Life Size Crochet Doll WIP

What to do when I have a half-finished doll the kids are salivating to get their hands on? I let them play with it of course! Not sure if this was prudent, but it sure was fun. I’ve allowed the kids to play with her because I wasn’t sure I could finish her before the end of the school year. I’m glad I did  because they’ve been having so much fun with her. Especially the hair, they can’t stop messing with the hair! They even put this cute flower in it that came from a cupcake we had for snack.

The flower made all the difference!

One little girl shared her headband 🙂

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Bavarian Crochet Coat

Dense Bavarian Crochet Coat

I went off and started another crochet coat (sweater, cardigan, I never know how to label it). I’m almost done with it and realized I hadn’t done a single post about it. Well, if you count the post I made about the Bavarian square, then I guess I did post about it (at least the idea of making a sweater from it). And here I am , almost done with it.

The process for this one has been interesting. Here’s what I knew I wanted in a new sweater (coat, cardigan): It needed to be long. It needed to be dense (i.e. no holes to plug up). It needed to be easy. Lastly, it needed to fit! Oh, and feel good too, let’s not forget that.

Life Size Crochet Doll Progress

Picture it, three small children, smitten with half of a life size doll. I finally attached arms to my doll and three of my Kindergarten students couldn’t stop hugging her and dare I mention, one of them couldn’t stop kissing her. The doll is a bit heavy because I stuffed her body with rags but that didn’t stop them from picking her up and squeezing her (and kissing her).

Progress on Life Size Doll

Progress on the creepy life-sized doll is slow going. The body is done but I haven’t really had a chance to work on anything else but I did get started on the hands and am hopeful I can get the arms done by the end of the month.

 

That’s a kindergartner hand. Pretty close.

Once the arms get done, I can give her a shirt and finally give her some hair. Once she gets hair, she won’t be quite so creepy. I threw a small work shirt on her so the kids could stop worrying about her state of nakedness. Although, I might let her keep the shirt. 🙂

The kids are super excited now. One of my second graders was in her last week with us before a move to another state and she used the ‘moving’ card on me.  I wasn’t letting any of them play with the doll. It was weird  to me she wanted to play with something that looked like a bowling pin  but how could I say no to my student when she looked at me all sad and telling me she won’t get to see it finished. I handed it to her and the kids all squealed with delight. Honestly, I didn’t understand how they could have so much excitement over a half finished doll that looked creepy to boot. Must be a kid thing.

Progress on Crochet Sweaters

Now that the frenzy of Christmas is over, I can go back to finishing my projects languishing in craft bags all over my house. My number one priority at home is to finish my two sweaters. I profess that I will not start anything new until I’m done with at least one. I proclaim that I will wear one of those sweaters before winter ends. (Don’t hold me to any of that!!!)

My granny square sweater will NOT be worn this winter. Those plugs are taking for ever!!! I get discouraged more quickly so it gets put down more often. Instead, I’m working on a new sweater that actually has a chance of seeing the light of a cold day.

I’m working this new sweater in a beautiful star stitch with alternating and complementary colors from my yarn stash (I didn’t want to buy anymore yarn). As usual, I jumped in head first, armed with an idea and a plan. I arranged my colors and got to work. I thought I knew what I was doing. I’ve done the star stitch a million times (it’s one of my favorite stitches). I went for it measuring along my body and deciding lengths and widths that way.

As I was crocheting along, after row upon row of star stitches, I noticed a slight lean to my garment. I was supposed to be getting rectangular panels that I would sew together later but I was getting a parallelogram instead! When I first noticed the lean, I didn’t believe it. I convinced myself it was my imagination so I kept working. By the time I noticed it again, it was too late!

Those are some shifty rows there.

Scary Life Size Doll Head

I mentioned in a previous post that I was crocheting a life size doll of myself at work. Alas, I had to place it on the back burner in lieu of other, more pressing projects. Well, it’s day has come! I will not pick up any other projects until that doll is done. So I in that spirit…

I resumed work on the head. My little minions (Kindergarteners) couldn’t help themselves from helping me work on the doll. I had completed the head and had embroidered the face, using their suggestions of course. It was ready for stuffing.

Before I stuffed, I had to get up for something and left my work on the table. I can see all of you shaking your heads thinking to yourselves that I was asking for it. I see no pity in your eyes. I did indeed ask for it. I came back to a student running around with his hand in the opening of the doll head, using it like a puppet. A long string of yarn was tailing him around the room as it unwound from the ball of yarn. I quickly had him bring it back. Luckily, I had my stitch marker in so it didn’t unravel.

Can someone help me run around the room? I’m bored.

Now that she was rescued, it was time for stuffing. They love helping me stuff so I let them

New Crochet Sweater

I  couldn’t help myself! I couldn’t wait until I was done plugging up all the holes on my old sweater. I haven’t even finished it and it’s already ‘my old sweater’. Sheesh! I did manage to plug up the granny squares on the outer rim of the sweater.

24 finished squares is good for now.

I just couldn’t do one more square. Images of a new crochet sweater just wouldn’t leave me alone. I kept asking myself why I had become obsessed with making a new sweater when I had a perfectly lovely sweater that just needed finishing. What would be so great about starting a new sweater? I asked the universe (my yarn stash) and the universe answered. It was because I wasn’t crocheting, I was sewing and no matter how I sliced it, sewing just isn’t as much fun as crocheting. I needed a break from the sewing and needed to be creative for a bit. That’s why I needed, NEEDED, to start a new project. That’s all the excuse I needed to start rummaging through my stash to see if I had enough yarn to start a new sweater. The answer was yes, if I used different colors and didn’t bother trying to make sure the yarn was all the same type. What was the worst that could happen? If I didn’t like it, no harm no foul. I could always go back to plugging holes.

But I’m liking the look of the new sweater. I’m using the star stitch and so far I like the colors. This is going to be the bottom panel. I’m going to repeat the color pattern one more time and then start on the vertical rows (as mentioned in the previous post).

 

I feel better now. I think I can alternate between  crocheting this sweater and plugging up the other one without getting all twitchy. I’ll probably finish them up at the same time and then I’ll have two sweaters. 🙂

Sweater Progress

I have a whole week off from work for Thanksgiving and I was ruminating about my granny square sweater and its million and one plugs hanging around in my craft bag. With all this time off, I thought I should really get cracking on that and try to fill in some holes. But then…I had a new thought. Perhaps I could just start a new sweater. I would probably finish it sooner than plugging away at my old sweater.

Visions of stitches I could use and color patterns I could configure danced in my head. Enticing pictures from the web flitted across my screen screaming that they wouldn’t take long at all to make. I was tempted, I still am, but no, I couldn’t abandon my granny square sweater. I needed to tend to that first. So, I finished 10 squares in one day! Unfortunately that meant I spent most of my day sitting but I felt very accomplished even though my bones were very creaky with atrophy.

Don’t know if I will convince myself to pick it up again today. Starting a new sweater still sounds tempting. This photo keeps calling to me.

Pattern

I’m looking at it as a template. The star stitch and colors are buzzing in my head. I like the idea of the horizontal section at the bottom  with the vertical stripes at the top. I’m thinking the start stitch would look really nice with alternating colors. The star stitch would make a very thick and warm coat. No holes to plug! Might be too thick though. I would need a yarn that wasn’t too thick. And that is what’s stopping me from starting a new sweater. I would need to buy more yarn. I have so much yarn in my craft room but not enough of any one kind to finish a sweater.

Then again, I could challenge myself to come up with something that could incorporate what I have into a pleasant design. Hmmm…this needs some more thought…

Meanwhile, back to plugging.

Plugging Gaps

Been working on plugging up those holes in my sweater. I dread doing it. I get home so tired from work that I  look at my bag with the sweater peaking out of it and all I can think is that I’ll do it tomorrow. Tomorrow is so elusive. It never comes. Then one day I feel inspired. I grab and start plugging away. Yay! I finished a square. Now just 74 more to go! Yeah, then I ignore it again but at least now I have six squares finished. There are moments I think of undoing the plugs I already did and just leaving the sweater as is or finding a different way of lining it. But, alas, I like the purple splash of color. It’s taking so long to complete but I’m actually loving the result. Sooooo, I will plug away until it’s done, even if I won’t be wearing it until next winter.

In case anyone was wondering why I’m being such a whiner, here are some of the plugs I’ve made so far.

 

 

Does it look like a massive blob of yarn? Yeah, to me too. That’s why I keep ignoring it.

 

I’ve bundled them in groups of 8 to convince myself to grab a bundle and finish one square. It works sometimes. 🙂

I give myself credit for making and bundling all those plugs. I take that same credit away since now I have an overwhelming pile that’s being ignored (mostly :-)). And that’s not even all of them! I need to make more.

But here’s how it’s turning out. I am insane for doing this but it will be well worth it in the end.

Yes, those cascading squares on the side haven’t been plugged yet. There are so many!

It started as a joke…

The idea has been thrown around before, never with much expectation that it will truly happen. I mean, it’s preposterous. It would be a huge undertaking that might never see the light of day. Alas, the idea came up again as a joke but this time, that little worm made it’s way to the part of my brain that accepts ridiculous crochet projects.

I am now in the process of creating a life size crochet doll modeled after me that will stand sentry at work (where I run an after school program). We have giggled that it will take my place at work and no one will be the wiser. Most likely it will scare unsuspecting night custodians who clean up our room when we are all gone. My fellow teachers who are in the