American Girl Ballet

I've had a busy year crocheting, but it is time to get back to my Christmas donation project. I decided to start up again with some projects that tend to have a higher success rate for me to get some put away before I tackle some of the more challenging projects.

This is one of my favorite projects to make every year because it works up quickly and it has a minimal amount of sewing, which I love. You can find the free pattern here.

I feel very blessed that a friend gifted me a doll to use as a model for my projects. Over the years she's been a huge supporter of this Christmas donation project and this year is no different. On top of being grateful for her donations to the kids, I'd just like to thank her for allowing me to have one of her dolls. The doll is beautiful and I am enjoying being able to use her to take my doll pictures with before packing off the clothes in the donation bags.

Project notes for myself:

This required an I hook with the exception of the shoes this year for the outfit to fit. The shoes were too large with an I and I had to reduce to a g hook to get them to fit. I like the solid color light pink with white trim rather than splitting the colors between top and bottom as I've done in previous years following the pattern.

American Girl Ballet

This has become one of my favorite free patterns as it works for both the 18 inch doll and the 15 inch baby doll and you find it here.

I've altered the pattern to use an I hook and worsted weight yarn. I was also able to use up more of my friend's yarn on this project. I am making progress there, but I have a long way to go to finish it all off. There will be lots of doll projects to come.

For those of you who are curious, I make no suggestions regarding hook sizes or gauge. My gauge has been all over the place, but I have found the notes I make from one year to the next give me a starting point. It isn't always accurate for the next year, but it prevents me from starting all over.

I've started on another grey project. I've been trying to target my projects to match the yarn on hand. I've made this pattern before, but sure enough gauge again was an issue. I'll write more about that when I post.