Teardrop Scarf Errata

I ran into some inconsistancies in the teardrop scarf pattern, so I emailed the author, Celeste Culpepper. It turns out that the magazine misprinted a couple of rows. Ms. Culpepper very kindly gave me permission to distribute the corrections, so I'm passing them on here.

• Rows 8 and 24 end with last 11 stitches: k10, place bead on last stitch.
  
• Row 16 ends with last 18 stitches: k17, place bead on last stitch.

Historical Dolls, Part 2

Today I'll be sharing photos of antique china and parian fashion dolls from the Enchanted World Doll Museum in Mitchell, South Dakota. The first is a pink luster 1840's lady with a "covered wagon" hairstyle and a sweet face. Her striped dress has pagoda sleeves over lace-trimmed undersleeves.

This all-original doll dates from the 1870's. Her silk skirt has become shredded over time, a common occurence with antique silks due to the metallic salts that were often used to add body to the fabric.

This is one of many vignettes in the museum. Perhaps these ladies in their bustle gowns are getting all dressed up to go calling on friends.

The last doll is a mechanical doll with a music-box built in. Some little girl probably really treasured this doll, but I think, then as now, that it's more fun to play with a doll that doesn't do anything. That's when the imagination can take over.

Historical Dolls, Part 1

From time to time, I'll post photos from my 2005 trip to the Enchanted World Doll Museum in Mitchell, South Dakota. Today's theme is black dolls. These dolls were photographed through glass, no flash allowed, so please pardon the occasional reflections or blurriness you see in the photos. Click on each photo to see a larger version.

Unfortunately, most of the dolls at the museum are not identified. My only complaint about this lovely museum is that there's so little in the way of interpretive material. Perhaps some of you who are knowledgeable about this topic will be able to comment.


Above, two small babies. The one on the left is labeled as a "Sun Babe" by the Sun Rubber Company, an Ohio manufacturer that produced dolls from the 20's to the 50's. Notice that she's holding a tiny doll of her own.

This doll has a beautifully molded face and an exquisite outfit, complete with earrings. However, the unrealistic shade of pink used on the lips is somewhat distracting. Too-pink or too-red lips were a frequent feature of black dolls from this period. Below is another view of the same doll, this time with her baby in its pram. Sorry about all those reflections in the window!



Here is a 12" vinyl (Barbie scale) Hattie MacDaniel as Mammy from Gone With the Wind, a role for which she won an Oscar in 1940. Recently, she was honored with a postage stamp bearing a likeness of McDaniel in the dress she wore to the Academy Awards.

Starting the Teardrop Scarf

I cast on this weekend for the Knitscene teardrop scarf, which my husband refers to as a "spider web scarf" because of its lacy pointed ends. I didn't do a gauge swatch because finished size wasn't all that important for me. The pattern seems pretty straighforward, but I made a couple of mistakes early on before I caught the rhythm of the yarnovers. I've decided to treat my first efforts as a combined trial run/gauge swatch. Here are my observations:

The design, which is knit sideways, is very well thought out.

• For one thing, it's garter stitch. No purling involved.
  
• For another, all yarnovers are worked at the beginning of the row so you don't have to worry about where to start the pattern on the far end of the scarf.
  
• Beads are attached as you go, by using a bit of thin flexible wire to hook an existing stitch into the bead hole. This certainly beats stringing them in advance and pushing a hundred beads, more or less, along several hundred yards of yarn as you work.
  
• The pattern won't suffer from accidently casting on a stitch more or less than called for. Since all the fancywork happens at the beginning of a row, you can easily adapt the total length however you want by adding or subtracting stitches. Ideally you'll cast on an even number, but if you cast on an odd number, you can correct for this on the first all-yarnover row by substituing a simple k1 for one of the k2tog's. In fact, by switching yarns and needles, and by changing the total number of rows or stitches, you could easily miniaturize this pattern into a doll stole with lace-weight yarn, or enlarge it into a stole for yourself with a worsted-weight mohair and large needles.

On the down side, each row begins with a yarnover. If you don't form the yarnover correctly, it will combine with the next stitch you knit, messing up both your lace pattern and your stitch count. Be very careful that the beginning yarnover is a distinct, separate stitch! This has the potential to cause a lot of grief to a knitter who isn't being careful.

I did a long-tail cast-on with needles a size larger than I used for knitting. The cast-on still seemed too tight, so next time around I'll go up two sizes for that part.

By the way, my copy of The Principles of Knitting is now on eBay, with an opening bid of $170 (no reserve). If you've been wanting this book but were put off by the super-high ending bids it used to bring, here's your chance to own it for under $200.

In Case Knitting Isn't Exciting Enough By Itself...

...you can try Sock Wars. The object of the game is to finish knitting a pair of socks before you get "assasinated", which occurs via the arrival of a pair of socks from a rival knitter... or something like that. I'm not sure I understand the rules. But you can read about it here:

• Killer Knitting
  

Vent

Someone has said, with great accuracy, that the Internet is the world's largest copy machine. So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to see one of my photographs on someone else's site--but I was surprised anyway.


I've discovered this photograph from my Tiny Sewing Notions Page on a couple of different websites. One was a list of links (and at least they included a link to my site). Another was in the index of a French Barbie pattern site. If they had bothered to ask first, I probably would've been so flattered that I'd have granted any reasonable request. As it is, I end up feeling annoyed. Whatever happened to old-fashioned courtesy? Or am I being naive to expect that on the Internet?

In the News: Mama Bears

Amy Tyler, of Katy TX, honors her grandmother's memory by spearheading a drive to knit teddy bears for Alzheimer's patients. The article is here:

• Business Calling on All Mama Bears

And Amy's blog entry on the subject is here:

• Charity Knitting - Peggy's Bear