IT'S THE FIFTH SO DOLL PHOTO DAY

 April ! Yes it's already the fourth month of 2025 ! The sun's shinning , so is it going to be a warm and sunny year? Only time will tell, so what we do know is that it is doll photo day, so lets get started.

From Gill we have Holly and her sister on the laptop. I wonder what they are up to ?

Emailing a friend, checking out what's on offer at A Passion for Sasha ? or scrolling the internet? 

I just hope Gill's hidden her bank cards !

Over at RoRoPo , Otto and Gregor, are floating ! Floating on a rainbow cloud of softness across the garden

"This is the life !" sighs Gregor " Yes " replies Otto " Drifting across the grass of our rainbow boat " then

"WOOF" boing ! Gregor and Otto bounce up as a small puppy jumps onto their rainbow cloud of fluffiness ! 

" Okay okay Anamcara ! " giggles Otto " we know it's really your dog bed but come and join us floating 

Anamcara doesn't understand a word he's saying but he gives good belly rubs, so she climbs on and snuggles up.

Over the pond in Gregoropolis, Dan Ryan and Christian are wondering what on earth is going ! on while looking like two handsome sweater models. Although they are a little worried if they'll be able to ever buy any clothes again any time soon !  They are trusting one of the adults will get a handle on it all and save the country !

Here in the village, Tommy Rotten is telling little Jonny that he doesn't need to go to school!

" So " questions Jonny " I don't need any education because the teachers are trying to control my thoughts? "

" Exactly Jonny " Tommy agrees " They will just indoctrinate you into their beliefs and prejudices "

"Well I'm never going to school again " says Jonny

" Great!" grins Tommy " My work here is done " then he is off to cause more mischief ! 

Many thanks for all those sending in photos, still time to have yours added

Dee

APRIL AND A BOX OF HATS

So April's arrived and the sun is still shinning! According to the weather people it's also going to continue shinning all weekend and into and all of next week ! 

I have known it snow yes snow, in April, admittedly many many year ago, back when I had a waist! So I've not made any outdoor plans yet.

Since it's April, it's almost time for those wonderful doll photo day photos, so please send them in for the fifth.

Well I hit my deadline of making a hat from every mini skein by the end of March and so knitting was to be put aside for a couple of months. Mm however it appears every time I sit down, I automatically pick up the bag of leftovers and my needles, find a couple of balls that will work well together and the next thing I'm clickity clacking away ! So it looks like I'll have to knit up the leftovers before I stop !

I did however find a bigger box to store the made hats in, with some room for more! Mind you where I'm going to find space to keep such a large box for months I don't know.

Lots of colourful hats

Lots of different colours and patterns.

A box of hats !!

A GLORIOUS SUNNY SUNDAY

 

Well what a glorious sunny Sunday we are having today. Which just happens to be Mothering Sunday in the United Kingdom. So Happy Mother's Day to everyone who is, was or could have been one.

So my little grandson finally escaped the hospital on late Tuesday and will need to have a couple of follow up appointments, so things at present are calm.

Today is also the day our clocks went forward, so what was 7 became 8, unfortunately my daughter Lindsey, who booked the local dog park for 9.30 am , had not taken the lost hour into the mix, so we were all up early today ! Luckily I have never been one for breakfast in bed !

We ( that's nearly always the royal we ) spent part of last week doing some work on the garden. Apart from having to buy some wood, everything else was already in situ or we had in another part of the garden or in a pot waiting for a suitable spot. I do love it when a plan comes together and uses up items that have been sitting around.

So finally and with two days to spare, my bag of skeins have been turned into 48 hats !

and these are all the leftovers from them. The first lot of skeins I bought were slightly smaller, so some needed to have the rib band knitted in a plain matching colour or ended in one. But these last two bags had more wool, so most had some left at the end.

But they too can be used for hats, the hat in the top right of this photo, is make up from two full leftovers and a couple of rows from a third. 

So it's just a case of pairing a few up or adding one to a plain colour to give it a lift. But this I will do as and when, because the hands need a rest and also I need to later knit some other styles of hats and these pieces could come in handy for them.

I'll just had to spread the rumour nearer the Chat n Snap, that this is the year of the Hat !!

Our headliner today was Saffy, since she managed to find the perfect colour hat , from the new batch, to go with her new outfit.

On the doll front, it's been so quiet that tumble weed could have rolled past the house, if this was the wild west and not a little village !  No dolls in or out, no clothes in or out. . . . nothing 

However now I've stopped filling my time with knitting, it could be dangerous to the purse strings! So I will need to be on my guard and get out into the studio and try and finish the Christmas tale and have a big tidy up.

Well I'm off to cruise the net . . . I mean read a book. . . .

Have a lovely healthy fun filled week ahead

Dee

NB The royal we means Paul's doing all the work with a small input from me 

HEY TEACHER !

 

So caving chest have been resolved

The hairs been washed and he is ready to rumble. . . .

" I don't need no education"

" and I don't need no thought control ! "

" No dark sarcasm in the class room "

"HEY TEACHER ! LEAVE THEM KIDS ALONE !"

" All in all It's just another brick in the wall "

z

" The names Tommy,  Tommy Rotten, rock star, racing driver and rebel always with a cause but you can call me Gone " and with a wink, he was off towards the house to meet his new family 

All I want to know is why me? Why do they always rock up here? No doubt there will be trouble until he settles in  . . . I'd best go catch up with him. . . . Gone Rotten ! I ask you ! He'll be Going Rotten if he doesn't behave himself ! 

MONDAY FOR SUNDAY !

 

So another weeks rattled past ! and what a week it's turned out to be ! Due to all my knitting of hats, finally my hands told me it was too much ! and that I needed a break !  

Which was annoying since I had worked out that if I could knit two to three each evening I'd finish the extra skeins I'd bought by the end of the month and would then have a couple of week or even a months break. So I downed needles and that's where the trouble began.

Not having my hands occupied knitting , while listening to various you tube podcasts, I decided to cruise the internet on all things Sasha. . . 

Now I had already resisted a pricy doll , so was feeling quite pleased with myself. But I had put a couple of Sasha's in my eBay watching list. So I'm looking at the dolls and see a nice doll I like the look of but must resist, so in order to resist the more expensive doll I go back and look at the other dolls.

One thing leads to another and the next thing I've just bought a doll ! Which is why I should not go looking at the dolls on eBay! But that's not the end of it ! Oh no having bought the Sasha to stop me buying the other doll, I then realise the seller is also the seller for the other one and so go ask for the best price !! Fatal mistake to make because , yes you have guessed it, not one but two dolls arrived Saturday morning !!

So this is Jenny, who I bought because I loved her shoulder length hair and also her outfit which includes the Ruth Hartley double smocked dress, always a favourite of mine. Her companion will need to wait a day or two before appearing due to needing a little work, some chest caving sorted and a hair wash to start off with.

I'm back to knitting hats to save my bank balance from disappearing any more and to hopefully get to complete my goal re the newly bought skeins, I have about 15 left and 8 days till the end of the month, so should be doable, hands permitting.

On another note my little grandson's landed up in hospital , having been taken ill on Friday with what appears to be a virus. They discovered he's got a heart murmur as well, when he was checked over , so that will need checking out too.

He's now feeling much better but waiting on some test results before he'll be released hopefully later today or tomorrow. They seem to pick up so many illnesses once they are at nursery or school these days.

So that's what's been happening around here.

Have a happy healthy funny filled week ahead

Dee

MID MARCH SUNDAY

 

So after a lovely warm sunny week we were plunged back into 'winter' for the week ! I'm pleased to say we kept the sun but it was accompanied by a bitter chill most days. A reminder that although Spring is now here, winter's still got a bite in it's tail.

But having sunny days does make a difference even if cold.

I forgot to tell you about my error the other week ! On my mobile, if I'm deleting emails to clear up now many are on there, as I go through several, if a few from the same company are deleted, it will say would you like to delete all those from the 'knitting network' ? If I click yes, it will then say 6 deleted etc. So early one morning a week or so back, I was deleting and getting the message every so often, when I clicked yes on one that said 'yahoo' it then paused for a minute and then announced 10,000 messages deleted !!! 

Oh yes that's correct 10000 ! 

It appears that it had not just been deleting emails in my inbox but when I clicked yes on that message it deleted everything !!! including all message kept in my files !!!

all photo's, messages etc that I had stored !!!

I then had to get the laptop up and running and go through the deleted items and decide which ones I needed to keep ! 

Okay I didn't need to restore all ten thousand and it allowed me to sort out and get rid of some very old files but still took me a good few hours over a couple of days to go through everything.

Needless to say I'll be paying much more attention should that message ever appear again!

Well I'm still obsessed with knitting doll hats! 

So much so, I ordered some more of the mini skeins, so that I have a nice big variety of patterns and colours.

Two lots, one lot is pale skeins and the second lot more colourful.

 Since I saw somewhere about knitting? for the month of March, that's what I have decided to do ! I will knit at least one hat a day for March and then I will stop for a break. 

I'm knitting three skeins from the first bag and three from the second, then back to the first, to give me a nice mix as I go.

If I can knit at least three a day, I will use up all the new skeins I just bought so they won't be sitting around unused.

Also with luck by the end of the month Spring will have sprung and I'll be able to get back into the studio to finish Granny's Christmas tale and decide about moving to the bigger studio.

Today's headliner is Liberty, who appeared on the fb group this week because they are focusing on dungaree's and she happened to be wearing my favourite yellow pair by Sarah of Vintage Sasha.

I wish Sarah would start making and selling again, although she is so popular it's a fight to manage to buy something. 

On the doll front, apart from buying the skeins for the hats, I have been so good and bought nothing else! I know it cannot last but maybe it will while I'm knitting as it's less time to coast the internet and falling for a pretty face ! 

I've stopped sorting out things to sell for a while, it's too cold to be out in the studio searching and I've knitting to do ! lol 

Although I have been sorting out things indoors to donate to the local charity shops, so slowly making a dent in all the 'stuff' we have.

On that note I'm off to do some knitting if I hope to keep on track. The arthritis in my hands kicks in every so often but I just try and work through it and only stop if it's really bad. I have to say it's easier to listen to all the unbelievable things going on in the world while knitting ! 

These are worrying times where we have to live in hope, that people will find the courage to oppose those in power, who are trying to turn the world into a dark place and not blindly give into their own greed and fear. We look for the light and hope it's not too long in coming !

Have a healthy happy week ahead

Dee

SAFFY OUT AND ABOUT

 So I did buy a little something for the Sasha's this week. I did try to resist for all of about three minutes but then decided I had been quite good doll wise recently, so a small splurge could be allowed.

So I bought this lovely playsuit from Petrana. I knew it would be perfect for Saffy and even though it does still get cold especially of a night, she could not wait to get outside and have some photos taken.

So we went up to the raised garden where the dry riverbed is and took a photo or six.

x

a close up

Next she went into the folly and looked around

s

another close up . . . . cos she's worth it ;)

among the folly ferns !

What is she up to now !

s

Well she does look quite comfortable up there !

Could have been made just for sitting on !

Saffron Felicity Owen

So are you ready to go back in and find a cardigan? You don't need one? You will by tonight, so lets go look.

IT'S THE FIFTH SO DOLL PHOTO DAY

 Yes the sun is out, Spring is on It's way and today is doll photo day !

So let's get started

Over at RoRoPo, Rick and Pete are helping out in the garden, that looks like a big piece of wood boys?

It is , the boys agree !" we may need to fetch a saw and cut it up" says Rick

"Mm I'm not sure mum will let us use the saw after last time" answers Pete

"It wasn't my fault !" exclaims Rick "No one said mum's favourite scarf was under that log !  anyway it only got a little tear in it ", he grumbles 

"Really it was mum's fault for leaving it there " whispers Pete

Meanwhile over at Gill's these two young ladies have no intension of going near any old wood and saws ! Not while they are wearing their Vintage Sasha silk dresses. No they are quite happy to let Hildegard's boys deal with that !

Here in the Sasha Village, Hattie is having a go at knitting one of her hats with Hattitude ! She's complaining the needles are too long and wants them cut down ! 

I explain that if I cut them down, they would be too small for me and since I've been knitting most of that hats, maybe we'd best find her some other needles ? And isn't it about time she got dressed? 

Over in Surrey, Michelle's dolls are looking out and wondering what's going to be on the Tv later ?

They are hoping it will be The Traitors, they love seeing if the group can work it out and there is lots of shouting at the screen when it's time to show the names at the round table !

Someone is already sitting waiting patiently !

However their furry friends prefer to watch Bear Grylls Last One Standing ! There's lots of huffing , laughter and comments thrown out during his shows.

While these bears want to constantly watch Paddington Bear films and between each one, Paddington having tea with the late Queen. Although as well as laughter that also brings the odd tear on occasion.

Over in Gregoropolis, Lulu and Lottie are inspecting the gardening tools ready for some Spring garden work, alas a 6 inch snowfall is expected, so they may have to make do with just looking out the window and discussing their plans for now.

Many thanks to everyone who kindly sent in a photo, still time to have yours added, just send it in.

Dee