Tag Archives: sock yarn

A Knitted Coat for Barbie

Posted on by
1

Things have been a little quiet here, mostly because of real life. When things get busy and even a little unpredictable, I always choose some comfort knitting. Lately that’s been knitting for the girls, as well as mittens and socks. Today, we’ll look at my latest completed project for the girls.

This is another free pattern from Sticka till Barbie, this time for a knitted coat. It’s amazing that I’m always learning more about fitting clothes for the girls – this time, I learned that vintage Barbies have shorter arms than modern Barbies. MTM and Silkstone (articulated and original) all have longer arms than vintage B.

I knitted the first coat following the instructions for #101 Yellow Coat. Here’s a Ravelry link for the pattern. The original website was taken down in 2022. The wayback machine’s backup of the original site has changed now – previously you could download individual patterns from there. There is also this other backup at the Internet Archive. Scroll down for the link to download a zip file of all the patterns. I’d do this soon, as it seems the content is vanishing. There are so many clever patterns in this collection.

Here’s my first coat in Patons Kroy sock yarn, on a MTM doll.

coat knitted for Barbie in Kroy sock yarn by Deborah Cooke

This coat is knit from the front hem up over the shoulder and down the back. You knit one front, then the other, then join them at the back collar line and knit down the back. The sleeves are added as you go – it’s shaped like a T, kind of like a kimono. Stitches are picked up at the neck for the collar.

This coat took 35g of Patons Kroy – I just barely made it with my partial ball of the red mix, so couldn’t make the hat shown with it in the pattern picture.

I cast on a second version and cast on two less stitches on each sleeve, to make shorter sleeves for vintage B. Here’s that one – this time, I had enough yarn for the hat, too.

coat and hat knitted for Barbie in Kroy sock yarn by Deborah Cooke

The hat is cute and quick to make. I joined mine in the round so there wouldn’t be a seam, although the instructions are to knit it flat. The hat pattern is A-41.

I’m working on a modification of the coat, resizing it for the 16″ girls. I’m knitting it in a kettle-dyed Koigu that is quite pretty. It’s amazing how much more knitting that requires, but I’m headed down the back now and should have it done soon.

New Dragon in Town

Posted on by
Reply

You might remember me knitting Tarragon the Dragon once before. He came out very cute, so recently I was tempted to knit him a friend.

Here’s my post about the green Tarragon.

And here’s the new arrival, Tarragon II:

Tarragon, knit by Deborah Cooke in Patons Kroy Sock

This one is knit of plain old Patons Kroy (that’s a link to Yarnspirations) in a discontinued colourway called Paintbox. (That’s a Ravelry link.) The contrast yellow is Knitpicks Palette in Maize. (That link goes to the KP site.) I actually found a package of 6mm eyes with locking washers at Len’s Mills after I finished the first dragon, so used them on this one. (Four more pairs in the pack!) I didn’t give him beads for nostrils this time, but did add ears (which aren’t specified in the pattern) because I think they’re cute. (That modification is from the other projects on Ravelry.)

Two Tarragons knit by Deborah Cooke

Here are the two new buddies together. I think they’re getting along pretty well.

It’s interesting that even though they’re knitted on the same size of needle, the green one is a little bigger – but then Lichen & Lace Sock is slightly thicker than Kroy, plus the green dragon has a strand of KSH held together with the sock yarn. Just that little bit of difference to the thickness made him a bit bigger. He’s also squishier – I can see the fibrefil stuffing between the stitches of the red one, just a little bit. So, if I knit another one in just sock yarn, I’d drop a needle size or add a strand of KSH.

It’s entirely possible that there’s a third Tarragon in my future. These little guys are just so cute, and the second one was much quicker to make.

Mitred Squares Sock Yarn Afghan

Posted on by
Reply

Last week, I mentioned my afghan in progress made of mitred squares knit in leftover sock yarn and realized I’d never given that project its own post. Today we fix that!

Here’s the base square. This one is knit in (hmm) Collinette Jitterbug, in the colourway Monet. That’s the Ravelry link as it looks like this yarn might be discontinued.

Mitred square knit in sock yarn leftovers by Deborah Cooke

I like knitting mitred squares. They’re easy and the result looks good. One of my favorite books about them is Domino Knitting by Vivian Høxbro – here’s the Amazon.ca link for the book, here’s the Ravelry link and here’s VH’s website. This is a lovely little book with a number of interesting projects.

From this, I developed my sock yarn square. For a mitred square with a central stockinette stitch, you cast on an odd number of stitches, and this makes the outer edge of the L. That central stitch remains in stockinette (knit on the right side and purled on the wrong side) while the rest of the square is knit in garter stitch (all knit, all the time). It makes a prettier edge if you slip the first stitch on each row, and that also makes it easy to pick up stitches and add new squares to the existing ones. it saves you seaming if you just knit them together.

Here are my afghan blocks so far:

Mitred sock yarn squares afghan knit by Deborah Cooke

I’m piecing them together in blocks of 24 squares. I decided on a big block size to keep from having too many repeats in the same area – you can see that these two blocks shouldn’t be right beside each other. I might set them up to make them radiate from a central point instead of like this. We’ll see.

Mitred Sock Yarn Block
I knit mine on a 2.5mm needle.

Cast on 49 stitches.
R1 (RS): Knit
R2 (WS): knit 24, P1, place marker, knit 24
R3 (RS): Slip one, knit to 2 sts before marker, k2tog, slip marker, k1, SSK, knit to end.
R4 (WS): Slip one, knit to 1 stitch before marker, P1, knit to end

Continue as established, repeating rows 3 and 4 and decreasing two stitches on each RS row, until there are 3 sts left. SSK and draw end through the loop to finish.

Modern Day Goddess Dresses

Posted on by
Reply

Sometimes you need a quick project. I’ve been pushing dragon alphabets around the floor and needed some close-to-instant gratification. My go-to in these situations is making for Barbie and friends. Modern Day Goddess is a fantastic little pattern for a slip-on sleeveless dress for 11.5″ fashion dolls – and it’s free! (That’s a Ravelry link.) It requires a bit of sock yarn and is knit in the round from the top-down. There are just two ends to sew in and it’s ready to wear.

Modern Day Goddess dress for fashion dolls knit by Deborah Cooke

I knit the first in leftover sock yarn with a slow gradation and a tweedy flick. I followed the directions as written, then noticed that the pictures all showed Barbies with the Model Muse body sculpt. I have one (rescued from the thrift store) so here she is in her first dress. (She was naked at the thrift store and has since been washed and had her hair redone.)

This dress is the same front and back, which makes it easier to pull on right. It fits like a dream and was really a quick project.

This Ms. B. is Top Model Resort Barbie from 2007, and originally looked like the image below:

Top Model Resort Barbie 2007

Hmm. I need to steam down her bangs. But that hat! I see a listing for her on ebay NIB for $299US today, so I’ll stick with my thrift store girl and find a different hat.

The pink purse is a new acquisition – it seems to be hers now – which AstroJen sent me. It’s from a 5-Surprise Mini Fashion by Zuru. (That’s an Indigo listing. Amazon.ca doesn’t stock them. This company makes a lot of different miniature bundles, so check the fine print and make sure you’re getting the fashion bags if you want the purses.) Each one contains a mini purse and four other things (one might be a sticker. Hmm.) Jen sent me her duplicates, which was sweet. The purses are just the right size for the girls and are quite well made. (I succumbed and ordered a few myself now that I’ve seen them.) There’s a third one in kind of a silvery purple, but the Monster High girls made off with that one. (They made a quick getaway on the Vespa.)

purses from 5-surprise mini fasion from zulu

My only concern with the dress was that vintage B isn’t the same size front and back. The blue one stretched tight over the front and the armholes gapes. I made some modifications on my second version to give her a little more fabric over the girls. This one is knit in Koigu KPPPM. Ms. B. is also rocking a purse from those surprise packs.

Modern Day Goddess dress for fashion dolls with variations for vintage Barbie, knit by Deborah Cooke in Koigu KPPPM

You wouldn’t know it from her expression but she’s happy about the better fit.

What did I change?

• In the original pattern, the top decreases are at the sides. I moved the decreases to be below the bust, like darts, because there are more of them. The pattern has this nice 6-st panel running down the front and back of the skirt, so I lined up the bodice decreases with that.

• I cast on 4 more stitches.

• I also knit 2 more rows before splitting for the sleeves. That makes the neckline a bit wider and less like straps.

• I cast off fewer stitches for the sleeves. The armhole gaped on vintage B, probably because the fabric was stretching across the front.

• I positioned the sleeves so there would be more stitches on the front than the back. (That’s where my extra 4 stitches went, in front.)

• I added 2 rows to the bodice length. From that point on, I knit following the original instructions.

I really like how both versions came out. I still need to block them both, and that will uncurl the necklines a little bit.

This process inevitably gave me More Ideas, so I’ll have another variation to share later. I also found paper boxes in the stores again (yay!) so will be creating two more carriers, one for the Barbies and one for the Monster High and EverAfter High girls. We need more closet space!