Lightbox and Socks

I live in the Pacific Northwest and anyone who has been here for any length of time knows that sunny days are few and far between. For a knitter and now doll enthusiast getting the right light to take photos is almost impossible during the fall-winter-spring and even summer sun can be challenging with too many shadows and colour distortion. A while ago I noticed people on Ravelry talking about taking photos in a homemade light box. I initially dismissed the idea as being too costly and difficult for me to pursue but I kept coming back around after many frustrating photo attempts that ended in dark non-colour accurate pictures. Finally K. and I actually looked up several different websites that offer tips and instructions on how to make a lightbox at home and this is what resulted:

The box is a large moving box K. picked up from a self-storage place. He cut out the sides and top and packing-taped tissue paper over the openings. Inside is a couple of pieces of white poster board from a local drug store. The light is from Lowe's Hardware in Bellingham, WA and has a 100w daylight fluorescent bulb (the light is not on in the picture). All together it took a couple of hours work and under $20. Now it is not as strong as I would like but it does  the job. Eventually we plan on remaking it with sturdier materials.

Here's a photo of the Wollmeise socks I finished this week:

The colour is fairly accurate and true to life. Pretty good considering I took this shot in my basement utility room with absolutely no natural light coming in! I urge anyone who takes a lot of yarn/project photos to seriously consider making one of these boxes up. Its not hard and the results are great. I think the biggest problem we had was where to put the darn thing so that the cats wouldn't trash it!

BTW: The socks are made from Wollmeise 80/20 twin in "Aurora". Knitting these was a weird experience. The colours are amazing but the yarn itself is hard and inelastic. It is also a bit thicker than most other sock yarns so I had to compensate with my stitch count. The yardage is awesome, though. This is pair is sized as a man's large and I still had about 20-25 grams left over. It will be interesting to see how it wears next fall.

Japanese Barbies

Yesterday we went across the border into Bellingham, WA like we do 2-3 times a month for general shopping and lunch. We hit all the usual places like JoAnn's and Target as well as some cool little specialty shops. I like shopping in the States, especially for craft supplies, because the selection is better and often the prices are way cheaper for the same products. In amidst all this I commented to K. that all I needed to find was a $5 Kenner and my list would be complete, ha ha. Well we didn't find a vintage Blythe doll but we did come across these little beauties in an antique mall:

These are actual Barbies (branded) made by Takara in Japan during the early '80s. It seems that Mattel had an agreement that lasted only a few years with Takara to produce these dolls exclusively for the Asian market. I can honestly say I have never seen anything like them. Both are still in the box and, apparently, very collectible. They must be pretty rare, too, because a quick search on Ebay found almost none to compare them to.

I love their weird anime-esque eyes..so unlike anything produced in North America. As much as I like them, though, I like Blythe dolls better so I am probably going to sell them and put the funds towards a new dolly from my wish list.

Still, though, what a bizarre and awesome find!

Dolly Sweatshop

Charlotte and Emily have been working their little plastic fingers to the bone lately to bring some new dresses to my shop!

Phew! After a day of hard work they have five beautiful dresses available for purchase! Better get them quick before the girls change their minds and keep them, lol!

Suburban Wildlife

Wild creatures outside:

And inside:

Ugly Socks

I knit a lot of socks out of a wide variety of sock yarn brands. Every once in a while I am surprised at how the patterning on the sock looks compared to the original ball of yarn. Most of the time this is a pleasant surprise..like with Lorna's Laces for example. When this happens I am pleased and the project takes on a new, happy dimension. Sometimes, though, this happens:

The yarn looked pretty enough in the ball..cheery shades of pink, red, and a blast of lime green. But somehow it just doesn't work in real life. In fact it sucks, big time. So why did I finish them when the mantra of knitters everywhere seems to be "life's too short to knit something you hate"? Well, to be honest, I have pretty severe depression at times and it has been really kicking my butt this year. My knitting mojo is pretty much extinct and finished projects are few and far between. So I'll take what I can get and be happy for it. Better luck next time.

Fortunately for me I found a partially completed sock in my drawer and finished off the first one of the pair:

It is the fabled Wollmeise in a very bright orange/red combo for K. I don't even know why it was in time-out but its free now and hopefully its partner will make an appearance before too long.

Finishing up some socks has inspired me to make some more dolly goodies for my etsy shop too. Not much..just a couple of pixie bonnets..but, again, I'll take my victories where I can get them.

Eye Surgery

Every time I get a new Blythe doll I always say to myself "she would look so awesome with XX eyecolor". But I have never had the cahones to actually rip out the stock eye chips and replace them even in the face of thousands of Blythe fans changing theirs with impunity. Well no more! I finally ordered some chippies from Cool Cat with the aim to suck it up and catch up to all the cool kids. Luckily for me Cricket graciously volunteered to be the first patient:

After much hemming and hawing I decided to go with the glue stick method that is detailed on several different customization tutorial sites. I was quite surprised at how un-gentle you actually have to be to make this process a success. At first I was extra cautious and hesitant about even sticking the glue stick to her eye but I quickly learned (after 3 tries) that not only do you have to leave it on for what seems like forever but you also have to yank really hard to get those orange demon eyes out! Then you have to really get in there to remove the excess old glue from the socket. Again no task for the gentle touch. Once I finished up the prep and popped the new chips in Cricket was so much happier (and I think secretly relieved to be finished with my hesitant fussing):

I'm pretty happy with the finished results so I am eager to take on the challenge of changing the side chips with a pretty moss green pair. I also have a darker amber pair for the other front facing ones. Wish me luck!

There's a New Girl in Town

Well. Its certainly been a while, hasn't it? I'm not dead nor have I been abducted by aliens. Life has just gotten in the way of things like it has an annoying habit of doing. There have been far too many little changes and not nearly enough big ones to warrant boring you with the details. But I'm back now...and I brought some friends:

I got bitten by the Blythe bug just over a year ago and it has been a crazy ride ever since! I started out thinking that I would get just one and that was it. Ha ha...soon another girl came knocking on my door, then another, and another..you get the idea. Once I started buying clothes and accessories I quickly realized that this is an endlessly entertaining and also endlessly expensive hobby. So I started up my own Etsy account to sell some of my hand made dolly creations in order to hopefully fund some of the ongoing madness!

I expect the focus of this blog will continue to be about knitting, kids and pets. But expect a pretty high dose of Blythe goodness sprinkled in, too.