From my Archives

This is a pattern I designed back in 2008, and made many dolls from. In fact, my flickr Avatar is a doll from this pattern. Anyway, one of my flickr friends wanted to make this doll, with cat ears, for her grandkids and their friends, so I'm putting the pattern up here for her and anyone else who is interested. It has been a while since I've made a doll from this pattern, so the pattern may not be perfect. It does include instructions for Human, Cat, and Bear ears, and there are some pictures on my flickr site of dolls made up with these.

Like most Amigurumi, this doll is very simple to make, consisting of single crochet in worsted weight yarn. The pattern calls for 'soft' yarns, but any worsted acrylic will work. My problem with most 'soft' yarns is that they split and can be a pain to crochet. These dolls are about 10 inches tall, I think. Unfortunately I don't have any of them anymore; they have all found homes :-)

One of the nice things is that the clothing patterns are also made from worsted yarn, so they make up fast, and they are simple.

Here are the links to the patterns, which can also be found on the left sidebar under Basic Amigurumi Doll:

Basic Doll: 

Basic Aran Sweater: 

Basic Jeans: 

Basic Skirt: 

Basic Cardigan Sweater: 

Basic Tank Top: 


Becky, I hope you enjoy making the dolls :-)

The Little Gardener

If the flowers aren't blooming outside, you can always crochet yourself a garden that will never wilt :-)




My sister is a terrific gardener, so for her birthday this year I've made her a gardening mascot. The flowers crocheted here are many of our favorite spring blooming flowers: columbine, narcissus, pansies, and roses. The grassy carpet is a circle crocheted of worsted yarn and eyelash yarn together. I used the eyelash yarn in every other round.


The lovely flowers are from the book 'Crochet Bouquet' which was published in 2008. I was able to borrow it from our local library, but I think I'm going to have to purchase this one! It has some of the best flower patterns I've ever seen. This is the first crochet columbine that actually looks like the real thing :-) Some of the flowers are funky, some are fun, and some (like these) downright realistic. A great book.

Adapting patterns for Free Spirit

I am having a great time adapting patterns for Free Spirit. She is 11 to 12 inches tall, and turns out to be a good size for many of the patterns designed for the Fibre Craft 13 inch and 15 inch dolls. The great thing about crochet is that you can fit as you go, so if you need to remove a row or two in the bodice, or nip the waist in a couple stitches, it is very easy to do this as you are crocheting.

For the outfit above, in addition to using a size E hook and Red Heart Soft worsted yarn, I took in four stitches at the waistline, and removed two rows from the skirt. Sleeves and neck did not need to be altered. It fits Minerva very nicely :-) This was a pattern designed for the 13 inch Fibre Craft doll.


For this American Indian costume, I removed two rows from the bodice, and two rows from the skirt. I used a size E hook and Caron Simply Soft. This costume was designed for the 15 inch Fibre Craft doll. So what I notice is, the 13 inch doll bodice needs to be reduced in the waist, and the 15 inch doll bodice needs to be shortened slightly.

I crocheted these outfits very tightly; the gauge was six sc to one inch. I think they could be made in sport weight and a slighly looser grip on the hook with the same alterations.

Free patterns are available, and there are also out-of-print patterns available from Amazon, and from this site:

http://www.treasuredheirloomscrochet.com/index.html

Enjoy the crochet!

Winter Dawn

Winter Dawn is finished; an American Indian Free Spirit. She is shown here with her faithful familiar, Wings-that-Whisper, from the Roman Sock blog owlet pattern.



Winter's dress is a slight adaptation of the pattern shown here, which is a free pattern available at this link:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080216045153/www.fibrecraft.com/dofun/dollsbears/crochet/chief_princess.asp

I used sport weight yarn and a size E hook, and eliminated one row on the yoke front and back. Plus, I flared the skirt more than the pattern called for by increasing 5sc every other row.

For her boots, I used a different free pattern, located at the same site, and except for using sportweight yarn and a size E hook I did not need to make any changes. This was the Indian Princess IV pattern.