Shouting out!!

As a crafter and creator, I am constantly inspired by the amazing items created by others.  I can seriously get "lost" on Etsy for long periods of time admiring the work of some very, very talented people.  When possible, I plan to support other crafters by purchasing their products and writing about them here on the blog.  Thus, today's "shout out" post.

Before Christmas, I "treated" Talia (my Blythe doll) to some amazing handmade goodies from some overseas crafters.  It was so exciting to get mail from Sweden and Great Britain on the same day!!  Since my knitting skills, especially for very tiny knitted things, are still quite limited, I decided to buy a couple of lovely knitted items for dear little Talia.

I purchased this adorable Christmas hat from Gene P Doll Shop.  The shop owner is from Sweden and in addition to the truly amazing hat, she sent some fun little extras in the package including a Swedish Christmas greeting card.  So fun!!  The photo below shows the hat as listed in Gene P's shop.  It really shows all the great details including the pom-pom, button embellishments, and white eyelash yarn trim.

Here's a photo of Talia in her new hat.  I got it right when we had our first snowstorm and was able to practice my outdoor photography a little bit to show off her new duds.

I also purchased her a green sweater from Cannonbelle.  Green is my favorite color, and I also thought it would be Christmasy and would look great with her new Christmas hat.  This really makes me wish I could knit better.  Maybe that should be a resolution for 2013. 

More knitting..........for Talia this time (and Ellyn too, I guess!)

Another quick little knitting project I've completed recently is a hat for my Blythe doll, Talia.  I am still VERY far from being a skilled knitter and I actively avoid patterns which call for tools I don't have and/or stitches that I don't know how to do yet.  This rules out a lot of the free patterns I come across.  I used THIS PATTERN from Ravelry to make Talia a knitted hat.  However, instead of using a garter stitch, I knitted it all in stockinette so the bottom would naturally roll up.  I think it turned out well.  It fits her well, certainly.  I also think the little tufts that stick up on the top look like owl "ears", and I've thought about stitching some owl eyes and a beak out of felt and attaching them to the hat.  I think that would be adorable.  For now, here she is, modelling her new hat.  I think I'll knit her another one in garter stitch and see how I like that one compared to this one.

NOTE:  Did you know that hats designed for Blythe dolls also fit American Girl dolls?  I did a little photo shoot and plopped this hat on Ellyn to show that it works for her too.  

I am working hard to improve my photography skills since they are so crucial to selling online.  In the photo below, I photographed Talia lying flat on a fleecy blanket.  This allows for a really nice face shot.  However, the lighting was poor.....I took it at night in my craft room.  All artifical light and flash.

The next morning I got up and took advantage of some natural light to set up a little photo studio and get a better photo.  I'm still not thrilled with these photos, but the lighting is MUCH better.  I've found that Blythe dolls have heads that are tilted downward.  To get the shots below, I was lying full out on my stomach on the floor and tilting the camera slightly upwards.  I still need to practice this a lot.  It's amazing what a difference natural lighting makes though.

For some reason, when photographing this hat on Ellyn, the white background was completely washing out the oatmeal-colored hat.  So I pulled a canvas off my studio wall and propped it behind her for contrast.  This achieved a better result, but I'm not happy with the lack of detail in the hat.  I'm just using a little point and shoot camera which probably is at least half the problem.  Anyway, you can see this little hat fits her well and looks cute on her too.