The Prodigal Doll Returns!

This story was inspired by the passing of my oldest sister due to complications of diabetes…

So I made this doll back in 2010. I had just learned about Tunisian crochet and I experimented making some dolls with it. I loved the knitted look that could be achieved and since I was lousy with knitting, I wanted to give it a go. This particular doll was my third attempt at making a doll with this style of crochet. When I was done with her, I thought she was ugly (but I never told her that. I wouldn’t break her confidence that way!). I was happy with the overall doll but I wasn’t too happy with her face. I didn’t do such a hot job with her hair either but she was a prototype so I wasn’t too concerned.

What surprised me about this doll was the reaction some family members had to her. My sis-in-law and close friend fell in love with her and kept cuddling her and asked me if she could have her. She begged me for her. I’m pretty sure she begged me for her :-). I still wanted to make the doll an outfit and take some pictures of her. This doll wasn’t intended for anyone. I wanted to keep her as future reference for other dolls but I had written a pattern already and my friend wanted her so badly that I agreed to let her keep her, but not until I was done finishing her up.

Then, my mom-in-law came to visit and had almost the same reaction as my friend. She also asked if she could keep her but let her know that I had already promised her to someone else but that I would make her a new one (I did eventually make her a new one but it took me over a year to deliver, oops!). I told my friend about it in the event she was feeling generous and would want me to give her to my mom-in-law but she said no way.

Well, on a day my extended family gathered for the holidays, I had intended to give the doll to my friend. I had made her a bassinet, pillow, blanket, an outfit and bought her some clothes. My niece saw the doll and asked me if she could have her too. I let her know that it was already given to someone else and besides, I had already given her some dolls I’d made.

I gave the doll to my sis-in-law (notice she is no longer my close friend at this point) who enjoyed her all of 15 minutes before she gave the doll to my niece! In her defense (this was her defense, not mine), my niece came up to her and let her know how much she loved the doll. My niece, 10 years old at the time, looked pretty cute and convincing. My sis-in-law then said, “Well, dolls should be loved and played with by kids. Will you promise to take care of her?” My niece was no sucker and said that of course she would take care of her. My now not so loved (I’m joking of course!) sis-in-law handed the doll over and that was that.

A couple of things went through my mind in that moment. What just happened???!!! Did she really just give away the doll she begged me for to my niece to whom I had already given dolls to? It could have gone to my mom-in-law (it’s never a bad thing to score brownie points with the mom-in-law), who I was pretty confident would not have given her away in less than 15 minutes.

I don’t blame my niece for wanting her and asking for her but I did NOT expect my sis-in-law to cave in so easily! I felt like snatching the doll back up and giving her to my mom-in-law (brownie points!). But then I came to acceptance. What was done was done. She belonged to my niece now. She conned sis-in-law out of it fair and square. My niece reads this blog and she knows it’s true!

This is one of the dolls I had given my niece. Just in case there was any doubt I gave her good things!

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Freebie Friday – Scarf and Doily

Awhile ago, my niece asked me if I could make a small doily for a dreamcatcher she wanted to make. Doilies are NOT my thing but I thought I had some my mom made and was going to give her one of those. My intention was to find it right away but time got away from me and I never got around to it. She asked again and I forgot again. Recently, she asked again (I’m a bad auntie) so I actually looked this time but couldn’t find the ones I was thinking of so I decided to go ahead and make one for her.

She requested something simple but as usual, I went on a Pinterest binge and started looking up all the doilies under the sun. Then I found out she needed a tiny doily so that set me off on a different quest because size changed everything! The type of yarn I needed, the pattern for something small like that, etc.

I found this (below) before I knew it needed to be small but I just followed the pattern until I got the size she needed. The pattern can be found here.

Here’s how far I got for the palm sized doily she wanted (below).

My niece liked it so I had to make her another one that she didn’t ask for in case she didn’t like the first one. Did I mention she already liked the photo of the first one? I whipped up a second one that I made up, just to give her choices. 🙂 Sadly, I didn’t take pictures of that one but it was cute.

And then, she asked if I could make her a scarf with some yarn she bought. I love making scarves. I don’t wear scarves that often so I don’t get the chance to create them for myself so I agreed. And you can guess what happened. Pinterest! I searched thousands of pictures (yes! thousands!) and then found out it was chunky yarn. Well, that lead me on a different search for scarves made with chunky yarn. When I finally got ahold of the yarn, I tried different pattens on it but I didn’t like how they were coming out. I changed gears and went for something more simple. In my slippers post, I mentioned that I made some flowers from a pattern that I saw on the Knit and Crochet Show on PBS. The flowers were for a headband that I didn’t care to make at the time but I liked the stitch pattern so I adapted it for my niece’s scarf and it worked out. I used the left over yarn to make those same flowers.

I did the scarf from memory from the stitch I saw on the show. Here is the link to the headband pattern (you need to register to download it but I like this site and would recommend it).

Even though I was going from memory, I coincidentally used the exact same stitch count as the headband pattern but because I used a very chunky yarn, it came out much larger  🙂 and I obviously did many more rows than they did. Do as many rows as you need to get the desired length.

I did something slightly different on the ends of my scarf that are not in the original pattern. I started the scarf with a row of double crochet followed by a row of single crochet and then I followed the pattern. When I reached the length I liked, I did a row of single crochet followed by a row double crochet to finish it off. I also changed colors. I had less of the pink colored yarn than the white so I did four rows of pink and six rows of cream and repeated that until the end. My niece was pretty happy with the end result.

You might be wondering if I stopped at one scarf and it probably won’t surprise you to know that I did NOT stop at one scarf. I made another because I was on a roll. Recall I looked at THOUSANDS (this might be a slight exaggeration) of pictures so I had a lot of ideas rattling in my head but that’s a blog post for another day!

I am not affiliated with any websites nor do I make any money from these sites. They are simply patterns I like or would like to try myself.