Several months ago I decided to make this doll from Inspirations No. 65 for my granddaughter. Don't you just love that hair? This should be a great project to work on in the car. There is a lot of empty road between Southern California and Texas, so I won't have to do much navigating while hubby is driving.
I had found some fabric for the doll and had even gone so far as to mark it up for the embroidered face. But in looking for fabrics for the dress, I found that I really don't have fun, bright fabrics in my stash. They all tend to be pastel heirloom linens and batistes, or rather sedate quilting fabrics.
But after some serious searching, I came up with these. I won the middle fat quarter during an open house at a local quilt shop years ago, and always wondered what on earth I could make with it. (can you tell I don't really like it?) This dress seems the perfect solution. I might try to find a bit of yellow to punch up the colors a bit.
Did I mention that hair? It's long and extremely curly, very much like my daughter's hair. To make it, two 50 gram balls of woolen yarn are knitted together, then washed and dried. Each strand is pulled out and sewn individually to the doll's head. Years and years ago I did a bit of knitting, and have a few UFO's that are literally over a decade old. Some of my knitting friends are telling me they really like to use the Continental style of knitting, so I decided to give it a try.
Luckily I have A-Z of Knitting from Country Bumpkin Publications which has some pretty clear instructions. You can get this book from Country Bumpkin, but shipping from Australia is pretty expensive. It's also available at Chadwick Heirlooms, who is having a Labor Day sale - 20% off everything.
Learning a new style of knitting isn't easy, but since I'm not a great knitter with years of knitting to overcome I figured I could manage it.
Not exactly perfect, is it? But I'll be taking it all apart, so this is a great practice piece. I can only knit a few rows at a time as my left had gets sort of achy. But as I keep going it should progress a bit faster as my hands learn what to do. Now all I need to do is to gather the embroidery threads, all cotton of course, as this doll will need to be washed frequently, then package everything into a project bag for the trip.
On a side note, I've been planting butterfly friendly flowers hoping to attract butterflies to the garden.
It seems to be working! This gorgeous fellow spent over fifteen minutes flitting from flower to flower with a friend. I think these are Mexican Sunflowers, but don't really know as the packet of seeds was a mix and is long gone.
Have a great weekend and happy stitching!
If I had only known that knitting could be used that way. I could have made many curly headed dolls with all my knitting mistakes and UFOs over the years! The butterfly photo is gorgeous!
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