With a Little Help from my Friend

Doll Warning!

This post is heavy with photos of a knitted doll.  I knitted her without imbuing evil into the stitches.  I don't expect she will come to life in the night but if she does, I promise all she will do is put on Arabic pop music and dance around.

Done!

My friend Ang, a professional belly dancer in her own right came over yesterday with some bits and bobs so I could put this girl into full regalia.

Now as dancers we do not normally dance with a veil over our face.  However, no matter how I tried, I could not get her face right.  I would not call her a handsome girl.

The earring and necklace pendants thanks to Ang.  I added some makeup which helped her looks.

The veil does improve things.

She was just so much fun to dress up.  I am thrilled with the little details and had a hard time stopping.  This girl took more than a day of my time to assemble and finish.  The knitting was the least part of the creation.

I'll have you know that those breasts took me more than an hour to get even and nicely shaped.

The ankle bracelet thrills me and I just can't tell you enough hope happy it makes me.

Look, matching bracelet and a ring of my own design!

Another bracelet and ring of my own design.

See! She has a belly button!

The chains and coins are courtesy of Ang.  It is from a real hip  that broke into pieces during a dance.  It did not survive the hip action.

I just can't get enough of that anklet!

Let me now tell you about her hair.  The yarn is a mix of wool and silk.  I bought lots of this from Grand River Yarns and used it to experiment dying with.  I converted giant 250 gram skeins into 25 gram ones and for 2 summers played with them in the dyepot.  Her hair is the result of 2 of these experiments.  I used two colours - I wanted her to have highlights.  The dark brown is from black  walnut hulls I scavenged from the neighbourhood.  The lighter reddish brown is a mixture of walnut hulls and sandlewood.  Her hair pleases me.  Took me a couple of hours or more to attach it to her head.

She hasn't yet revealed her name to me.

I progress on the boy's sweater.  Here is the front.

 Yes the wrong side is forward.  You just have to look at this  piece sideways and the yarn springs to life and wraps itself around and around until you have an intertwined mess.  I have to straighten the hanging bobbins before each row can be started.  It is taking a long time to knit this section and I ham having to bribe myself to keep going.  You can pee after you do two more rows!  Finish another row and you can have a chocolate!  You can knit on the next project once you reach the underarms.

The back and sleeves are done.

The  above photo was taken in bright sunlight.  I was outside for thirty seconds to take this and when I picked up the pieces to come inside I felt steam was rising from them.  No way I was going back out for a better picture.  I was afraid the acrylic might melt.

2 projects to go.  3 days to get it all done.