i went a little doll crazy since the start of the year. i mentioned in this post how i came across lalylala dolls back in january (and i linked to the pattern source in that post too). i think these dolls are just so charming. i love the proportions of them and how ... simple ... they are in a way. they have so much character. i had a really hard time deciding which pattern to get first and luckily there was a special offer where you could get either three, five or even seven patterns in bulk for a little cheaper than they would have been had you bought this many individually. (this offer is no longer available, which makes it easier in a way because you don't have to decide which other patterns you want to add just to get a discount even if you actually only wanted one anyway...)
i got five: the house fly, the fox, the dragon, the kangaroo and the sheep. i hadn't actually planned on buying the fly pattern but T saw them all and instantly requested that i make a fly. how could i resist that...? so the fly it was instead of the lion (which i got later) and as soon as i had all the patterns downloaded i started. i use sockyarn and a 2,5mm crochet hook for these dolls. it took me a while to get used to - i'm very well used to knitting with such fine yarn and thin needles but i usually crochet with heavier yarn. i crocheted my yarn together with some teal coloured shimmery sewing thread to add a little interest and variation to it. and the grey wings got some silver sparkle thread. he's very proud to wear a scarf knitted from some handspun yarn with golden beads...
the pattern was not difficult to follow - even though i had only done some simple amigurumi veggies and fruit before. the only problem showed when i had to join the legs - the pattern starts with the legs which you then join to work on the bum and body. but i managed that in the end and was really pleased with the progress i was making.
you may know how it is with patterns: one or two or even five is never enough. having seen so many adorable dolls in the web i went on long searches to get hold of as many free add-on or modification patterns as i possibly could - there are two berry- and a bunny-add-on by the designer herself on her website but you need to buy the sheep pattern for one of the berries and one of the others that's not the bat, toadstool, cactus or either of the sea critters for the others, if that makes sense. i also saved lots of inspirational pictures of modifications where there was no pattern. (i'm sorry i can't link to the sources because i didn't save any of them - i only saved or copied the patterns i could find. some of them seemed to have weird restrictions about sharing them for free.) now i have quite a collection...
next i made the fox. i like foxes. they seem to be very popular through the whole of the crafing community at the moment, as are mermaids and flamingos apparently. it's funny in a way that all of the sudden there seems to be a global interest in some creature or other and nobody knows where this interest comes from as it appears to be inspired independently by different designers and crafting categories: a company releases a stamp set, a designer creates a knitting or crochet pattern, there are colouring images, fabrics and clothing with according prints on, etc. and they are all about the same thing... that's how i experience it anyway. it was like that with the foxes for me: without knowing exactly why, maybe i had seen something on the internet without really noticing it, i thought to myself "i really like foxes, they are actually very cute animals, not so random as cats or dogs or bunnies and quite clever too." and then they were popping up everywhere and all the world went fox-crazy!
i tried my best to get her ears a little pointier but couldn't do better than this. and by now i'm also better at chaning colours without it being so obvious as it is at her arms there. her scarf is from a leftover 6-ply zauberball and i even took pains to find this particular section in the colourway - a thing that i usually don't do. she is lovely and i already had more experience with stuffing her as i worked and there are no overstuffed parts - the fly's head turned out a little big. (the patterns all come with names already chosen for the dolls, but i don't like to adopt these - i want my kids to choose names for them if they want to.)
the two of them instantly became friends and she was well received by my little ones as well.
then i started an owl-modification i was kindly instructed on how to do by Häkelpüppi on facebook. and it is still not finished! argh! i don't even know exactly why but i assume it's the yarn. it's heavier than the sockyarn - i didn't have anything in my sock yarn stash that suited an owl and the one i would have liked to use, but would have had to order, was too expensive for doll-making. so i just bought something with appropriate colours at the craft store but didn't really like working with it... also i have noticed that i like crochet toys and dolls much more when they have small stitches. working with bigger yarn gives you a bigger finished object of course; but with chunkier yarn i always feel like the stitches are, in proportion to the finished size, even bigger than the stitches worked with sock yarn are compared to the finished size. but who really cares about such things...
i only have to finish off some of her accessories - i don't know what's keeping me so long...
on one of my searches of more mod-patterns (not that i needed them yet...) i found some adorable dolls with wonderfully intricate flower hats. first i thought they were lalylala doll modifications but then i realised they were by a different designer - and another talented one of that! his doll designs have a similar shape to lalylala dolls, but have longer legs and a shorter, less rounded body. to be honest: i like the shape of the lalylala dolls more, but that could also just be because i saw those first. (i know a lady from a crochet-doll group on facebook who saw the flower dolls first and then thought the laly-dolls looked odd with their shorter legs.) i asked said lady if she knew whether or not the flower hats fit on a lalylala doll head. she replied saying she thought so because she had made both and they are the same size; so i just had to get the rose pattern and i made this lovely doll:
i had a really hard time sewing her head on centered and after undoing it three times already i decided to just let it be. to keep her from appearing totally askew i cheated a little and attached her arms relative to her eyes as oppose to her "shoulders". it gives her a slightly shy appearance which adds greatly to her character i think.
i used FernerWolle "Color Flow" sockyarn in the shade "apple tree" which i had left over for her body. this yarn is a rather artsy thick-and-thin single spun yarn and even though it's labeled sock yarn it actually does not create very good socks (they turn baggy when you wear them and don't hold their shape) - it's more suitable for shawls and such. but the colours were just rigtht for a rose doll and i didn't have the right shade of either solid green or brown for it anyway.
my kids like to watch the puppet theatre version of Michael Ende's "Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver". and in the second part - "Jim Button and the Wild 13" - there appears a mermaid.
(this is a screen-shot from the movie.) i knew there was a mermaid lalylala and i liked the idea of making our own. her name is Sursulapitschi by the way - the "sch" is pronounced like "sh" - and she is a princess. i didn't have the right colour of yarn for her tail though so i ordered this one which i think fits the bill perfectly:
but because i didn't want to wait for the yarn to arrive and i had a sudden idea i took this ball of yarn i had left from my rainbow circle cardigan and started to make a rainbow mermaid instead:
this pattern is very easy and straightforward and the only thing that bugged me was that working on an already stuffed toy - because you have to stuff them as you go - can be a little troublesome as the whole thing is less squishy and more difficult to hold, but that's just part of it. with most of the other patterns the head is made seperately and then crocheted or sewed on, which can also be tricky but i actually mind it less than i mind handling already stuffed toys while working on them.
then i made 38 hair pieces - or scales as i call them - as the pattern said and pinned them onto the dolls head to see what it looked like. the pattern only said to sew them on but was not very explicit as to how exactly it was to be done. quite frankly: it sucked! and while i was doing it i vowed to myself to never make a scale-headed mermaid ever again. i tried my best to rainbow organise them and only when i was almost done i thought i should have followed my gut feeling telling me to pick them at random. i also had to make 2 more scales even though i felt like neither her head was very big nor did i overlap the scales too much - in the pictures in the pattern the looked much more overlapped... with only two more scales to sew on i was very tempted to cut them all off again and start over but i stitched the last scales in place and left her until the next day. when i came back and picked her up again to finish her arms she looked better already and has very much grown on me since.
when i make the Sursulapitschi doll i will give her a wild turquoise and green mermaid hairdo and i guess i really won't bother with the scales ever again - haha!
and i have to say i very much like her fin.
for the sparkle i crocheted some sparkle thread along with the rainbow yarn. it's "Coats Reflecta" in copper (nr. 314) and silver (nr. 301) and it is horribly expensive at 4,20€ for the 100m spool. i will have to find some other sparkle thread to add some glamour to future dolls - maybe something with colour too...
at the end of may there was a new lalylala pattern released and when i saw the announcement on facebook i dropped everything, bought it and started yet another doll... i'm beginning to feel that i make them more for myself than for the kids but i don't mind that so much actually. everybody needs something soft and slightly silly in their lives...
it's a seahorse! how awesome is that! haha!
now, this pattern was a tad more difficult than the others because you need to work stitches of different hight within the same round to get the curly tail. it's just a matter of following the instructions carefully and not losing track of where you are in the pattern. i used a large paper clip as a kind of arrow to point at the row i'm currently working on and i never lost track really. the only thing i wish i had done better was the beginning of the tail where i should have worked tighter i guess because the stuffing shows through the fabric. it's not coming out but it's visible - i'll know better next time.
haha! when i showed my husband the fin on seahorse's back and asked him if that looked straight to him he said: "as straight as a male seahorse in psychedelic pastels can be..." i almost fell off my seat... hihihi...
you may know - or not - that it's the daddy seahorses who take care of the babies. they are kept safe in a belly pouch.
this daddy here takes good care of his little one, which is only 8,5cm tall. R loves this little seahorse baby and i often find her carrying it around while she plays with other things.
and as all parents need a little hand from time to time it's a good thing there's a relative to help out...
the family keeps growing!
EDIT: here are the pattern links again for the lalylala dolls and the zabbez flower dolls.