Lots to Love 8 Inch Baby Doll Moses Basket

This project was finished during down moments over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Between the basket and the blanket it was a great project because it was mobile and could be worked on easily without lots of extra items. The Moses Basket pattern comes from Annie Potter Presents Sweet Baby Layette pattern set that can be purchased here. Darski's BBL pattern set provided a free blanket pattern, you can find it here.

Notes:

I used Premier Dominoes for this project. Again this is yarn that I had intended for prayer shawls but not sure when those will be made so I'm determined not to let stuff grow into my permanent stash.

For the basket I used a g hook and the sizing was good. I like the heavier yarn for these baskets. It works up a bit easier than trying to manage the 2 pieces of worsted 4 together. It is a bit lighter but the dolls aren't heavier enough that it makes a huge difference.

I used baby yarn instead of worsted 4 for the blanket so I kept with the J hook instead of reducing to the F hook which I had done last year. As a note for next year I would reduce the hook size as the blanket is a little larger than needed but it still works well enough that I'm not going to remake it. However, next year I'd continue with the baby yarn and experiment with hook size to see what size would be a better fit. I'm thinking the g is likely a good option.

I have a snuggle sack to make for the Lots to Love 10 inch doll and a Moses Basket for the Lil Cutesies doll and this portion of the doll donation will be done for 2024. I need to get back to finishing the JC 16 inch doll diapers as I stopped after two and I need one more baby bib for them as well.

Lil Cutesies Moses Basket

The Lil Cutesies Moses Basket is the last of the small doll Moses Baskets I need for the 2023 doll donation. My hands just aren't up to making the large baby doll baskets anymore.

I picked one up for the Lots to Love 14 Inch Baby Doll during the holiday sales. One of the very generous women who crochets for the donation has shown interest in trying the free pattern I've used for years so that is a possibility. If that doesn't work out I will pick up the basket I picked up for the second 16 inch Baby doll for last year's donation so they both had a doll carrier/bed.

Notes:

This Moses Basket is made using Annie Potter's Sweet Baby Doll Layette leaflet available for purchase here. The blanket is part of the free BBL set you see frequently referenced on this blog found here.

I used an H hook for the basket adding no additional rows. I used a J hook for the blanket.

16 Inch Baby Doll Carrier

I rather like this project for the donation despite the fact it is rather hard on my hands as it uses threee strands of worsted weight yarn together to make a carrier strong enough to tote around a rather large baby doll. This combined with the diaper bag gives the doll and all its extras storage. I was lucky this year and Caron Pounders were on sale and I got enough for the two JC Toys 16-inch Baby Doll carriers. I'm hoping to have enough from my stash to make the slighly smaller Lots to Love 14 inch doll.

This is a free pattern from Holland Designs found here.

I've been altering this pattern for years to make it a better fit for the dolls I donate. I crochet the first 10 rows of the pattern with an I hook and then switch to a K hook for the remainder of the pattern. The original pattern was designed for a Cabbage Patch kid and I suspect the larger size was a better fit. The narrower JC dolls fit better with the smaller carrier.

For my hands sake I tried to stick to 2 rows a day. The days I went over before switching to another projcet I felt it. I don't plan on starting the second carrier before April. I have plenty of projects that need doing and I'm hoping this will give my hands a needed rest.

I haven't finished any doll blankets yet and the doll donations generally come much later in the year, but this carrier will leave with a blanket for the donation.

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.

Lots to Love 14 Inch Doll Carrier

The doll baskets are usually projects I tackle right after the last doll donation leaves the house. This year I put them off and I realized I needed to begin tackling them as they are not quick projects and while not a hard pattern to follow crocheting with 3 strands of worsted weight yarn at once does make them a physically challenging project for me.

I started this one last winter and put it aside as other projects beckoned. I left it in a project bag with the required yarn and directions as I knew I'd be back to finish it for the donation. After finishing the pumpkin, this seemed like a great Olympic watching project. Last week after the Olympics were over I continued to watch the streams of events as it was easy enough to avoid results for most of the events and I rarely take the time to see many of these events at any other time.

The free pattern for this project is available here. I normally adapt it for the JC Toys - La Baby Doll by crocheting the first 10 rows with an I hook and switching to the K hook to finish the project. I've just found this is a better size for these dolls. For the JC Toys - Lots to Love Babies 14" Doll I used an I hook for the entire project.

Normally 3 skeins of Red Heart will finish the project. I started with 3 skeins of Premier Basix but ran out just short of the top of the basket. I had one skein of Premier in my stash and ended up working from both ends of a Caron One Pounder to finish the project. I'm determined to make these baskets stash projects rather than buying more yarn. I have a huge stash that just needs to be downsized. So the rest of the carriers might be a bit more colorful this year.

The beautiful blanket comes from one of the amazing contributors to the doll donation from Crochetville. I received a beautiful box of doll blankets and 18" doll clothing from MO and I can't thank her and all those who help each year enough.

Lots to Love 10 Inch Moses Basket

I made one of these for the 8 inch doll so it only seemed fair that the 10 inch doll get a bed too.

For those of you interested in the pattern for the Moses Basket you can find the print copy of the Sweet Baby Doll Layette for sale here and the Digital copy at Etsy here. The blanket was part of a free pattern set you can find here. I like trying different patterns for the blankets. It keeps it interesting.

To make the larger Moses basket it requires working with 2 strands of yarn at the same time. Not nearly as painful as making the larger baskets for the 16 inch dolls but it still wears on the hands. I used up the last of a skein of Caron Simply Soft I had tried to finish off on the Romper for the blanket. I like seeing the orphan skeins put to good use.