16 Inch Pink Baby Doll Carrier

I am more than pleased to announce I've finished the last of the doll carriers for the 2021 donation. I started this one shortly after I finished the last one at the end of August and would do a little while watching TV and then put it aside as working with the 3 strands was hard on my hands. As I realized I was moving into the middle of October it seemed suddenly important to finish this up and have it ready to go into the donation.

This doll carrier is made from a free pattern found here.. I used 3 skeins of Red Heart Super Saver Yarn, Petal Pink and I alter the pattern to make it smaller than the original. I use an I hook for the first 10 rows and then switch to a K hook for the remainder of the pattern.

The Granny baby doll blanket is a donation from a MO member of Crochetville.

16 Inch Baby Doll Carrier

I looked at my stash yarn as I approached this project and realized I didn't have 3 skeins of the same colored purple yarn but I could mix and match to finish the project. This seemed like an ideal solution as my goal is to reduce my rather large stash of yarn to a more manageable size. Using up yarn on larger projects is always a great way to start. I came close to finishing with the 3 skeins I started with but the 2 Red Heart skeins gave out at the very end when it came time to make the handles. I had enough left from a partial pounder and found 2 slightly different Red Heart Super Saver purple shades to finish off the handles. I thought the finished look was fine.

I'm already scanning my stash to decide what to use for the last doll carrier. I need to give my hands a rest as working with the 3 skeins at once is hard on my hands and wrists, but time is moving quickly. The deadline will be here before I know it. I'd like to have the stuff ready early if possible.

For those of you interested this is a free pattern and you can find it here. I've modified the pattern to make it slightly smaller as I found the original to be rather large. I crochet the first 10 rows of the pattern with an I hook and finish the remainder with the suggested K hook.

The granny blanket came courtesy of a donation from a MO member of Crochetville. I'm fortunate that she and others help me with this doll donation each year. It means more kids get dolls with clothing and accessories each year.

Baby Doll Carrier

One of the projects I try to finish early in the year are the baby doll carriers as they are hard on my hands. They are a great project to add to the doll donation and I love doing them every year, but I can't say I'm sad when I don't have them on my to do list any longer. For those of you interested in making one, you can find the free pattern here.

Thanks to some wonderful fairy godmothers at Crochetville I won't need to make blankets for the baby dolls or the 18 inch dolls this year as I received some beautiful donated blankets for the doll project.

Baby Doll Carrier

After taking a break to let my hands heal up I tackled and finished the second doll carrier for the donation last week. Thanks to a thoughtful Fairy Godmother from Crochetville, I don't need to crochet a blanket for this set as she sent me one as part of our wishlist there. I am grateful as this has let me move on to other projects.

The doll carrier is a free pattern and you can find it here.

Now for my project notes. I fell in love with the color of the Big Twist yarn while at JoAnn's and thought it would be a nice break from working with the Caron Pounders or Red Heart. The yarn is softer and I liked the pale pink color. The softer should have been a sign I'd made the wrong choice. Softer is wonderful for MANY projects, but not the doll carriers, which are trying to create an almost basket to carry the dolls in by using 3 strands of yarn crocheted together. The yarn broke more than once and I've never had this happen with any other brand of acrylic I've used making the doll carriers. That to put it mildly was frustrating. So while I will continue to by Big Twist for other projects, I'm making a note to remind myself that no matter how tempting the colors are I must never buy it again to make the doll carriers.

I am thrilled that the doll carriers are finished for the year. I love the way these come out and next year am planning on sending an additional one to a family member so that will be three in a year, but I never ever find myself sad when I'm done making them as they are extremely tough on the hands and wrists. Three strands is just nasty.

Baby Doll Carrier

The first doll carrier and blanket for the 2018 doll donation are done and I am so glad. I love the doll carriers and the pattern isn't challenging in general, but working the three strands of worsted weight yarn together is hard on my hands. Finishing a set is always a welcome time. For those of you interested in the doll carrier it is a free pattern found on Ravelry here. The blanket is another of Michelle Crean's doll blanket patterns found in Crochet 2018 Day-to-Day Calendar. This year's entry is called Diamond in the Sky and I rather liked it. Red Heart makes the blankets a little larger, but I like to give the child the option of wrapping the doll, which a shorter blanket doesn't allow.

Now for my notes to myself that I make so I can remember what I did that makes all of this stuff work. For the carrier I need 3 skeins of the same color Red Heart Super Saver Yarn. To make this a workable size for the donation doll start with an I hook for rounds 1-10 switching to a K hook at row 11 to end. This is strictly based on my funky gauge. The first time I made this I tried the K hook through out and almost had one big enough for a real child. Those of you reading should test your own to determine how to proceed. My notes are really for me to come back to should I lose the pattern I've written the notes on for next year. I'm trying to get better with my documentations because I have lost patterns and then have no recourse but to experiment again.

As for the blanket I had hoped to start with the yarn left over from the carrier, but situations being what they are hadn't finished with the carrier when I started with the blanket. However, for my purposes I need 2 skeins of Red Heart Super Saver for the blanket and an H hook I was able to use up the remains of the yarn from the 3 skeins I used for the carrier. I love it when I don't have tons of little balls of yarn left over from projects but instead can roll them into the next project. It does wonders for my yarn storage issues.