Review of Edward's Crochet Dolls by Kerry Lord

If you read my last post you know how much I loved Kerry Lord's book Edward's Crochet Imaginarium. Well I have recently purchased two of her other books Edward's Crochet Doll Emporium  and Edward's Menagerie. I am so in love with all of Kerry's designs.

I decided to start with making dolls first. The detail of these patterns is just amazing. I am enjoying this doll book so greatly. I love the diversity of characters created for the cover of this book, my favorites are the bearded merman, the wizard and the punk rocker with tattoos! All these different options are in the book so you could make the characters displayed on the cover.

This book is like the Imaginarium book in that it is split into flippable pages with head/hair styles on the top 3rd of the pages and the body/costume on the bottom two thirds of the pages. There are detailed instructions in the back half of the book on making the body and head, including a basic head and an advanced head. There are also two arm versions, one a basic mitt type hand and an advanced arm including the most adorable fingers!! There is just one leg pattern a basic leg and foot. 

The book also includes hook sizes to use for different yarn weights just like the imaginarium book, a section on special stitches and techniques and a great section on all the different hair options! 

I ordered some amazing dk weight yarn from lovecrochet.com to use for making dolls. This yarn had a great price and a great selection of colors for skin tones, hair colors, and jewel tones for outstanding clothing options.

I also ordered myself a brand new hook from Harper Baby Shop on Etsy. Angie makes the most beautiful polymer clay creations. She was so wonderful in finding just the sizes I needed too! which were tiny!! But she found them and I couldn't be more happy with how they turned out and with how amazing they are to work with! They are seriously a dream on my hands.

To make a doll I found it takes exactly 1 skein of the Schachenmayr Bravo yarn to do the body, advanced head, and all limbs. I had just under one yard of yarn left over. I think if you did the basic body you would need 2 skeins especially if you chose the advanced arms. If you also did the basic arms you might have enough in one skein but I would get two just in case. These are smaller skeins however, just 146 yards per skein. If your dk weight yarn of choice has more yardage one would be plenty.
Remember I used a dk weight yarn so yardage using a worsted or chunky weight yarn would be different.

So for my 2 dolls I used

• dk weight yarn - in  tan, dusty brown, mauve, emerald green, cream, and black (these are not the exact color names, most were in a different language)
• a 3.25mm ergonomic hook
• polyfil stuffing
• 6mm safety eyes (on one doll the other I embroidered her eyes on)
• black embroidery floss
• yarn needle
• embroidery needle
• stitch marker
• stuffing stick (found in most bags of polyfil, you can also use an unsharpened pencil, chopstick, or a pen with the cap on)
• scissors

I made these dolls for sisters so I used the same hair color for both. I chose to do a simple long hair on each and gave one bangs. I do want to try some of the other hair options outlined in the book though, there are so many fun ones! 

There are so many outfit choices in this book, I had lots of fun picking a look for these little ladies. I chose a dress for each because they are going to be Easter gifts. One in a dainty mauve dress and one in an emerald green dress with a pretty cream poncho. 

This book gives you so many choices for creating a beautiful one of a kind doll. If you are new to amigurumi I would still suggest these books, along with a UK to US terms conversion chart, as the books are written in UK terms. 

I hope you will give them a try. I know you won't be disappointed. 

UPDATE!!!
The girls loved their dolls! I am so glad I could make their Easter special!!

Imaginitive Creatures

It started with a book I got for Christmas, Edward's Crochet Imaginarium. This book is just spectacular. If you've ever wanted to jump into amigurumi I would strongly suggest you get one of Kerry Lord's books. They are so well written and they add a level of fun that other books just don't have.

This books pages are split into thirds, heads, arms, and legs. You can flip through and create millions of different creature options. From wild hair to webbed hands and feet. Furry bodies or striped. Polka dots or 6 arms, the ideas are limitless.

I really love this book in particular because it is not classic animals, although I have Kerry's book Edward's Menagerie and it is amazing in its own right, I like the creativeness of this book. It gives the crocheter or the person choosing the ability to express themselves through their choices. No two creatures ever need to be alike unless you choose them to be. I love how different all the creatures I have mad have turned out.

This book is written in UK crochet terms, but as you can see most patterns are done in a UK dc (double crochet) which is a US sc (single crochet) so converting the pattern while working them is super easy!

There are also sections on tails, stuffing and finishing, and a section telling what size hook to use with different weights of yarn. All these first ones I have made have been made with worsted weight Red Heart Yarn. This last one I did however was made using Lionbrand Mandala in the Gnome colorway. Her name is Matilda and my daughter just loves her! How could she not! Just look how cute she is!

She is quite a bit smaller than her big brother, Mr. Topknot. I love how different  a pattern can turn out just by changing yarn weight and hook size. 

My favorite section of this book is the gallery, which give a list of which features were used for ALL the creatures on the cover of the book as well as a little story/personal bio on each creature with their name and where they are from. It is really so cute and add such a fun touch to the book. This section inspired me to give a name and story to each creature I make. I plan on writing a little bio on a tag of any creatures that are order from me in the future. 

These creatures were truly a joy to make, I plan to make many more. If you want to try some amigurumi creatures I highly suggest you get this great book by Kerry Lord. You won't be disappointed I promise!

Habitat Cardigan

Habitat Cardigan by Make and Do Crew 

I absolutely fell in love with this pattern as soon as I saw it. It looked so simple and inviting in that beautiful charcoal color. (see the above blog link to see the amazing original) But alas I had no charcoal yarn. Actually I had no worsted weight yarn of any color in the needed amount; I was heartbroken.
However I did have 4 beautiful skeins of Lionbrand Mandala Yarn in Gnome colorway. I decided maybe it could work.
Have you ever tried substituting a yarn in a pattern? If you haven't here is a tip, generally you want to use the same weight as called for in the pattern.So this pattern called for worsted weight, and if you haven't guessed already, the yarn I had was not worsted....its acutally a dk weight.
One might think this was the end of my cardigan sweater journey, but its not, because Jess over at Make and Do Crew is pretty amazing!
I messaged Jess on Instagram and asked if she thought I could make the sweater work with dk. She suggested I just give it a try using a hook that I could match gauge with so that is what I did! And here is what you'll need if you want an awesome rainbow cardigan like mine.

• First go decide what size you want your cardigan Pattern is Here This is the free version of the pattern, for a small fee you can get an ad free pdf, either way its the same great pattern, I worked from the free version, but may buy the pdf if I decide to make another. 

 I wanted the fit of a medium so I chose the size large to make (this is important if you want to use a smaller yarn, pick one size larger or more depending on how loose you want your sweater to fit)

• Ok if you decide to use Mandala yarn I used about 2 1/2 cakes in the Gnome colorway. There are soooo many great colorways to choose from in this type of yarn. Fairy and Griffin are two of my other favorites in the Mandala yarn. 
• I ended up using a  L 7.0mm hook and my rectangle measured the medium size perfectly 
• I also used stitch markers from Joann's when I got to the putting it all together stage.

This is a really simple pattern, its hard to believe this simple rectangle creates such a cute sweater.

If you like the look of this sweater please go try out Jess' pattern at Make and Do Crew, you won't be sorry, I promise.