Simple dolls and the start of spring colours.

We had some glorious weather in early March and the crocuses started to bloom.  Not these ones though, but some others.   They were sort of small and pale in colour,  but very early due to the weather.   Lots of us were worried that we'd have another of those years when the fruit trees bloomed very early due to unseasonable weather and then the normal frosty weather returned and killed the flowers resulting in little fruit that year.   So the crocuses bloomed and then of course the weather turned cold and snowy.  I thought that was it for my spring flowers.  However a few more patches of crocuses have bloomed and they are quite beautiful.  

This is a doll snake.  Knit on the CSM, it's 5 simple dolls and a cat toy.  They are linked together with waste yarn and knit in a tube.  My ravel cord was being unhappy and breaking, so I ended up using cheap waste yarn and cutting it off instead of reusing it. I'm not happy about that but I was less happy about continuous breakage and tangling.

These are small, simple dolls with no moveable parts.  I almost did some with safety eyes so that I didn't have to embroider them on, but I don't think the knit material is really strong enough to keep them on without pulling out.   Because I want these to be safe for young children, I'll bite the bullet and embroidery wonky faces on them.

The doll on the left is with the instructions I was given.   It makes a doll about 5 inches tall and I think it looks oddly proportioned.  After I made a few of these, I just sort of made up the pattern as I went along and changed the proportions.  After I sewed them up and stuffed them, I realized I like my proportions better.   It as difficult to know until they were finished because it's hard to tell what they'll look like while still in the tube.

It's faster to knit them all together because you don't have to set up the machine each time you make one, just knit them with the waste yarn between them.   This set of dolls will be for gifts.  

  If I can find some more pumpkin coloured yarns, I'll make more pumpkins for Westfield this year.  Finding inexpensive yarns of a suitable weight and colour can be difficult though and as they are donations, I'd rather be able to make more of the items than less for the same dollar amount.   I did get a new bag of stuffing though.   Prices were odd -  relatively expensive for the 8 oz or 16 oz bag, but larger bags were dramatically less per pound.    I could only find 1 bag available though, so ended up with a 64 oz bag for double the price of the 8 oz bag.  How does that make any sense at all?

I'm also trying a new ravel cord.  I got some braided fishing line and will try it.  I'm hoping it doesn't cut the yarn when I pull it out.  It's very strong  and doesn't like my scissors for cutting it, so fingers are crossed.  The ravel cord separates the knitted waste yarns so that you can just zip off the items.   Some people cut their waste yarn but I've not found how to do that particular trick yet and just end up with a useless pile of tiny bits, trying to get the doll, sock etc, off the waste yarn.   It's one of those they're both right answers and you just use the one that works for you.