My Life Doll Cardigan, Skirt, and Hat

This project filled a couple of my goals. First I used up crochet thread that has been living in my stash for far too long on the skirt. Secondly, I attempted two patterns that I've had on my to do list for a while and never quite gotten around to making. The cardigan yarn was gifted to me by a kind woman from the Ravelry Charity Knitting group who sent me a box of Herrschner's yarn. The cardigan was a perfect use for the sport yarn.

The Seashell Summer skirt pattern is one of ABC Knitting's free crochet doll patterns you can find here. It was a great chance to use up more Aunt Lydia's size 3 thread. I used a size D hook for the first 5 rows to establish the waist. I then switched to the suggested C hook to finish the skirt. The D made it easier to get the outfit on and off. After that the C hook made the skirt shape better than the D which I tried first. I added a few extra rows to make it slightly longer.

As I mentioned in the Irish Lass post Crochet World used to have online bonus patterns. The Cardigan and Hat pattern were part of the August 2011 bonus patterns. You can find the free pattern here. I was quite pleased to find that using the sport Herrschner yarn and a G hook my guage matched the required pattern guage without any adaptations. I used Bernat Baby Sport yarn as the contrasting yarn for this project. It is a little lighter than the purple yarn but because I used it for trim it wasn't an issue.

The Cardigan has a unique texture to it and it was created using a technique I'd not used before. It wasn't complicated but it I ended up using markers to count out increase and decrease changes as it was hard to do a count once the stitches were made. By marking the beginnings and end of a section it was easier to count when I'd get distracted and lose count of where I was in a section.

The hat uses the same stitch technique as the cardigan. I had more trouble getting the shaping on the hat than I expected but I was pleased with the finished product.