It has been a while...

 

Fireworks in the graveyard:  Liberty

I guess it has been a while since I've posted!  Still making dolls, and the following dolls are variations on the Simple Doll pattern in the previous post.  Somehow I got on to a creepy-cute kick, and these started jumping off my hooks.  There is no separate pattern for them.  

For inspiration, I found a great Etsy seller of digital artwork:  Locker61;  purchased her zombie/voodoo/creepy digital art, and used it for inspiration.  Here is an example:

Digital artwork by Locker61

These make up fast.  If you have a cache of buttons, mix them up for the eyes.  To color the faces, I used colored pencils dipped in water.  You really cannot go wrong.

I sketched the backgrounds using a free online application:  Sketchbook.  I am no artist, but it was just plain fun to draw again, like I did as a kid.  I use this on an Android tablet computer.  

Here are a few more of my creepy friends:

Flora

Stone

Flora and Stone got their names from an Aldi's Merlot...

Wormwood

Rosewood

Crochet is amazing.  With a hook and string, you can create anything.  Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas and Blessed Yuletide, from Ivy, Merry, and Noelle.

Simple Doll

 It has been a long while since I designed a new doll.  As I get older, I find working with the finer yarns I enjoyed using are harder to see and work with.  Yet I still like smaller dolls.

And with prices going up everywhere, good value-priced yarns become more desireable to me.  My favorite is Red Heart Super Saver.  A particularly good yarn for making toys, as it wears like iron, and comes in large skeins that are valued priced.  Not to mention, a boodle of colors, including some great skin tones.

So here is a very simple crochet doll, using worsted yarn for the body, hair, and clothing.  She stands eight inches tall without the wig cap.  Being retired, I can make the doll in one day, and have the evening to read or watch a movie!  There is no definition for feet or hands.  She is crocheted in one piece, with the arms crocheted into the body.  No internal frame or special neck stabilzing, except for a twisted rope of yarn.

And, she is just in time for the Friday after Thanksgiving!  Instead of pounding the pavements looking for gifts, you can curl up with a cuppa tea or coffee, your favorite yarn, and make a doll that will delight a boy or girl.  Oh yes, and nibble on leftover turkey!

Here is the pattern for Simple Doll, with several different wig caps:

Simple Doll

And here is the pattern for Simple Doll's wardrobe, which also includes a nightgown.  With these elements,  you can make all kinds of outfits.  Put long sleeves on the dress, make a blouse out of the nightgown, a sweater dress out of the pullover.

Simple Doll Wardrobe

Have a blessed Thanksgiving, and enjoy the crochet!

Crochet Dolls by Carla Mitrani

 

The first of two doll-related posts.  The creations of Carla Mitrani, aka Amour Fou, are a delight to make, and I have been making them!  You can purchase her patterns in book form, as above, through Amazon, or buy individual patterns from her Etsy shop:  AmourFouCrochet

Here are a few of my makes from her easy to follow and delightful patterns:

Small Greta Thunberg and large Greta Thunberg.  Small made with DK weight cotton yarn and a C hook; large made with worsted weight yarn and an E hook.  Small is about 7 inches tall; large 8.5 inches.

Malala Yousafzai, Pasistani activist for women's education rights.  The pattern called for a cloth hijab, but I chose to make one in crochet.  It is simply a cap with along scarf end crocheted to the back and wrapped around the front.

A dressable doll I made from the basic doll pattern, and using elements from the Horoscope book and my own imagination.

And my absolute favorite, Vincent VanGogh.  Photo manipulated against one of his later paintings.  

I highly recommend all of Carla's patterns.  Enjoy the day, and enjoy the crochet!

Size Matters...or, look at both yardage and weight when choosing your yarn!

 

These two dolls, from Sandy Nordwall Eggers' BoHo Hippie doll pattern, were made from Worsted Weight Yarn.  The one of the left, the smaller, used Bernat Super Value yarn.  The one on the right used Red Heart Super Saver yarn.  Same hook, same number of stitches.

The Bernat yarn worked up smaller, as it is thinner than the Red Heart yarn:

Bernat - 7 ounces/ 440 yards

Red Heart - 7 ounces/ 364 yards

That is a pretty big difference for two value priced yarns that are both labeled as Worsted Weight/ Medium/4.  And you can see it in the way they work up.

Not only that, the Bernat yarn feels cheaper.  I do not care for it, and I would not recommend it.

So, where is the best place to buy Red Heart Super Saver?  Try JoAnn's Fabrics.  If they don't have it in stock, you can order it online.  I've tried ordering Red Heart from Michaels...but you have to order SIX skeins for home delivery!  I might want six skeins of a skin color, but not for all the other colors.  Yarnspiration carries Red Heart, but it is almost twice as expensive from them as it is from JoAnn's.

So, enjoy the day, and enjoy the crochet!

"Not Recommendable" by Facebook

 

Artwork by J R R Tolkien

I am a tremendous fan of all the works of J R R Tolkien.  I love the movies, and I love the new Amazon Prime Rings of Power streaming show.

So I decided, with some encouragement from like-minded friends, to create a Facebook Page to celebrate all things Tolkien.  His own words, his own art, my words, my photography, and such topics that I feel to be relavant to Tolkien.  My page is known as 'Marigold Brandyfoot'

Today, Facebook publishes on my page the following statement:

Your Page is not recommendable

Content on your Page is preventing it from being suggested to people. Let's help you be recommendable again.

What???  Two days ago, I did a post regarding the banning of books, asking when the books of Tolkien might find themselved banned from middle and high school libraries.  This is the only thing I can think of that would have lead to the above chastisment from Facebook.  Interestingly, a sense of censorship here.

If you would like to journey with me in Middle Earth, and celebrate its beauty, and grieve at its hurts, you can follow my page here:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088661962619

Here is a sample post from June 4:

“I am (obviously) much in love with plants and above all trees, and always have been; and I find human maltreatment of them as hard to bear as some find ill-treatment of animals.” JRR Tolkien

Please join me, in Middle Earth.  Thank you.  signed....Marigold Brandyfoot.

Memorial Day 2023

Memorial Day 2023

Soldiers who kept us free;

Spouses who loved our country.

Their memories fade

As do our own,

Reaching toward our final home.

'Never forget' never lasts;

And so we never learn

From the tears of our past.

Rest in peace;

You did your best;

May we have the courage to do the rest.

Emma Revisited

 Revisiting the last doll pattern I designed, Emma.  She is worked in worsted weight yarn (I used Red Heart Super Saver in Buff) and has very simple jointed arms and legs.  

Going for more of a Waldorf feel, she has a wig cap made from mohair yarn, which is a bit hard to work with, but makes the most wonderful hair!

You can leave it long, pull it into a single braid, make pigtails or ponytails with it.

In this case, she has double braids.  Her dress and pinafore are adapted from Sandy Nordwall Eggers Spring Dress for Marci available on Ravelry.  I lengthend the dress, and worked the initial lace pattern on the pinafore for additional repeats to make it longer.  Both dress and pinafore are crocheted from Paintbox DK cotton yarn.

Her hat and boots are from the Emma patterns available on this blog.  

Family

 

Family will not be with you forever. Enjoy the time you are given. Husband, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Sister, Brother, and Dad.