Dying is fun!
I like when the yarn has variation to it.

“How to niddy-noddy,” says Iris, taking apart the device and putting it together.
“How to niddy-noddy,” and I don’t know whether it is a question or a statement.

My previous dye technique involved putting yarn in a pot, dying it,
then spending an extraordinary amount of time untying tangles.
So I* made a niddy-noddy for looping nice hanks.

Nice hanks!
*NOTE: Martin made the niddy-noddy. I told him where to cut the PVC & after he cut it he accidentally put it together. It took all of three seconds. But I took it apart & put it together, so I made it, too. Then I suppose because Iris took it apart & put it together, she made it, too.

(She had already eaten all the mushrooms and sweet potatoes. There was creme brulee for dessert.)
I’m working on making a score of dollies. All their homes have been accounted for in advance. Although I am supposed to be making one per week, I have opted to try the assembly-line method of production. It’s really helpful, because I can refine my technique immediately when I did something I realize I can do better. It’s sort-of like lettering drills that elementary school teachers give their students: practice one thing lots and lots, move on to the next, then string it all together.
“I’ve got all my heads in a row—”

—I think that stems from a duck-hunting metaphor, which is rather morbid when one thinks about it.
“Don’t put all your heads in one basket—”

— I don’t know if that one’s any better.
I hired some Quebecois to do yard work.

After doing a bit of digging, they set a whole bunch of stuff on fire,

then they stood around to watch it burn.

Iris really took to one of them.

He taught her how to judge a good stick.

But aside from a few more sticks, our yard is a bog.
There is really very little to burn.
Iris, Joshua and Ben hang out on the boardwalk.

They run up and down and up and down and up and down.

Iris makes sure Joshua’s hood stays out of his face as he peers through the cracks with Ben.

Iris: “Eew! Joshua lost his boot!”

Iris: “I’ll get it back to him.”
Ben: “Don’t ask me to help.”

Joshua: “How did all this water get in my boot?”

Sometimes friends are very different people.


I made a dress for Megan! It’s a simple A-line dress that looks good backwards, forwards, & inside out. The shoulders fasten with hook & loop fasteners. I got the cute patterned fabrics from raiding Ari’s awesome fabric stash (Ari: anytime you want to go shopping for cute patterned fabrics because you have nothing better to do, I trust your taste entirely). Mom, purveyor of fine ric-racs and other sundries (happy birthday, Mom!), will be happy to know I finally found an appreciation for the notion. The ric-rac I used is rather large. Because of the way I attach it & do the bottom hem of the dress, I don’t think I could use ric-rac any smaller, which is a shame, as most of her ric-rac is quite a bit smaller. There’s some fine stitching detail on the green side that is not on the colorful side, which I’m proud of. The greatest difficulty in sewing the dress came in getting the correct tension on my Bernina, which is odd, because it was supposed to have been set by a professional. I just can’t seem to get the bobbin tension tight enough.

Iris got some skates.
Our incredibly wet yard has become the perfect toddler skating rink.




I have been spending a lot of time working on dolls & very little time photographing my family. So here we are. I really like this doll. She’s all my own design. She sits & stands & holds a paintbrush. I’m working on designing a very simple upscale doll for the toddler set. This shouldn’t be too hard, as there are plenty out there, but I want it to look as good naked as it does dressed. I was having issues with shoulder design and issues getting a nice tight seamless neck & chin, both which I’ve solved here. Her body is a very thick cotton knit & she’s stuffed with organic wool & her hair is all sorts of wool. I have some tweaking to do with the pattern— I think I want to make her legs get wider toward the bottom— but I’m pretty happy.

I’m really horrid at clothing design. I designed this little reversible A-line dress for her. This one is just made out of an old sheet, for which reason she looks like she’s wearing an old sheet, but it turned out nicer than it looks in the photos. Although I’m tempted to make it slightly more form-fitting, I think it would make it too hard for little hands to dress her. The dress will attach at the shoulders with velcro and it will look good forwards, backwards, and inside out.
