Hair

Ok, so I left the last post kinda on a loose note, and even though it's only been half an hour sense I finished the doll, I have to admit, the doll needs hair!!! So I'm gonna show how to make wigs for your new doll.

Here we go! First you'll need and F hook, and some worsted (aka medium) weight yarn.

Wig Base: We will be working in a continuous round.
 Row 1: ch 2, sk1st (or magic loop) sc 6
 Row 2: sc 12 (inc in every st)
 Row 3: sc 18 ({inc sc} 6 times)
 Row 4: sc 24 ({inc sc 2} 6 times)
 Row 5: sc 30 ({inc sc 3} 6 times)
 Row 6-10: sc 30 
Fasten off. Leave long tail.

Now you can leave it like this, if you making a guy. Or you can attach yarn (or doll hair yarn) to make it look  more like hair. I really only know one way to attach the yarn and that's sticking the hook through the base and pulling a looped strand of yarn through sticking the end through and pulling it tight. I know there are other ways and if you don't like this method you can look for one you do. At the bottom of this post I'll leave a links for a posts I found helpful.

Here's how I did my dolls hair. I did the hook and loop thing, mentioned in the last paragraph  all the way around the bottom edge. then I took two strands on each side and over lapped them and continued adding two more strands and "weaving" them together till I got the desired length  Then I sewed along the last "woven" line, with some thread. After that I took four strands on each side and tied them together with a hair tie, then all that was left was to sew it to the head with the end of yarn. Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I'll try to make a video later and show you what I mean.

My Gurumi: Hair Tutortial
The Green Dragonfly Princess-Poppy*
Ana Paula's Hair Tutorial
*Kinda gave me the idea for my hair.

How I Make Patterns

So, I'm really board so I've decided to make a doll. I was going to sew one but I couldn't find a pattern I like and I was wasting fabric trying to figure one out so I'm going to crochet one.

So first off it's always good to start off with a sketch or picture. If you have an idea in your head try to get it out on paper so you can refer back to it as you work on the pattern.

Also you'll need to decided on a hoof size. Normally when working with worsted or medium weight yarn I use an E hook, but I lost both my E hooks, so I'm going to use F (It works just as well). Oh, one more thing, this pattern has not been tested, it was only made once before it was posted. If there are any problems or something is not clear please tell me and I will fix it.


Now we're ready to start making our pattern. Let's start with the head.

Ok, a couple more very important decisions you are going to have to make are, how may stitches you're going to start with and weather or not your're going to work in a continuous round*.  I prefer the continuous round for most patterns though there are some where a non-continuous round works very well. As for the amount of stitches, that is an interesting choice, because there are a several of stitch counts you can use, but I recommend using 5 or 6 stitches, because they are the easy to count by. : ) Now you're ready to go.

(*In a non-continuous round you chain a maximum of two stitches {for single crochet}, at the beginning of each row and join with a slip stitch at the end.
In a continuous row you don't chain or join. All you do is crochet around. {This method requires a stitch marker, while the other doesn't as long as you make sure you don't crochet into the join and chains})

Head: I've decided to use a continuous round, with a starting count of 6 stitches. (For abbreviation decoding see "Stitch Abbreviations ") Remember to count your stitches and move your stitch-marker after every row.
 Row 1: ch 2, sk1st (or make a magic loop {If you don't know how to make a magic loop that's ok it's not important}), sc 6
 Row 2: sc 12 (inc in every st)
 Row 3: sc 18 ({inc sc} repeat 6 times)
 Row 4: sc 24 ({inc sc 2} repeat 6 times)
 Row 5: sc 30 ({inc sc 3} repeat 6 times)
 Row 6-11: sc 30
(Attach 6mm eyes between rows 6-7, 6 stitches apart {8 counting the ones the eyes are in}. Also please note that I did not put a mouth in, if you want to this is the easiest time to do so. I like to leave the mouth off for some of my creations because it gives them a neutral expressing.)
 Row 12: sc 24 ({dec sc 3} repeat 6 times)
 Row 13: sc 18 ({dec sc 2} repeat 6 times)
 Row 14: sc 12 ({dec sc} repeat 6 times) [Stuff]
 Row 15: sc 9 ({dec sc 2} repeat 3 times) [Finish stuffing in needed]
Fasten off. Close hole*. Weave in end.

(*To close the hole all you have to do is weave the end through the front loops and pull tight.)

Body: I'm going to start the body the same way I did the head. With numbers dividable by six it will make the body easier to attach.
 Row 1: ch 2, sk1st (or magic loop), sc 6
 Row 2: sc 12 (inc in every st)
 Row 3: sc 18 ({inc sc} repeat 6 times)
 Row 4: sc 24 ({inc sc 2} repeat 6 times)
 Row 5-11: sc 24
 Row 12: sc 21 ({dec sc 6} repeat 3 times)
 Row 13: sc 21
 Row 14: sc 18 ({dec sc 5} repeat 3 times)
 Row 15: sc 18
 Row 16: sc 15 ({dec sc 4} repeat 3 times)
 Row 17: sc 15
 Row 18: ch 1, sc 12 ({dec sc 3} repeat 3 times) join with a slst* [Stuff]
Fasten off. Leave long tail. Sew to head.

(*I use a non-continuous round on the last row to make it flat.)

Arms: Like to body the arms are stated the same way as the head. Also don't forget that a doll needs two arms (Most of the time).
 Row 1: ch 2, sk1st (or magic loop), sc 6
 Row 2: sc 9 ({inc sc} repeat 3 times)
 Row 3-4: sc 9
 Row 5: inc5in1st, sc 8 (13 st in all)
 Row 6: 5stdec, sc 8 (9 st in all)
 Row 7:     Left: sc 3, dec 3 (6 st in all) [Stuff]
                 Right: sc , dec 3, sc 2 (6 st in all) [Stuff]
 Row 8-13: sc 6
 Row 14: (Left arm only) sc 3
Fasten off. Leave long tail. Sew to body (Around rows 17)

Legs: Ok, so legs are a little tricky. But don't worry, I'll try to explain them in a way you can understand. Also don't forget to make two, unless you got other plans (If so I'd love to hear about them).
 Row 1: ch 5, sk1st, hdc 3, hdcinc3in1st, (in other side of chain*) hdc 2, hdcinc (8 st in all)
(*If this makes no sense tell me I'll try to explain.)
 Row 2: in bl* only (sc 10)
(*Note: hdc's have three loop instead of two so when working in the bl's you use the middle and the back loops.)
 Row 3: sc, dec, 3sthdcdec, dec, sc 2 (6 in all) [Stuff]
 Row 4-12: sc 6
 Row 13: (Right leg only) sc 3
Fasten off. Leave long tail. Sew to body (Around row 4)

Yeah!!! Now you have all the pieces. Let's start putting it together. (This is just in case you haven't already done this. If you have then you don't have to read this part, but why not scan through to look at the pictures.)

First: Sew the body to the head.

Dos: Sew arm to body (Around row 17)

Square Root of 9: Sew legs to body (Around row 4)

All done! Now you can make cloths, or hair, or ears, or wings, or whatever. : P

Explain

Ok, I want to, explain something before I post my first pattern. I am a Seventh Day Adventist. What that means is I believe that, God made the earth in 6 days and on the seventh (Sabbath) he rested. Now just to make this clear, the seventh day is Saturday. But it's not just that I worship God on Sabbath, I also believe that he love me and that he loves everyone in the entire world. Even if he does not love what they are doing. Which means he loves you and he cares about you and what you do with you life.
Why am I telling you this? Well the reason I'm telling you this is because, I'm going to be posting more than crochet pattern and pictures. I would like to be able to use this as my way of sharing God with people.
Don't get me wrong there are plenty of ways to tell people about God, that don't involve blogging. But I'm kind of a shy person, when it comes to meeting people who are my age or who share my interests. So this a way of trying to get used to sharing my beliefs about God and life in general with out having to meet people face to face.
Now if you don't like the idea of reading a young persons views on life that's fine with me, all my patterns are tagged so that you can get to them easily. But I would love it if you could read a few of my other posts from time to time. You don't have to, I can't make you but maybe there will be a time when something I say could help someone.
Also my cousin has a blog that she has started it's called Men, Women, & Ministry. There's a link and if you interested in finding out more about what I believe and I'm not making sense (I can do that some times : P), her blog might help or you can do a (Seventh Day Adventist Beliefs Search). I hope that this will do something somewhere. If it doesn't I won't be offended, I was probably not listening or I'm not ready yet. I hope I am.
-Taylor

Stitch Abbreviations

This post contains all the stitch abbreviations I use in my patterns (The more patterns I post the more abbreviations there will be), it dose not always describe the stitches.

Stitch: st

Front Loop*: fl

Back Loop*: bl
*See PlanetJune's post describing the Front and Back loops:



Chain: ch

Skip First Stitch: sk1st

Skip First two Stitches: sk2st


Single Crochet: sc

Increase: inc (crochet 2 stitches in one stitch)

Decrease: dec (Note: when working in rounds, I find that the invisible decrease* looks best)
*Invisible decreases are made by working in the front loops only.

Increase appointed number of stitches in one stitch: Inc(n)in1st
(This is a little complicated looking but I'll you a real number to try and explain. What I'm saying is single crochet 5 {or whatever number I say that is bigger than 2} in one stitch)

Appointed Number of Stitches Decrease: (n)stdec
(This is yet another complicated looking stitch, but it's really not that hard. All your doing is making an decrease with more than two stitches. Example 5stdec)



Half Double Crochet: hdc

Half Double Crochet Increase: hdcinc
(This is a normal increase made with the half double crochet stitch>)

Half Double Crochet Decrease: hdcdec (Note: when working in rounds, I find that the invisible decrease* looks best)
*In half double crochet stitches invisible decreases are made by working in the two front loops only.

Half Double Crochet Increase appointed number of stitches in one stitch: hdcinc(n)in1st
(This is a little complicated looking but I'll you a real number to try and explain. What I'm saying is half double crochet 5 {or whatever number I say that is bigger than 2} in one stitch)

Appointed Number of Stitches Half Double Crochet Decrease: (n)sthdcdec
(This is yet another complicated looking stitch, but it's really not that hard. All your doing is making an decrease with more than two stitches. Example 5sthdcdec)



Double Crochet: dc

Goals

Ok, so this blog is going to be an outlet from my currently item-less shop (there will be items. just as soon as I get the supplies I need.) Now don't get me wrong, I'm not only going to post about my shop I'm also going to post free patterns (Like my enderman pattern), and I'll tell about stuff I'm making. Also I'm going to try to give helpful tips on crocheting and making amigurumi patterns. Currently my blog looks a little drab but as i get more accustomed to posting and as my shop gets more items, things will get better. I hope you enjoy, I think I'm going to.