My Knitted Doll. Louise Crowther
ection>
MY KNITTED DOLL
Louise Crowther
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
I’m delighted to introduce you to twelve adorable little people who are bound to make the little people in your life very happy indeed. I think we all had a doll or a teddy, or something similar, that we thought of as a best friend when we were growing up – someone to share adventures and make up stories with. The great thing about Penny, Grace, Anna, Ralph and the whole gang is that they are full of personality and have plenty of features like clothes, bags and hats that can enhance play and add to the fun. I’ve designed them all with play in mind, and given complete instructions to make knitting them a breeze.
The inspiration for my dolls comes mainly from all the beautiful children’s clothes available on the high street, the gorgeous little dresses and trendy outfits I would love to buy and dress my little girl in... if only I’d had one!
I created my first doll back in 2010 after looking for a pattern to knit a gift for a friend’s daughter. There is something very special and satisfying about seeing a child all snuggled up with a toy that you have lovingly made. I wanted something different, something other than the traditional knitted dolls I remembered from my childhood, something that was stylish and cute rather than brash and garish. Unable to find anything suitable I decided to have a go at making my own pattern, with the contemporary look I had in mind. The resulting doll was a resounding success and I soon became inundated with requests for more dolls.
Each pattern is written in a straight forward, easy-to-follow manner with row by row instructions, so that even the less-experienced knitter will find them easy to follow. The patterns in this book are designed for you and your friends and family to enjoy and for private use only.
Finally, please look at the section on personalising your knitted doll. You can treat any of the dolls as a starting point and adapt the hair, clothing, colours and features to make the perfect doll for you. I look forward to seeing photos of your knitted dolls, share them using the hashtag #myknitteddoll and you can see everyone else’s too.
Hope you enjoy knitting these dolls as much as I have enjoyed creating them,
TOOLS & MATERIALS
There are so many yarns and needles, and other bits and bobs available in specialist stores and online that I thought I should give you a brief guide to the things I use to achieve the look of the dolls you can see in this book.
YARN
The dolls in this book have all been made using 4 ply (fingering) weight yarn in 100% cotton. I love the crisp, clean look of 100% cotton yarn. It is non-allergic for most people, incredibly robust and stands up well to being played with.
Tip
BECAUSE THE DOLLS ARE RELATIVELY SMALL YOU WILL ONLY NEED A SMALL AMOUNT OF EACH COLOUR OF YARN – A 25G BALL OF YARN IN EACH WOULD EASILY BE ENOUGH.
Various brands of cotton yarn have been used for these dolls, mainly Patons 100% cotton 4 ply, Puppets Lyric 4 ply, Anchor Creativa Fino Cotton and Scheepjes Catona (please refer to Suppliers at the back of the book).
Although I recommend using 100% cotton yarn to achieve the same look and feel as my dolls, the patterns will work just as well with any 4 ply non-fancy spun yarn.
NEEDLES
You will need a pair of each of 2.5mm and 3mm straight needles and two 2.5mm double pointed needles to complete each doll.
You may need to adjust your needle sizes to accommodate your own personal tension, I am quite a tight knitter but many of you may knit loosely and therefore will need to adjust your needle size to achieve the correct gauge.
All the dolls in this book should have the same gauge: 35 sts and 48 rows to 10cm (4in) in stocking stitch on 2.5mm needles.