Alison: Hello Doll-y

I've been making girly dolls. The thought process took a lot longer than the making process, I must admit - especially the what to wear part. The fabric for the dresses is light, airy and beautiful. Nearly all of it came from Delectable Mountain Fabrics in Brattleboro, VT. The bottom layer on the blonde doll is a fine linen from Leipzig, Germany where my daughter is spending her sophomore year of high school.

I've decided to rip the fabric along the grain. I love the unfinished look - I have a tendency to get too tight with my work sometimes and I want to keep loose with this series.

These three dolls are hanging around the living room naked. This group is made of natural colored linen. The blonde hair is vintage linen and the black hair is silk. The doll above is a tribute to Patti Smith.I just read her book about her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. It was an inspirational read. I must admit I don't know her work, other than what is in the book "Just Kids," but I love her sensitivity and her devotion to art.

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While in the ripping fabric mood, I made a skirt out of fabric I HAD to have from Nido in Burlington, Vermont. 

I ripped a piece to about knee length, sewed three channels 1/2" wide and threaded 3/8" elastic through the channels. The fabric is a soft cotton. I will wear the skirt with leggings. Lying in bed at night I was thinking of ripping the skirt in 4 vertical places and placing triangular insets - to make the skirt more full at the base. I'll try that with the next one.

Kelee: Making and Selling Crochet Hats

I love making hats. It is the perfect marriage between relaxing and being productive. Like weeding a garden, playing solitaire, or picking up pecans. Although, I supposed playing solitaire isn't really productive, but it feels like it satisfies the same portion of the brain. Mindless mindful work. Mindful mindless work. Where concentrating meets zoning out. And at the end of it, you end up with a hat. Plus, I get to watch tv while I work. Or I crochet while I'm at work at my "real job."

I mostly sell the hats that I make in our coffee shop (hence the quotation marks around the phrase "real job"). Since we sell a little bit of everything and we live in Vermont where hat season stretches out over eleven months, it does not seem too odd. Either that or our customers are just as odd as our store is. Because my small town is so small and there are just so many heads in need of hats, I'd like to sell hats online, but I find the whole process to be rather daunting. The sizing of hats seems so personal. I've seen adults buy hats that fit snugly on my six-year-old, and that was back when she was three. She says her head is so big because she can remember everything. Plus, all the photographing and editing and uploading and describing and whatnot. I'd rather be crocheting.

I bought a big batch of yarn from Knit Picks recently. I got all the colors of Wool of the Andes in Bulky that were available at the time, and I used it all up just making hats. It was super fun. I did lots of stripes, some solids, and a few pompoms. Then I made my family sit still for hat portraits.

Now I'm going to sell them at the Harvest Festival on September 12th or so in Lincoln Park in Enosburg Falls. Does that sound too optimistic? Let's try again. These hats and many more will be for sale at the Harvest Festival on September 12th or so in Lincoln Park. After that, the remainders be at The Flying Disc. If I can undaunt the selling of them online, I'll put them in my etsy shop, too.

Also, I've tried for longer than I care to admit to get the pictures on this blog to line up nicely in a row. I give up. Check out more of them on our flickr page where they line up in an orderly fashion.