To my dearest blog readers,

(All 3 of you out there...)

I know... I know... you are probably so sick of seeing pictures of dollies.. But please bear with me. These were just too cute. I had to share.

For all of you who feel that if you see one more dolly picture you might just throw up.....well... now is the time to go get yourself a bucket.

These pictures are from when Ava gave her cousin Audrey her dolly as a special present.

Ok, thats it... I promise I'm done.

So now that I've gotten all of that "doll knitting" out of my system, there are some exciting things coming up here!

I have some projects that are soon crossing the finish line,

as well as some super huge, complicated, scary sweaters

that I will be starting very soon.

Stay Tuned.

These dollies have been done for a few days now, and I just couldn't wait until next week to post pictures!

I am apologizing now for the ridiculous amount of pictures in this post. All the pictures were just too cute and it was hard to pick just a few.

Yea.... this is pretty much the longest post ever, so I hope you have a snack or something.

As you can see, Ava is so happy about them! I know that she is a bit young to fully appreciate her doll, but I cant wait until she and her cousin are a bit older and can pretend, and dress them up by themselves.

I will most likely be supervising Ava when she is playing with her dolly for now, because Im afraid that if I didn't her poor dolly could get very very dirty, seriously injured or have its face smooshed beyond recognition.

Ouch!!!

Ava had a tea party for the dolls today

Blonde Dolly: "My cup is empty! Why does this little girl keep saying that there is tea in here?"

Brunette Dolly: "Shhh... She's crazy! Just go along with it, or she'll pinch our faces together again!"

I made the blonde doll in Ava's likeness with the blonde hair and blue eyes. The brunette doll is for her one year old cousin Audrey who has dark eyes and brown hair.

I embroidered the girl's names on each of the dollies backsides.

(The dolls are so mortified that I am showing you this...)

The pattern for the dolls can be found in the book "Knitted Babes" by Claire Garland. I really love these dolls because you can be creative and give them any look that you would like. I think that their cute little felt faces and long spindly arms and legs give them alot of character.

The only modification that I made to the pattern is that I made their arms and legs I-cords instead of just a stockinette strip. I just think it looks more appropriate. As for the dresses, lace undies, sandals, those patterns are all found in the book.

I used RYC cashsoft for the dolly bodies, and a mix of Rowan Cotton 4-ply and Katia Mississippi for the dresses and shoes.

Audrey's Doll has hair made out of Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere.

Ava's doll has hair made from Crystal Palace Merino Frappe yarn.

It was so awesome to be able to use up yarn scraps for this project. These dolls are so neat because you feel as though you are making something adorable out of nothing.... Out of scraps and odd balls of yarn that you would never use anyways. This makes me think of all mountains of yarn scraps that I have. I would love to make future outfits for Ava's doll and put those scraps to good use.

I am hereby setting a new knitting goal for myself. Dolly already has a summer outfit, but every season from now on... or until I dont feel like doing it anymore...I will knit her a new outfit. That way I can slowly build up her wardrobe. By the time Ava is 4 or 5, her doll will have many many outfits to dress up in, for any type of weather.

I hope the Ava will appreciate all the work I put into this, and that her special dolly will be a treasured plaything for years to come.

The dolls are almost finished!

Here are some little lacy dolly underwear that I just finished knitting. They were knit with Katia Mississippi 4-ply yarn. They went super fast. Knitting doll clothing is such instant gratification.

The waist bands of the underwear have elastic so that they will stay on the dolls. These dolls have such puny little bodies, so it was necessary.

I am almost done with everything doll related. I will be posting pictures of their dresses within the next few days and pictures of the finished dolls themselves early next week. I am waiting for my sister-in-law and niece to come back into town to photograph the girls playing with their new dollies together.

That will be so cute...

So... the dolls are taking a bit longer than expected. Especially because I am knitting them outfits and accessories.

Instead of making everyone wait a week or more to see the completed project, I thought Id post the cute little items as I finish them.

Here are their tiny sandals.

My daughter is so excited about these dolls.

It has been a really fun project.

Right now I am working on knitting them little undies.

Because they are modest little dollies.

Lately I've been feelin like a "neglectful knitting mommy", so I felt that it was high time that I knit something for my daughter.

I am working on some Dolls from the book "Knitted Babes" by Claire Garland. I have been wanting to make these for over a year now and am just now getting around to it. These little dolls are just so cute, I cant wait until I can show Ava.

I am making 2 dolls so that Ava and her cousin Audrey can play dollies together.

As you can see the bodies, arms and legs are finished. They just need to be seamed up, embroidered, and of course they need a few accessories.