A Future Mermaid?


With any luck Molly (did I mention she now has a name? She goes by Molly or Magic Molly lately) has had her last haircut. She went through another "shearing" and I pulled out almost all the shetland wool from her wig-she had been declared "pokey." So, I filled it back in with some of that darker brown alpaca that I mentioned earlier (two ply-not a single, ended up working out better). I am hoping no further transformations will be needed at this point, although the latest indigo yarn would make for some enchanting mermaid hair!

More spinning and tiny bit of knitting

Some indigo dyed romney top that was dipped once:

As a spun single:

Its now been plied and needs the twist to be set and dried. For a belated Christmas gift I gave my mom a handspun hat. Could it be simpler? I don't think so but its so cute. I think hats are the true destiny of this roving. Its so lovely, more of Rita's white merino blended with silver alpaca. I made both a knit and felt scarf from this and tried spinning it finer on a spindle but it was a little prickly on the neck as a scarf and as a finer yarn the coarser fiber of the alpaca stood out more. So, I've gone with a softly spun, slightly thick and thin single. I knit it on size 8 needles but it definitely could have knit it more loosely.

I loved this hat so much I wanted one for myself so here I am trying it out as a beenie. I've got it almost finished at this point but I'm not sure about the shaping of the beenie on my head...I might have to go back to the start with this one.

Thanks Courtney

For reminding me that I have a blog. I'm still bubbling with craftiness but less so with blogginess apparently. Here is a recent dyeing endeavor, it started out most ordinary with quebracho red (top), logwood purple (middle) and some madder.


Resulting in this colorful poofy pile of merino goodness:

And then resulted in my favorite dyeing thus far:

I took the excess madder and que red bath and overdyed some indigo romney top, expecting some form of greys with blue and a little red tones but the results were much more pink and rosy purple in spots than I expected.

These are 3 2 oz tops braided together, one did come out much more grey than the other two. I'm deciding between a 2 or 3 ply yarn for this one. Madder and Indigo, my new favorite combo. I think the quebracho red pushed it in a much more purple direction which I adore. But the spinning will have to wait until its washed and until this next project is closer to finished.

"Scary Baby" or "Baby Head" as she was once known, is now tenatively called Molly. She was almost a boy, in order to reflect the gender of my real kids. But the hair, well, it was just too crazy and Baby J didn't care for it at all. If I do a boy doll I think I might just crochet a worsted weight wool cap/wig and sew that on but without sewing in additional "sticking out" hair.

So, meet the daughter I never had: Molly. I let there be some assymetry, don't look too closely at her eyes if asymmetry bothers you. It is my first doll afterall and I was getting hung up on various parts of the process being perfect. In the end, I think I just need to let go and push through. Here she is with hair laid ontop only. Baby J requested "rainbow hair" and "long, long, long, like that-like a sister."

Here are the three yarns used so far to make her hair. On the right is Becan's shetland wool (again from Homestead wool and gift farm) that I spun long ago, in the middle is the brown mohair that she came with from Joy's Waldorf dolls and on the left is the Misti Alpaca sock yarn that I knit a pair of last minute Christmas socks from for my grandmother in Taiwan. I'd like to work in one other darker, richer brown yarn that is not yet spun up. I want a single of dark brown Alpaca that is from a pinto Alpaca I've got stashed away. So soft. In the very front is the boy hair carnage that I'm saving for later possibly boy doll.

I've got no clue if I'm doing this doll hair thing properly. Well, I'm certain I'm not. I got completely stuck on the crocheted cap and gave in to knitting one finally. Now I've stitched the top on with the part and I'm filling in the rest by rug stitching it on, some sort of bastardized rug stitch I'm sure. But I think its going to hold up alright, I don't forsee my boys desperate to style her hair anyways. I do love her little nose.

Stitching on the part, I could fall in love with doll making just for the hair!