Art of Swatching – Autumn Landscape

In the Art of Swatching I thought it would be great to share some of the knitting that I used to do for Sasha dolls on Sasha Doll Style. I am starting with the Autumn Landscape Collection that was completed a few years ago.

The colours of Autumn were the inspiration for the Autumn Landscape Collection that I designed for Sasha some years ago. I love to walk on the Cavehill in the early morning with the shadowy shapes of the trees still shrouded in mist.

The autumnal colours , deep russets, taupe, shades of green and brown, natural and sparkling frost glow against the blues and stormy greys of the Autumn sky.

“Autumn time, thy scenes and shades, Are pleasing to the tasteful eye.” Autumn by John Clare

I had great pleasure gathering the materials and wools for the Autumn Landscape Collection. The colours were a joy to work with. I start with samples and snippets of fabric laid out then I move the yarns and fine shetland wool around until I create the nicest combination of colour and pattern. Once I’ve decided I start knitting small swatches. These are only a couple of inches (5-6 cm wide) as I am designing for the 16″ tall Sasha Doll.

L to R: Amelia, Poppy, Rowena, Raven, Sophie, Matthew, Emilie, Ruth and Anna. At Front: John, Esther & Sally.

Amelia on the Left, is wearing a cute outfit hand knit using 2 different sock yarns. I loved the combination of the smudgy looking sock yarns with the tie dyed rusty toned needlecord trousers. She is wearing hand knit lace weight shetland wool socks and beautiful brown leather Boneka laced shoes. I liked how the striped sweater contrasted with the randomness of the patterning on the trousers.

Sock yarns are wonderful for knitting sweaters for Sasha dolls. The self patterning yarn is very effective.

Ruth is wearing a fair isle sweater hand knit using lace weight Shetland wool. The colours are beautiful, a combination of the natural shetland sheep shades of wool with the addition of blue and green. An exquisite sweater. Her socks are knit using lace weight Shetland wool in the light grey colour with an accent of dark brown. She is wearing cute Dollfie t-bar sandals just like the ones that I used to wear as a small girl.

Her hat and scarf have a garter stitch and cable pattern and are knit using lace weight Shetland wool. I saw a similar style of scarf when I was window shopping in Belfast and liked the idea of one strong cable running along the centre of the scarf. The hat has the same cabled pattern with a garter stitch edge. I used all the colours in the sweater to make the tiny pompom.

This is one of my favourite outfits that I have made for Sasha Doll over the years and one of the few that I have kept for my own dolls.

I love this cardigan. I used a pretty peach lace weight Shetland wool to knit this cardigan. Love the matching buttons. I knit it to be slightly shorter than the blouse which is made from a dainty rose floral cotton fabric. Her socks are hand knit using the same wool as her cardigan and look really cute with the tan leather Boneka sandals.

John my handsome early baby Gregor is wearing one of the new designs that were created for this collection.

I used two sock yarns for this sweet little outfit. The same smudgy sock yarn used for the hooded coat that Rowena is wearing below and a lovely natural toned wool. They were used to great effect to knit the striped hat and footed trousers.

His aran sweater is cabled on the front and sleeves. He has a beautiful cuddly Steiff polar bear which coordinates perfectly with his outfit. The outfit is finished with a cute little ribbed scarf.

The hooded jacket was a work in progress for a while. I was delighted with how it turned out knit using the lovely smudgy sock yarn. It had ragland shaping for the sleeves and pockets.

I wanted the fair isle top underneath to be fine and light and to pick up the colours in the coat without being the same. The denim blue works as a beautiful contrast to the oatmeal background. I used lace weight Shetland wool to knit the fair isle top.

Her socks are oatmeal lace weight Shetland wool and are teamed with tan Boneka leather sandals.

Sally my early brunette Sasha baby has lovely olive green eyes and a cute long fringe. She is wearing a lovely striped baby grow which fastens at the front with snap fasteners. It is knit using a pretty Panda silk sock yarn contrasted with a dark brown tweed sock yarn which has the same colour of flecks running through it as are in the Panda sock yarn. She is hugging her lovely little toy dog.

For a long time I have intended to find the time to create a pattern for a baby hat with ear flaps. It really is too cute on her. It was knit using the panda silk sock yarn and edged using the tweedy yarn. I also added a little dark brown pompom. It ties under her chin with I-cord ties.

Sophie is wearing a lovely warm outfit for the cool Autumn days. She is wearing a hat, sweater and bag all made using the same self striping sock yarn, although the stripes are not knit as they would have come on the ball. I changed them to suit the style of the outfit which allowed me to use the wool in a fair isle pattern on the bag. I love the broad stripes of colour.

“The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.” John Muir