Once you are a knitter, no one ever wants a book for their birthday. My sister-in-law Kelly is in town with the lovely nieces Savannah and Kamilah, both of whom are celebrating birthdays. I asked Kelly what the lovely girlies would want for their birthdays, and it’s not a book.
Go ahead. You know you want to. I know. It’s no Starmore, it’s not complex lace, it isn’t going to be fibres to die for. As a matter of fact I accept that you all are going to spend the next few days belittling me deeply. I can take it. I’m doing it for love.
My name is Stephanie and I’m going to knit doll clothes. To quote the ever eloquent Curmudgeon, “Bite me”. They are my lovely little nieces and I’m going to knit the stinkin’ doll clothes and I’m going to blog about it. The party is Saturday so it’s going to be a dollie binge, then it’s over. Should you contemplate having a go at me for knitting the stupid little doll clothes please make an attempt to make it witty and entertaining. If you think that this is the worst thing that could happen to a knitter, contemplate this.
Not enough love in the world to get me to knit that one. Damn. Boggles the mind. When Kelly showed me that over coffee this morning, I was so stunned that she had to turn the page to break the spell. There’s something about it. Is it the colour? The gauge? The fact that someone spent hours setting up the shot? Somewhere in the world there is a person who’s job it was to sprinkle the fake snow (which Kelly believes to be sugar) around the Ken-doll, put the little poles in his hands….get the hat just right. Staggering. Whatever the flack is that I’m going to take over the dollie clothes, it could be worse. That could be my job.
Yarn Harlot
Oh, my. I hope your nieces’ dolls are better looking than that! And the Ken-doll sweater — can you imagine trying to get it over his head and arms? There must be velcro somewhere. Yes! That’s the secret! That sweater has no back! It’s all a fake! Hah!
Good luck with the doll clothes. Maybe you could teach your nieces how to make their own? Their hands are smaller and thus better suited to the task. (Says she who crocheted sweaters for a toy cat, teddy bear, and green bendy dinosaur when she was a child, back before I learned that crochet is evil.)
OMG! YOU!…sigh.
That should be a questions mark at the end of YOU!?
Hope this is an April Fools. But, hey, to each his own.
Umm…April Fools?
at least they didn’t want funfur washcloths…
Steph-
Its more likely I’d pity you than make fun of you. To think, you need to waste precious knitting time… time that could be spent on fair isle socks or another lace shawl!
I don’t know why ANY knitter should have any right to pick on you about doll clothes, as I’m sure everyone at some point completes at least one project that they aren’t terribly excited about for someone they love. I, for example, the queen of hating pink, will soon be knitting a pink blanket for a dear friend of mine. Therefore, I wholeheartedly support your doll-clothes effort and look forward to the future blogs. =)
Hey, I am going to defend the knitting of doll clothes. Barbara Walker used Barbie doll outfits as swatches for all those patterns she researched and developed, and has a huge collection. One of my prized possessions is a Barbie doll coat an friend of my mother’s knit for me when I was about 6. I didn’t even know what knitting was, but I thought it was beautiful, and I still have it. I think that coat is what inspired me to become a knitter, myself. It is red, with a “fur” collar, and teeny, tiny stitches. I look at it now and think that she must have been an amazing knitter, and I wish I could see more of her work. Doll clothes can be works of art, take little yarn and time, and can allow you to express lots of ideas. I know that you can do amazing things with this outlet for your creativity! Go for it, and I can’t wait to see what you come up with.
There’s something rather disturbing about this picture, other than just the sweater. Something about the biomechanics of Ken’s position and the way his right wrist sticks out weird and funky-like.
The sweater and the hat? Maybe in a different colour and on a really hot lookin’ snowboardin’ Ken. Are thoes supposed to be fleur-de-lis on the front???
oh yes, been there, done that- i think most knitters with daughters/nieces at some point get into the doll clothes thing whether by choice or necessity (read that whining child!)- making the ‘baby doll clothes’ certainly isn’t as annoying as the ones for those ken/barbie type though- sad thing is after making an outfit for ‘bitty baby’ or whatever, you think ‘oh, that was okay’ (you mean fast) and then you make another until you are sitting amidst an entire doll wardrobe either knitted or crocheted (hey, it’s good for some things!) from the same truly hideous skein of yarn that you had decided you could afford to get rid of by making doll things-
don’t let me even get onto the topic of actually sewing barbie clothes- with gathered set in sleeves no less and wee facings for necks- it isn’t something i like to remember-
have fun and your nieces will adore you for doing this-
My personal favorite project was a crocheted Shirley Temple wig for a male doll. It was pretty cool. No hidden statements, just an everpresent sense of irony.
Honestly – you take all the fun out of our making fun of your project choice! Makes me wonder what other deep secrets lie within this project- Is it all done in acrylic? I will admit here- and only here- I LOVE making barbie clothes – but then I also liked the movie GLITTER. Why am I confessing to strangers? 😉
Anything knit for a young girl named Savannah is worth blogging about. But then I am biased as my daughter’s name is also Savannah. Go on, revel in the doll knitting. It really is okay – what it really does is but smiles on little girl’s faces. There can never be anything wrong with that.
Nothing wrong at all with knitting doll clothes. I too have knit (and sewn) my share of Barbie sweaters – alas, my daughter just stretches them to bits to fit onto her beanie babies – so I’ve knit those too. As a child, I begged my non-knitting mother to teach me (she knew how, just hated it, go figure) in order to provide a wardrobe for my collection of trolls. (There, that should date me!). I did, however, find out that sometimes, some people take the doll clothes thing a little too far. In searching for free Barbie knitting patterns, I actually found a pattern for Barbie undewear. Of the pantie kind. I kid you not. The woman’s rationale was that it gets breezy up here in Canada.
Do a goggle on knitted doll clothes, I dare ya. I’m sure you’ll find the underwear.
My mother made clothes for my dolls when I was little. I’m quite sure she wasn’t fond of it, but I remember how bowled over I was. I think that’s my earliest memory of realizing that my mother was incredibly skilled and I could learn cool stuff from her.
Just think of it. In 20 years, they’ll be talking about their Aunt Stephanie and how awesome she was/is. It’s all worth it.
(of course, maybe they’ll ask you to make clothes for their kids’ dolls and you should bail while you can)
Upon closer inspection, it looks as though Ken is wearing Lion Brand Homespun Knitted pants! Egads!
My mom knit matching black and white ski sweaters for barbie and ken, for fun, using white angora for the furry collar. She’s still as normal and sane as ever. It was done before I was born and I never got to play with them… She’d probably let me now though.
Knit on! I have made a couple of teddy bear sweaters.
Yes, grownups design Barbie clothes and accessories. Very talented grownups,I must add, having worked at Mattel in the late ’60s. I was a naive, young, long-haired hippie chick, who owned one bra and one pair of shoes (for work), and thought dressing up meant putting on long, dangly earrings. At that time a very elegant, sophisticated woman named Charlotte was the head designer. (I think she’d worked in NY or Hollywood for years and years before that, but don’t really remember.) The department took it all very seriously, with long meetings over choice of shoe color and fabrics. I thought it was hilarious, as all the fabric was fluorescent polyester or something metallic more suited to bondage themes. I kept asking them if I could design a Flower Child Barbie, but they fired me instead. They seemed to think I wouldn’t fit in. When I got a little older I used the memory of Charlotte as my fashion guide. Classic and cool, she owned the most gorgeous, long double string of natural gray pearls. I will go to my grave desiring those pearls. Knit away, Stephanie, and may your fashions be guided by the spirit of Charlotte.
Call me crazy, or just brainwashed by my three very little girls, but I’ve been looking for a cool doll pattern to knit, so I could design my own doll clothes for it. Knitting a ruffle sounds fun, but I’m guessing it’d get old. Doll clothes seem like a good place to try stuff out in miniature.
I’m interested, if anyone knows where I could find a decent doll pattern. I’ve been pretty discouraged by the freaky stuff I’ve seen out there.
just wondering.Didn’t YOU play with barbie doll when you were a kid,or weren’t they invented then.hehe
And the Lord said: “Blessed are they who knit doll clothes when others will tease and admonish you for you shall be adored in the hearts of children and their mommies.”
There was, for umpteen years, a Barbie Museum here in Palo Alto, CA. Every Barbie (and probably Ken) there ever was, you could go see it. A much celebrated bit of local culture. I never took my daughters there when it was around and when they were little–didn’t want to give them ideas. Not on your life!
Something about that picture is creeping me out really badly. In addition to the weird wrist action. I think it’s the boots. Those white boots are really scary. No wonder Barbie dumped him.
Happens to the everyone sooner or later. I wound up knitting hats and scarves for teddy bears at Christmas. Suck it up; it’ll be over soon 🙂
once you are finished with the doll-clothes-as-presents, you may want to whip something up for your kids voodoo dolls. At least then you won’t be chilly & full of pins!!!
I must hang my head in shame and admit that I too knit doll clothes. Actually all of my swatches become barbie skirts for my nieces. Make a swatch, get all the info I need from it, sew up a seam and toss it in the bag. Still, I feel your pain, I have also been known to knit matching sweaters for my little guy and his fave stuffed toy….
Nothing wrong with doll clothes! I like dolls!
Clothes for the voodoo dolls!?! I had forgottone about those. *skrieking with laughter*
Oh my. Yes, knitting doll clothes carries a lot of baggage with it, no? I have recently been fascinated by miniature knitting, though, and was completely inspired by the woman at http://www.bugknits.com. Go there, you’ll understand. Micro-knitting? There is no magnifying glass powerful enough, I do have a very powerful, almost unbearable attraction (need?) to knit little fair isle things on size 000000 needles. I think it’s Men-In-White-Coats time, care to join me?
*laughing out loud* Those voodoo dolls DEFINITELY need some clothes!! Maybe you can knit up a multi-directional scarf for only one voodoo doll and ask your daughters to choose which doll gets the coveted scarf. (By the way … who did you choose as the lucky recipient of that scarf?)
Hmmm…a project I could actually finish. I wonder how those yummy Rowan sweaters would size down. I think Barbie needs a Audrey sweater.
http://www.keyboardbiologist.net/audrey/
I just went to bugknits and I’m very, very afraid. I once got into a competition with a certain harlot, you see, to see who could make the smallest origami crane. This could get WAY out of hand…
OMG! I think I’d go blind trying to knit one of those BugKnits patterns! They’re beautiful though.
*rofl* I’m still trying to picture the sweater for the “green bendy dinosaur” all the way back from Rana’s comment. I bet that was the cutest thing ever.
Doll clothes + cute nieces = smiles on little girls’ faces, I agree with whoever said it before. You’ll brighten their day. And it’s a new way to expand your knitting horizons – even if you never do it again, you can say you’ve had that experience. And who knows, maybe you’ll like it! I’m almost getting an urge to try it myself, except all my girl cousins are beyond Barbie age, and I don’t think the boys would be interested.
Hello, first time here and wanted to say hi