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.