not so thoroughly modern mini

It was an itsy bitsy teeny weeny

a teeny mention of my tiny work!

Introducing The Nob Hill Collection!

it always seems to get back around to knitting eventually... i've knit this matching afghan with coordinating pillows for my new house. they're knit with Koigu PPPM. for the non-knitters, it's hand dyed, 100% merino wool. i'm also offering made to order sets in my Etsy shop. that was fun to make! now i need to get back to this very un-fun business of figuring out how to wire this house...

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and now for something completely different

i'm priming the interior while i wait for the wiring kit to arrive. i'm quite eager to get on with the decorating! i have purchased a few pieces on ebay, including the bed pictured here. on it is my very first handknit mini afghan! it still needs to be blocked and the top edge properly sewn, but i'm pretty pleased with the results. i'm considering making a matching bolster and pillow. once i've perfected the design, i may put something up for sale on Etsy.

vintage Reminiscence bed purchased on ebay

afghan, handknit with Koigu PPPM

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shingles, done! well, mostly.

it took almost 500 shingles to finish the front of the house. i've run out and i'll need to purchase more for the back. shingles, not fun. i'm contemplating painting the back, but that might look weird. i think i'll just move on to the next thing and revisit shingles at a later date. i've had enough of them for now. well, i'm a bit stuck. can't do any more work on the house until i buy a wiring kit and do the wiring. i'm a little intimidated to do the wiring. it seems like it might be easy to screw up. in the meantime, i think i'll continue making knitted pieces. my mini afghan is halfway done. photos soon.

wow! shingles!

i'm surprised that it's taking me longer to put the shingles on than it took me to assemble the house! talk about painstaking! i'm approaching row 11 and i'm beginning to worry that i may run out. keeping my fingers crossed.

i'm taking long breaks... last night i began knitting a mini afghan for the Reminiscence bed i recently purchased on ebay (photos to come). as with everything that i've attempted to knit lately, i'm not sure that i like it. we'll see how it goes.

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shingles

i bought hexagon-cut, cedar shingles. after perusing discussions about shingles on The Greenleaf Miniature Community Forums, i decided against using commercial dye. a lot of people complained about how toxic it was and how terrible the fumes were, etc. i decided to try a black tea bath. i used several tea bags and made a very strong tea. after it cooled off a little, i let the shingles soak for a while, then transferred them to paper to dry. my boyfriend warned me that they might warp, but i decided to take my chances. by the smell off them when i removed them from the bag, it seems that they might have already been treated with some sort of preservative. the color is slighlty darker and deeper than the undyed shingles and they have more variation. i made the second batch (pictured below) slightly lighter than the first batch. i'm not looking forward to gluing them on. i know i shouldn't jinx myself, but i fear that something will go wrong.

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gingerbread trim

initially, i thought i would go with buttercream for the gingerbread trim. a test run revealed it to be a bit twee. it looked very yellow against the blue and that combination would be a bit sickly sweet for me. i then considered white opal, but then decided that would just be ho-hum. the color that i chose, dan's dream, from Ellen Kennon Full Spectrum Paints was actually what i'd had in mind when i first ordered paint. i'll definitely use this color on the windows and shutters. for the front door, i think i'll use it on the trim, but paint the door white opal. i think the dark trim gives the house more of a new england gothic feel. next up, adventures in shingles. i'll be using hexagon, cedar shingles. i'm experimenting with dying the shingles using tea. we'll see how that works. i'd really rather avoid using a harsh chemical dye, especially since i;m working indoors. stay tuned for the results!

and we have paint!

it's starting to look a lot like a house

house built, primed, and ready for paint! i'm excited to begin painting, but also really, really nervous. choosing a paint color seems like a big commitment. i deliberated over colors for several weeks before ordering paint samples from my friend Ellen of Ellen Kennon Full Spectrum Paints. her fantastic paints have been used on projects big and small, but i like to think that mine will be the smallest! for weeks, i bounced back and forth between barn red, buttercup yellow, and a muted cornflower blue for the exterior. i really thought that red would be the winner, but at the last moment, i decided to go with blue. i will be mixing cornflower blue and slate for the exterior. hopefully, once the exterior is done, it will be easier to make a decision regarding the color for the windows, door, and trim. the choices are buttercream, a dark bluish-grey called dan's dream, and white opal. after the paint, then shingles, and then i'll need to tackle the most daunting job of all wiring! that could take a little while...

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and so it begins

i really thought that i could, should, or would have some help with my first build, but that's not quite the way it worked out. too impatient to wait any longer, i decided to tackle this monster on my own. the shell is almost completed. the only part left to finish is the roof. the instructions were easy to follow and as a beginner, i found it fairly easy to figure everything out. that is until i came to putting on the front. not easy to figure out, but a bit unwieldly to manage all on one's own. i had it glued on and partially nailed before i realized that one side had popped out. you really need an extra pair of hands to hold one side down while nailing in the other. i had to pry the entire front off and begin again. what a mess! i grabbed the weighted bottom of my Ott lite and used it to hold one side down while i nailed the other. mission accomplished! however, i was so exhausted at this point that i bent a few brads. need to go back and remove those and finish nailing the sides before putting on the roof. maybe i'll save that for tomorrow because if i doesn't turn out right, i don't think i have the energy to manage another disaster today.

as you can see, the build took up a good portion of my living room. i need to figure out some sort of proper work space. my work is not perfect, but i feel very proud to have accomplished this much on my own! i'll be better next time around.

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