Let’s pretend it’s winter!

I feel like I haven’t updated my blog in ages, but when I check the dates, it’s only been two weeks. I guess it feels this way because my days are super busy now, and I have hardly any time for myself. Turns out that new duties at work mean more to do, who knew…? 😉 But speaking seriously, I find out that when I really have a lot to do and have to keep up the pace, I am suddenly much better organized than when I’m less busy. I prepare weekly and daily checklists, and I keep track of things to do and those I’ve already finished in my beloved Excel spreadsheets, and this helps me a lot (it also comes in handy later when it’s time to issue the invoice and pay my taxes). I’ve always been the type of person who works best when I can write things down, somehow the process or organizing things in my head and then putting the plan on paper (or more often, in a text file on my computer) makes me feel in control and like I can handle everything. And it’s really working!

Still, free time is scarce and it’s going to be this way until September, so knitting and crochet slowed down. And somehow in the middle of this hectic period, I felt that I absolutely needed to make a new doll, complete with yarny hair and tiny clothes made of scrap yarn.

So here she is: my new crochet doll!

At first, I wanted to use the same pattern that I’d used twice before: Monja Doll by CARO created design. But I went to the designer’s Ravelry website, and I kept looking at all those wonderful patterns, and I decided to choose a different one. These dolls are all based on the same doll pattern, what changes are the hair and clothes. I thought I could probably figure out how to crochet or knit different outfit, and how to change the hair type, but at the same time, I felt that it’s good to support the designer who is so creative and talented, and I decided to just buy a new pattern. This time I chose the Joya Doll, because I loved her winter look, with her pom poms, and ear-flap hat, and her padded hoodie vest.

This designer’s dolls are very detailed and fiddly, each item of clothing is a small challenge, and the whole pattern is over 30 pages long because of that. Which was exactly what I needed: lots of small elements that I could work on separately, during short breaks I could take from work. And one element after another, it took me about 2 weeks (and nearly all my scrap yarn, hurray!) to crochet this doll. I made a few mistakes, the one I regret the most being the eyes that I somehow inserted too close to each other and then couldn’t remove them to correct it, because, as it turns out, these safety eyes are really safe and can’t be removed without destroying the head completely. I also modified some things; since crochet tends to create thicker and stiffer fabric, I wanted to make some of the details softer and so I knitted the sweater and the leg warmers instead of crocheting them. The original doll’s clothes cannot be changed, the sleeves of the jumper are part of the hand, and the skirt is sewn to the body. I wanted to avoid that, I think the fun with dolls is the possibility to make new clothes for them, just as much as being able to style their hair (or at least this is how I used to play with dolls as a child – I loved sewing and making new outfits and I learned to use the sewing machine very early exactly for that reason!). That’s why all my clothes (except for the top and underwear which are permanent) are removable.

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But other than that, I followed the pattern pretty faithfully and I’m super happy with the result.

My doll has no name and to be honest – no purpose either. I have no idea what to do with her. Should I keep her to have the reason to knot some new tiny clothes from time to time? 😉 Should I find another charity auction and give her away (that is probably what I’m going to do)? My friends’ daughters are all already teens, and I just realized that even the daughters of my cousins that I’ve always considered the babies of the family are not that young anymore!

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For now, she’s sitting in my wardrobe, and just makes me smile whenever I look at her. And after all, that was the purpose, right?