the basement! If white mold is my biggest worry then things are looking up!

The big switcheroo of '09

Dearest fans--all 3 of you :)--you've been with me through thick yarn and sport weight, but I've moved on to a new craft. Dollhouse miniatures! It may sound strange, but I've become obsessed with little things! On Craigslist I found a woman whose mother had a dollhouse custom built for her in Chicago 35 years ago. It was one of those that you are meant to finish--paint the siding, put in the stair rails, install the chimney, etc. She was never really into it, so it sat around for 3 decades. She was selling it in Indiana (a 4 hour drive roundtrip, but totally worth it).

As you can see it is a fixer upper, but it's a HUGE Colonial with spacious interior and so much potential. I figured it was a good place to start instead of trying to build one from scratch. Of course, after ripping off the siding and removing the hot glue from it for hours I'm questioning that decision. Also the builder did the middle window 1/2 inch lower than the other 2 and the downstairs windows are too big to fit shutters on them. Above was a look at the furniture that came with it. A number of good pieces and some items that could use a revamp.

Note half eaten dark chocolate bar in bottom right corner. For emergencies only. Siding in pretty bad shape. Lower right window unable to be saved. TONS of hot glue that had to be scraped off so I can reuse the siding. I'll also have to unwarp a few of the sections. Tim said I could steam them and set heavy things on them. I'll keep you updated.Voila! Siding-free house ready for work. Luckily, the roof and gable windows are in good shape. I can't decide if I want to do some windows on the side. One side will have the chimney and fireplaces in living room and master bedroom. But, what about the other side? At least the upstairs should have a side window, right?

More mitts

Been terrible about posting :(
Love my fingerless mittens so much I needed a couple more pairs. Same pattern as the previous brown ones.

Autumn knits

Lacy Cap Sleeve. I started this at the top using the Barbara Walker method. As I went down I increased by doing a YO near the neck edge every other row (so you get the lacy edge and a nicely shaped neckline). Did some darts at the waist. Loved using the Elsbeth Lavold yarn. My big mistake on this was using a lace pattern for the hem that was written to be knit as a long strip and then to be sewn to the bottom of the tank. Mess! The strip of lace was easy to make; attaching it was the nightmare. It took 3 full times to get the right ratio of pick ups so that it didn’t constrict around the hip area. I want things to hang freely in that area – not hug crazily! I finally got it.

Pattern - my own

Yarn - Elsbeth Lavold Silky Tweed

Needle - size 6

Knit Café book skirt. This is a good pattern - I have no idea why it wasn’t written in the round. I knit it in the round – no lumpy seams on the sides, no extra work when the knitting is done. Oh, I question why someone would write a skirt pattern using 100% cotton yarn – it’s like people don’t think about the fact that you actually have to wear it after knitting. Since I didn’t want the butt to look baggy after sitting, I used a blend with nylon that has an elastic quality. Really enjoyed using this yarn!

Pattern - Knit Cafe

Yarn - Berroco Zen

Needle: size 8 for lace, then 7 for bottom half, then 6 around butt and above

Sparse Summer Knitting

Pattern: Sahara from StitchDiva Studio
Yarn: Berroco Suede and Zen
Needles: size 7

Just a few cute items have made it off the needles this summer. Sahara, knit in the round with Berroco Suede – very fun, easy pattern. Looks good on, except the back of the neck rolls over …hmm. Not sure what to do, except not wear my hair up on Sahara days.

Made a gift for Jackie on her 2nd birthday – Hello Kitty. A very quick knit. I didn’t follow the pattern because it was flat; did it in the round instead. I didn’t want a seam in the back.
Pattern: from generatordesing.com - can't find the site now, email me for it
Yarn: Lion Brand Micro Spun Needles: size 4

Another gift: a Bubar for Grace. He is a distant cousin of the original Bubar; he’s half the size because I used smaller yarn and needles.

Pattern: Kate from Knitty.com

Yarn: KnitPicks Andean Treasure
Needles: size 4

After I gave him to Grace we realized he might have a problem.I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he’s just a social drinker.

Mother's Day

My mom brought me a pic of a flowy low cut cardigan and asked me to make one like it. We went to the A Mano sale and got a bag of Heirloom Breeze in pink – so cute. I did the Barbara Walker method using the Picovoli darts (Grumperina knows her darts!). I didn’t do any increasing on the way down the front (besides the darts). Then I did 2 lace panels that decreased as they got up around the neck line and finishes everything off with a single crochet edge in Crystal Palace Pink. The above pic is at our favorite place for Sunday brunch - Zabies on Ocean Park on Mother's Day. She loved it. She was leaving the next day to model on Alaskan Cruislines and she took it as one of her “favorite pieces”. They actually took photos of her in it on deck, so my sweater might be in a Cruiseline catalogue. Keep your eyes peeled!

Pattern: my own (based on the Barbara Walker info)
Yarn: Heirloom Breeze (12 balls)
Needle: Size 6 (then after increasing with darts I switched to size 7, then 8 around the bottom)

I did another one of those ribbed beanies (in my free pattern section). This time I used Lion Brand Cotton Ease in Charcoal. Flower pin found elsewhere.
Pattern: my own (in my free pattern section)
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease
Needle: size 8

Silk! I went to Sandy, Utah with Tim on a business trip and spent most of the time at an adorable Yarn shop called The Naked Sheep. I bought 2 skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk and made a beret. I had a whole skein left. Then I found the random “Lacy Thong” pattern in the Interweave free patterns online. I was over making practical things. It took me 2 days!
Pattern: http://www.interweaveknits.com/freepatterns/lingerie.asp
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Pure Silk
Needle: Size 5

And here's the "matching" beret. These items are not meant to be worn as an ensemble :)
Pattern: Interweave Knits (Winter 2006)
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Pure Silk
Needle: Size 5