Presenting Adam Lee Middleton

It certainly has been a dolly month for me, hasn't it?  First Sasha, then Sachi, and now this doll.  Some months ago Tam had this lovely little boy on her blog and offered him up for a buck plus shipping.  And...well, I've always wanted a Lee Middleton doll so I bought him.  I feel like I strung poor Tam along, to the point of her having to page me on her own blog, but the explanation for that is that I rarely read my email now that I'm not in school.  Either way we got things figured out, and I've got my doll.  Here's my boy, whom I've christened Adam Lee Middleton.

At least Tam thinks he's a boy, and he looks like a boy to me too.  There aren't enough boys in the doll world so Adam he has become.  Tam was a little concerned about some stains on his tushie, but seeing as they're not spreading I see no reason to be too concerned.  They're mold stains, but as long as they're just mold stains and not live mold I'm good.  I can attack those stains with Stain Devils or I can just cover them up with clothes, one or the other.  Just look at his cute face!

Adam's outfit is a newborn-sized getup that I purchased at Wal-Mart, by the way.  The sleeves are a little short and his cloth bits stick out, but I just pretend he's wearing an undershirt.  No biggie!

I send my warmest gratitude to Miss Tam for selling and sending this doll to me, and for holding onto him while it took me forever to respond.  Thank you, Miss Tam.  Your dolly is adorable!

Much love to all,

RagingMoon1987

Hello, Sachiko!

No, not this Sachiko.  I managed to find a Hot Looks Sachi. 

Trust me, this is Sachi, not Stacey.  Sachi and Stacey look a lot alike, but there are ways to tell the two apart.  Sachi comes from the second wave and is thus pretty hard to find.  My doll doesn't have everything; she's missing most of her accessories, and she has some very minor runs in her legs...

...but the rest of her is pretty well intact.  I can probably keep those runs from worsening with a dab of tacky glue.  Anyway, I already have two Hot Looks dolls, both Chelsea, but a perusal of Chelsea's review reveals that one of my Chelsea dolls (C.C., or "Canadian Chelsea") is wearing part of Sachi's stock outfit.

C.C. has politely agreed to hand over her socks and her red bracelet to Sachi now, as she has her own bracelet (which she always had) and her own socks (which she DIDN'T always have).  The belt is also Sachi's, but I let C.C. keep that and tied a bow around Sachi's waist, one that matches her hair bow.  Since Sachi's overall look is supposed to be semi-retro, I chose polka dots.

None of it really matches, but Sachi looks a little more put together now that she's got some headgear.  Heck, no doll of mine is complete without some sort of bow; even Flaxie wears them on her ears!

Such bows are necessary with Flaxie when she wears blue jeans (like she is now), as without them there's no other way to tell that she's a girl.  Anyway, since I now have Hot Looks dolls from both the first and second waves I'm going to do a brief comparison, as there were a few minor differences.  Location was the main difference, as Sachi and her second-wave friends were only available in Canada, but there's no visual evidence of that, LOL!  Hands are the easiest way to tell Wave 1 from Wave 2; I noted in Chelsea's review that the first wave had a separate pinky finger, while the second wave had all the fingers together with only the thumb separate.  Sachi's stitching is not as neat as Chelsea's, but she does have all four fingers!

The other main way to tell is earrings.  Chelsea has disc-shaped studs that accommodate dangles with hooks, while Sachi has hemispherical studs that accommodate a post of sorts.  It's hard to tell from these pictures, but Sachi's studs are significantly bigger than Chelsea's.

The post fits into a hole in the bottom of the stud.  I don't know how well this method of attachment worked, but so few of these dolls from either wave have intact dangles that I'm willing to guess the attachment wasn't a strong one in either case.

One thing that didn't change between waves was faces.  Or they didn't change much.  Chelsea and Sachi appear to have the same mold, as do all the Hot Looks dolls.

BUT...now that I look closer there are some differences in the painting styles.  Sachi's lips appear to be fuller than Chelsea's.

I'll have to admit that I'm not a fan of Sachi's hot pink lips, but then I didn't like Chelsea's orange-tinted lips either.  Do I EVER like the lip color on a doll???  LOL, if I'm not harping about a doll's eyebrows I'm griping about lips!  Speaking of eyebrows, eyebrows are another good way to distinguish Wave 1 from Wave 2.  Sachi's eyebrows are brown and not black like her hair, but black eyebrows can be harsh, so I'll not fuss about that.  More noteworthy is the paint style; Chelsea has some individual hairs painted in, and Sachi does not.

Good way to segue into eyes.  I'll be blunt:  I like Sachi's eye paint better than Chelsea's.  Chelsea's eyes are not ugly by any means, but Sachi's eyes are sharper and have a smidge more detail.  She has a few dashes of visible eyeshadow that doesn't look like bruising (Chelsea's eyeshadow can look a little like bruising under some lights.  I also like that Sachi's eyes are brown.  Brown eyes can look lifeless on a doll, especially if the eyes are inset, but painted brown eyes are less of a gamble.

Hairstyles didn't vary a lot among the Hot Looks, but textures did.  Most of the girls had curly or straight hair, with Chelsea sporting a unique crimped style and feathered bangs.  Sachi's hair is stick-straight with a full set of very curly bangs.

I don't like the bangs on these dolls because they're next to impossible to control, but that's the fault of age, not the dolls themselves.  Very few dolls with bangs make it through the years without their bangs getting at least a little mussed.  I was able to fix Chelsea's and Sachi's bangs even though Sachi's were snarled up in her main hair, but C.C.'s bangs have proven stubborn.

Okay, it's just one segment that wants to pop up, but being OCD it still bugs me.  Likely a spritz with warm water and a night in a cotton sock will get that segment to lie down.  But overall that's it.  I've got three Hot Looks dolls now, and I may add one more (I'm quite fond of Zizi).  Owning Sachi has given me a good idea of how much (how little?) things changed between the first and second waves.  Sometimes quality diminishes as a doll line ages, but...well, for the most part Sachi is just as good as Chelsea is, and in a few ways (the eye paint and the straight hair) she's better.  The stitching on her hands is a little crude, but that's all I have to say against Sachi.  She was worth the search.  Now to find a jukebox for her to lean against; Mama is dead-set on my Hot Looks having a jukebox for some reason.  Sachi's biography does state that she wants to own a jukebox of her own, so that's not a terribly outlandish prop to have for these dolls.  Too bad Maryellen's jukebox is expensive!

Much love,

RagingMoon1987

Eddard and Kirsten

Looks like Kirsten has found a new friend!

This is the cat formerly known as "Sansa," by the way.  He absolutely refused to let me peep under the hood, so I only figured out he's a boy when I gave him a flea bath and forced the issue.  In keeping with the House Stark theme I named him "Eddard," after Arya and Sansa's loving but ill-fated father.  As for Kirsten, she's waiting for the final piece of her winter set to come, hence the reason why she is dressed the way she is at this time of year.  Eddie can't possibly know this, but he looks somewhat like the kitten Kirsten befriended in Happy Birthday, Kirsten!  Indeed, several of Kirsten's books imply that she likes cats, so my doll is right in her element!

Cheers,

RagingMoon1987 

A very special cardigan for a very special doll

Looks like the knitting bug has hit a couple of us bloggers, as Xanadu and I have both been hard at work.  For Xanadu knitting makes sense, as winter is not too far off where she lives (Australia) and her dolls must be warm.  I, however, reside in the U.S. and it's getting rather warm outside (and inside).  So I'm doing what I did a few summers back when it was ridiculously hot, and I'm spending my days with a lapful of stuff to make me even hotter.  Why?  Because clothes for my newest doll are ridiculously expensive!  My new doll is a Sasha doll, whom y'all will see at the end of the post, and she's clad in a white dress, or as I like to call it, a blank slate.  Since Sasha is a nice doll I want the cardigan that she'll be wearing to be a little more special than the items I've made in the past.  Normally I'd buy my needles and a ball of yarn at Hobby Lobby and be done with it, but this time I wanted to get some hand-dyed stuff instead of something mass-produced.  So after a brief search on Etsy I bought this stuff.

This came from the shop AJHCWools, and it's the color "Invidia" from the Mythical Gods collection.  They're small balls, so I ended up getting two.

It was hard to pick a color, y'all!  The doll in question is a redhead, and I love green on redheads, but I also love yellow, purple, and dark blue on redheads.  Since green is my favorite color I went with that.  The fun thing about the Mythical Gods yarn is that all of it is speckled to some extent.

Speckled yarns tend to look a little rustic, and I love that.  The speckling was a little more pronounced on the Zeus and Poseidon yarns, but...well, they were blue, not green.  I love blue, but I want this doll to wear green during the colder months.  By the way, the shop named two shades of yellow after two sun gods (Ra and Helios).  That's clever enough, but it turns out that my yarn was named wisely too, as Invidia was the Greek goddess of envy.  I'd never heard of Invidia before, LOL.

Right then, here's how this went.  I used this pattern, which calls for size 0 needles (size 14 if one lives abroad, or 2 mm, if one utilizes the metric system). 

DAY 1, 5/19/20

Day 1 has been a little rough, as I couldn't find the end of the yarn, and as I'd forgotten how to "make one."  LOL, it's seriously been that long since I've knitted!  The pattern says to "make one" (make one stitch) before and after each stitch marker (I used paper clips for my markers, LOL), so I just knitted into the front and back of each stitch.  I'm not sure if that's the correct way to get the job done, but so far all is well.  I have to keep doing that until I reach 132 stitches, and I'm currently at...<pauses to count>...92 stitches.  So I've got a ways to go yet.  I've also encountered a small but slightly worrisome health concern:  my left hand rapidly grows weak as I knit.  This is a recent development, as the entire left side of my body grows weak after I exert myself for any length of time.  Originally this only happened if I REALLY exerted myself, but now it's growing more noticeable.  I've chalked it up to being overweight and sleeping too much on my left side.  As to the project itself, I didn't like not being able to find the end of the yarn (probably my own dumb fault), but it makes a nice, smooth stockinette stitch.  Not to brag, but despite a few hiccups I think I'm off to a good start.

DAY 2, 5/20/20

I spoke to my doctor today (by chance, as I ran out of my anxiety pills and needed to get a refill), and since she's not a specialist she couldn't tell me much about my weakness.  She wants to send me to a neurologist, but I can't afford that without insurance so I'm just going to watch my weight and see what happens.  The doctor did say that whatever I have is very mild, or else it would trouble me 100% of the time.  I will note that I slept on my back last night and had no trouble knitting or walking for most of the day.  In knitting news I reached the 132-stitch count that I needed to reach, and I tried the work on my doll.  I have some concerns that it may be too tight across the shoulders for her, in which case I'll have to go up a needle size...or a yarn size...or both.  Time will tell!  Tomorrow I put in the sleeves.  I would've done it today, but my left hand has started crapping out so I'm giving it a rest.  Note that the subtle speckles and color variations are becoming obvious now.  They weren't so much on Day 1.

DAY 3, 5/21/20

The sleeves are now in, which necessitated two stitch holders to hold live stitches.  I don't know where on Earth my stitch holders are, so I used two of the paper clips.  Now that the sleeves are in I just have to knit for three inches to make sure the cardigan is long enough.  I managed to get 1.25 inches done today, so maybe...just maybe I'll have this done by the end of the week???  I've got plenty of free time this weekend though, so if I don't get it done before Saturday, no biggie.

DAY 4, 5/22/20

Today is my pastor's birthday, and my maternal grandparents' wedding anniversary, and the ninth anniversary of the Joplin tornado.  Shudder...has it been nine years already?  I bet it feels like it was just yesterday for some of those folks who went through it.  Anyway, I figured out today that I definitely WON'T have this cardigan done this weekend, because the sleeves have to be knitted on double-pointed needles (my circular needles are too long for the job) and while I do have double-pointed needles they're the wrong size for the job I need to complete.  Since I'm ordering the needles during Memorial Day weekend it may be awhile before I can complete the sleeves.  But I still am not done with the body yet, so that'll buy me a bit of time.  I like a quarter of an inch yet, plus four rows of ribbing.  Easy.

DAY 5, 5/23/20

Today will be short and sweet, since I only had such a short way to go anyway.  I got the final quarter-inch and the ribbing band done, and now I just need to wait for the double-pointed needles to come.  The bottom ribbing band is wanting to curl, much to my chagrin, but that's nothing a good blocking won't cure.

DAY 6, 6/2/20

Yes, it seriously took that long to get double-pointed needles, thanks in part to this coronavirus crap.  Today I desperately needed something to relax, as the day started off early and terrifying.  I gave my dogs oral flea medicine over the weekend, and this morning Bella (the tan one) had one hell of a seizure.  I've never seen a dog have a seizure before, and all I could do was hold her and comfort her until it was over.  I don't recommend Credelio for small dogs; both Bella and Sonic have been sick, but Sonic didn't have seizures.  Anyway, putting in the sleeves means picking up stitches, which I've never been good at, so once again this part got off to a rocky start.  During the span of Day 6 I got the whole right sleeve done, but I think I may not have picked up enough stitches at the beginning because the armhole is quite tight.  I know I can bamboozle it over Sasha's sizeable hands, but I'll need to count carefully when I pick up stitches for the next sleeve.

DAY 7, 6/3/2020

All was well on the animal front today, thank God.  After losing Bentley, Callie, and Arya in such a short timeframe I don't think I could've stood losing Bella too.  But Bella has had no more seizures, and the vet said that she may never have another one.  Still, I will remain cautious of Credelio in the future.  As to the cardigan, except for darning in some loose ends it's all but finished.  I hate darning in ends.

DAY 8, 6/5/2020

No more ends!  Darning ends in is not a hard process, but if there are a lot of ends it can be a tedious job.  Now that the ends are gone and the cardigan is complete, time for a last little flourish.  The pattern shows buttons on one of the finished cardigans, but mine has no buttonholes.  Buttonholes are not hard to add to knitwear, but this time the buttons will be just for decoration.  I chose these buttons, from MoniqueLula.

THEY GLOW IN THE DARK!!!  LOL, y'all may remember that I love stuff that glows in the dark.  A lot of MoniqueLula's wares glow in the dark, so I may be returning to her shop in the near future.  She has a set of buttons that are little hearts, which would look great with a cardigan knitted out of some of AJHC's pink yarn...maybe Aphrodite or Venus (both goddesses of love, fitting names for pink yarn).  When I showed these buttons to Mama I joked that maybe I should make matching cardigans for my doll and me, and she didn't seem too opposed to the idea...so maybe I will!  And maybe I won't, LOL.  I've already got the makings for a second cardigan for Sasha, and I haven't even shown Sasha in her first one!  Here's my doll modelling the green cardigan (I haven't put the buttons on yet because I don't have a needle fine enough to do the job).

Yeah, I know I said Sasha came in a white dress, but I've put her in something a bit more summery for the warm weather ahead.  I initially had no worries about how the green cardigan looks with her new jumpsuit, but now that the cardigan is actually complete I think the overall look is too monochromatic.  Also, the armholes are too tight (I was afraid of that), so much so that when I pulled the sleeves off of her it pulled the tag off Sasha's wrist.  All Sasha dolls have tags on their wrists, right?  Well, the string came loose.

I can find a way to salvage that and make it into a necklace or something, but I preferred it on her wrist, dang it!  So long story short, I was able to get the cardigan on Sasha (after a brief battle), and it looks alright on her, so I'm calling this a tentative success.  HOWEVER...if I'd been making this as a gift for someone else's Sasha I would have declared it a failure since not everyone would have the hand strength to jam those tight cuffs over Sasha's sizeable mitts.  Thus, if anyone has a Sasha doll and wants to try this pattern, I recommend going up a needle size...and I also recommend swatching to test the gauge of  your stitches!  I never do that, and as a result I end up often knitting something in the wrong size.  WHEN WILL I LEARN???

Much love,
RagingMoon1987

China boy

Another patron came in with a doll to show me today.  This is him.

He's late china with some crazing on his face, hands, and feet.  His eyes are brown, which I love (my older china dolls all have blue eyes).  He's got some big ol' lips too, LOL!

His clothing is sewn on, and for some weird reason I fell in love with these buttons.  They're orange-red plastic with fluted edges, and they were the perfect size for the tip of my finger.

My friend says that the doll is about her age (somewhere around 55-60), and he's been her companion all her life.  She says she was hoping to pass him on to a daughter or a granddaughter, but so far that plan hasn't panned out.  Guess who volunteered to take him if he needed a new home?  LOL again.

I love it when patrons bring their dolls in for me to see!  It's almost always something different that I either have not seen before, or have seen but am not familiar with.  I own three of my own china dolls now (one antique and two reproductions), and none of them are brown-eyed boys!  Needless to say I thanked my friend lavishly for showing her doll to me.

Stay cool,

RagingMoon1987