again.
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| Art Doll Clothes, March 21st 2012 |
In the above image, there is a jacket, hat and matching mittens, a knitted tee-shirt and the beginnings of a pinafore dress to go over said shirt... all for the knitted art doll that I will, at some point, get around to working on (I'm not brilliant with knitting in the round, it requires an awful lot of concentration which, just lately, I don't have to spare in an evening). Goodness knows why, but I have an awful habit of knitting the clothes before I make the doll to wear them.
... then again, I do have a tendency to do most things backwards.
So. Why am I knitting an art doll? For The Girl's birthday in August. At almost 16, she's "too old" to play with dolls - but she does like to collect them and so, last year, I took it into my head to knit her a "larger than your average newborn child" art doll - Daisy. And I thoroughly enjoyed not only making Daisy, but also seeing the expression of "you *made* this?! For *me*?!" upon my daughter's face when she unwrapped the box. Whilst Daisy had one outfit (which consisted of a knitted top and a hand sewn skirt decorated with beads in the form of... yep, daisies!), this year I've talked myself into making at least two outfits for the new doll. I have no clue as to what this doll is going to look like yet, but The Boy is insistent that her name will be Tilly... and that *his* doll (for yes, he is determined to be added into the weird tradition I seem to have erroneously begun!), will be Tilly's little brother, Tom.
I'm bizarrely intrigued to discover for myself what this Tilly and Tom are actually going to look like... but hopefully they will look slightly more chuffed about wearing their hats than Carma did when I used him as a model to check the shape was right for a head...
... she was simply trying to give me enough time to flee from his wrath after I'd inflicted not only the indignity of modelling a doll's bonnet - but dared to take a photograph for him so doing!
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| The Girl wasn't strangling him, I promise... |
On my Kindle right now, I'm reading Lost Souls by Neil White. It's the second in the series of novels he's written - I wrote about the first in my last Yarn Along post - and concerns child abductions, precognition, a wannabe-Mafia boss, crumbling barristers and a newly blended family. It's slightly slower paced than the first, but is holding my interest. At the moment. I'm undecided whether or not to continue with this series after this book, though.
As with all things, however, we shall have to wait and see...
Briliant cat picture ;) Hope the dolls are happier about their outfits!
ReplyDeleteThank you. I hope they are, too. :)
DeleteMy daughter has always collected dolls too and now has passed them on to her daughter. How lovely that you know how to make dolls and are their fashion designer as well.
ReplyDeleteI love the cat's expression, he doesn't look thrilled!
I hope you have a lovely yarn along day.
Oh, Carma wasn't thrilled in the slightest... but he loves me, so he puts up with me putting dolls hats on his head every now and then, just so long as I allow him to sulk for a while afterwards... ;)
DeleteOh that is so fun! My daughter will be 4 in May, and we are starting her doll collection (because she is definitely not to young to play with dolls). My husband is building her a doll house, and I am in charge of the dolls :-)
ReplyDeleteMy daughter was never really "into" dolls (but call it an art doll, and she's intrigued)... her little brother, on the other hand, plays with "action figures, Mummy; *action figures*!!!" all of the time.
Delete4's a lovely age... all that imagination coming through! And being in charge of the dolls is the best bit, surely?! :)
Wow! I'm impressed that you can come up with a vision in your head and then make it real! I can"t wait to see the finished doll!! Happy knitting!!
ReplyDeleteThank you. Although I am using a pattern someone with far more smarts than I have came up with... :)
DeleteI'm also intrigued by what the finished doll is going to look like (although, it'll undoubtedly be plural rather than singular: The Boy is insistent that this year he gets one too... and I'm an advocate of fairness). Daisy ended up *huge*... to the point where she dwarfed my then-newborn goddaughter last August.
My daughter loves her baby dolls! I've never thought of knitting her one. The poor kitty! I hope he's over his trauma by now!! :-)
ReplyDeleteEven though I had a lot of knitted toys when I was a child, I didn't think of making them until my son was born - and he loves them. My daughter was never "into" dolls or soft toys when she was little (it was always a pencil and a piece of paper for her - she's a wonderful artist... even though I'm biased towards her talent), but The Boy? Has a whole heap of knitted or sewn toys that he cuddles up to, or runs around the house and garden with. He's even willing to be seen in public with them... and he's almost 8 now, so I figure his love of them is a genuine one.
DeleteOh, Carma sulked for a while afterwards but he's actually pretty tolerant of my insanity. As long as he gets tuna as a reward for suffering the indignity of having to be a test model for a doll's bonnet and is allowed to be sullen for a while, he's okay with it. :)
That sounds like a lovely tradition- I have to laugh at your son :) Sounds like something my daughter would say ;)
ReplyDeleteThe cat is cracking me up though ;)
And that was the least "I am going to rip your eyeballs out and use them as ping-pong balls!" photograph I have of the event... ;)
DeleteThe Girl's terrified of the porcelain dolls her great-grandmother kept presenting her with... which is why I knitted her a doll for her last birthday. Now Daisy sits amongst the porcelain dolls on her shelf and The Girl sleeps easier at night apparently.
Aw, I know what you mean about that "you made it? for me?" look. It's so worth the work!
ReplyDeleteIt certainly is. :)
DeleteI've been knitting now for almost 30 years and yet I have never knit doll clothes or anything toy related. Hmm, maybe that's because my Mom had so much fun crocheting doll clothes for our girls when they were little. Anyway, I love your tradition and that cat photo made me smile.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteConversely, I have yet to work up the courage to knit anything other than a scarf for an actual person to wear... My mum loves knitting jumpers, gloves and hats for people, so we balance one another out, I think. :)
Oh I love your cat's expression. I don't think he'll be looking for a modelling career any time soon. (I tried to avoid using the phrase cat walk, but, oh, I just cannot resist!)
ReplyDeleteIn some of the other photographs I took of him, you can quite clearly see the thought process of "I am going to inflict emotional pain on you for this indignity!" going through his expression! Small wonder, perhaps, that he's also known as Psycho... ;)
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