I've been working on a Waldorf-style doll, and I've been completely unable to find a pattern for a crochet cap for a 10 inch doll. I've worked one out and offer it here for free, in case someone else needs one. The hat requires less than 20 yards of worsted weight yarn for the base and should fit snugly to the doll's head.
Crochet Cap for 10” Waldorf Doll Hair
Using a size F hook and worsted weight yarn, chain 6 and join
to make a circle.
Rnd 1: ch 3, then dc 11 times into the circle (12 sts),
place marker to keep track of rounds
From now on, ALL stitches are made into the back of each
stitch. This forms a ridge of loops that can be used for tying on hair.
Rnd 2: dc 2 into each stitch (24 sts)
Rnd 3: dc 2 into stitch, dc 1 into next stitch. Repeat for
the rest of the round. (36 sts)
Rnd 4: dc 2 into stitch, dc 1 into next 3 stitches. Repeat
for the rest of the round. (45 sts)
Test hair on doll’s head to see if the cap is the right
size. You may need to add stitches in the next round. This size fit my doll’s
head (circumference XX inches) perfectly.
Rnd 5: dc into each stitch
Rnd 6: dc into each stitch
Rnd 7: dc into each stitch for about half the round. Test to
see if the cap fits snuggly onto doll’s head and reaches the nape of the neck
and high on forehead.
If cap doesn’t reach the nape of the neck, repeat Rnd 7
until it fits.
If cap fits well, hdc into next stitch, sc into next two
stitches, slip stitch into next stitch to bind off and give a nice smooth edge.
Secure the cap to doll’s head with needle and thread. Use a
crochet hook to knot hair into each of the loops left by crocheting through the
back loop.
I'll admit it. I watch Glee. There's plenty I don't like about the show, but I appreciate musicals making it to the small screen, and the first season was truly a joy to watch. Last night was the season finale, the graduation episode, and I watched my favorite characters make stupid decisions as they headed off to become adults and leave school behind.
I could say plenty about my opinions on how the writers handled their transitions in the show, but that's not what this blog is about.
So how does Glee have anything to do with knitting? It's actually just a coincidence. While I've been watching the seniors at McKinley get ready to graduate, I've also been thinking a lot about my high school friends. My two best friends are getting married this summer, and I can't make it to either wedding. It's incredibly disappointing that I can't be there. I've got two kids, now, and flights are expensive. One of the weddings is happening when my husband is at a trade show, and there's just no way I can drag a 2-year-old and a then 7-month-old to Boston alone. No chance.
These were my two best friends, though. I need to do something VERY special for them.
And so I'm knitting.
Not just anything, however. I'm knitting complicated, cabled things. Things that will take hours of work to make into reality, with my hopes and memories knit into every stitch. I only hope they will appreciate the love I'm putting into their afghans as much as I appreciate their continued friendship, no matter where they end up in the world.
Three Waters Farm, my favorite dyer, has done a series of Polworth/Silk braids based on the interior colors popular during the Regency period -- aka Jane Austen's time. The braid was a gorgeous blue/green with a tiny bit of taupe. Spun up, however, it's even more luscious. I can't wait to knit this up!
In Bubbo's Pants on Ravelry (a group of awesome women and a couple of men who are truly excellent to each other), February is for finishing projects. I'm proud to say that I finally finished my large sized Clara Shawl.
Right at the end, with half a ball of Knit Picks Shimmer in Eucalyptus left, I decided to snag the edging from Annis and stuck it on Clara. It fits perfectly.
I also spun up some Three Waters Farm BFL in Sarah's Imperative. I'm so very much in love with BFL, and the depth of color on this fiber is just incredible. Yummy!
Being this enormously pregnant at this time of year has led me to think quite a lot about the reason for the season. Such a trite, overused phrase it is – ‘reason for the season’ – bandied about by almost every church message board in the days leading up to Christmas, yet it’s a reminder that all the pressure to shop, shop, shop and spend, spend, spend is just a cultural holiday. There’s more to this particular day than just that, and we should take pause to remember it.
I was pregnant with my first son during the Christmas season, too, but only about six months in. Large enough for knowing smiles in the grocery store, but not nearly huge enough for overly-kindly Southern women to pull me aside and express what a miracle a Christmas baby would be.
At this point, I don’t care if he’s a Christmas baby, you see. I just want him out. I’m enormously uncomfortable, the Gestational Diabetes is a pain in the rear end during the carb laden Christmas season, and I just want to get on with the joy of being a mother instead of lugging my not-so-aerodynamic belly up and down the stairs while being unable to keep up with my toddler. I feel like I am so, so done with this, and the little guy is taking his time making his appearance.
Two thousand years ago, a heavily pregnant woman was also making preparations. Not for the Christmas season. It didn’t exist, yet. She was preparing for a journey to a different town to do her civic duty at the side of her husband, the man who loved her so much that he stayed with her even when told her child wasn’t his. An angel messenger is a pretty good pregnancy test, one that comes with an accurate due date, unlike what women at the time must’ve normally done to calculate when a child might arrive. Still, she probably had no idea when setting off on her trip that her child would be born outside of her home, in her husband’s hometown, not hers.
As the tradition goes, Mary and Joseph made their way from the Galilee to Bethlehem with Mary riding on a donkey. Nine months pregnant and riding about 100 miles, 158 kilometers, on the back of a donkey. I’m so huge that I can barely sit up straight in my car. And add to that the problem of lodging – a whole city filled to the brim for the census, leaving hugely pregnant Mary forced to sleep on a bed of hay, no matter how uncomfortable it must’ve left her.
And so that night of all nights, a new baby was born. A hundred miles from home, she labored without her friends or midwife, with only her new husband to hold her hand and guide the baby into the world. Women did, and still do, die in labor, especially in those conditions. She must’ve been so scared that night, giving birth on a pile of hay surrounded by animals instead of her loved ones. There’s more than one miracle to celebrate on Christmas morning: Jesus was born, yes. But his mother made it through, too, despite all the terrible conditions and hardships she had to face. Alone in a stable in an unfamiliar city, a baby was born, and a family gained a member, regardless of who that baby would become.
Tonight, I’ll no doubt sit in church and get all sorts of knowing smiles and parades of people asking when I’m due. It’s uncomfortable to me, being the center of that attention when all I really want is to be at home with my feet up and tea in my hands to keep the constant late-pregnancy swelling down. But tonight, I need to keep in mind what another woman went through long before me.
Will it be a pain for my son to share his birthday with a season so full of hype? Will he complain about joint birthday-Christmas presents, and a birthday party overshadowed by Santa? Yes. But he’ll also share his birthday season with the Son of God. That’s pretty special. It’s my job to help him understand that.
