Valentine Hot Pad

Since the fall I've been turning mug rug patterns into hot pads by adding a back to them to make them sturdy enough to handle hot pans. I was contemplating what to do about Valentine's Day when i discovered Annie's had released Farmhouse Mug Matswith a heart pattern and my Valentine's project was selected.

I changed both the cotton yarn and the background color. I've been ordering Omega Sinfonia yarn from Creative Yarn Source for my hot pads and I have a variety of colors left in my stash. The cotton works well for the hot pads and at this point who wants to buy more yarn when you can use what you have in your house to make your project. The original bakground was off white and even if I'd ordered the yarn listed I wouldn't have ordered the color. I'm not a fan of white in my kitchen. I rather like the pink. The two other colors are fairly close to the color suggestions in the leaflet.

Lots to Love 8 Inch Baby Pink Doll

The title of this blog post is a take off on the Mary Maxim title Baby Blue doll which you can purchase here. Using their title for my entry seemed odd as I chose pink from my stash to make this outfit.

This outfit is made with the now unavailable Red Heart Baby Sport yarn which as I've mentioned before I bought a rather large supply of when it was discontinued. I'm still working through it. I was amazed at how small a dent I made when working on this outfit. What I loved about this line of yarn above its yarn features was the colors. It went beyond the traditional baby colors and I have some darker colors not normally available in "baby" yarn. This of course is a more traditional baby color but it worked for this outfit.

While I've been making holiday outfits with the 8" Lots to Love dolls this is the first for the 2021 donation.

In years past I've focused on making clothing and accessories for one group of dolls and then moving on to the next. This has been less succesful than I'd hoped. The most productive times for crocheting end up yielding uneven resutls as one doll group ends up with a great amount of clothing and the others with less so and I end up scrambling to finish off their donations or they go off with less than I'd hoped. As I've added more dolls it becomes even more critical that I spread out the time I spend on each doll. This year I'm trying to rotate through the dolls hoping this keeps me from burning out from making one type of doll outfits and secondly creates a more balanced donation.

Notes

The pattern calls for fingering yarn but the Red Heart sport with the D hook worked well. The pattern has a buttonhole band in the back that covers what seems like would be a gap as you assemble the outfit. I used snaps instead of buttons. The patterns calls for an applique I used the owl button. The booties are tight but they do fit. These dolls have a range of "pointed feet" and this display doll falls in the higher range so one of the less pointed dolls may fit the booties better. I noticed that even more strongly recently when making the Valentine dolls. The girl doll is almost on her tippy toes, the boy's feet while pointed are not nearly as extreme.

As I was working on this doll I was also sizing the outfit on the Lil Cutesies 8.5" Baby Doll and with limited changes I think this outfit will be a good fit for that doll as well. I'm always looking for patterns I can use on multiple dolls as the supply of doll specific patterns is limited. I'm always thrilled when one pattern will work on another doll.

For those of you looking for the Lots to Love 8" dolls they are still available. If you can't find them at craft stores check the school supply market. I found this doll and the holiday dolls at Kaplan when my regular craft store was out of them. I found other school supply stores also stocked them and the other sized Lots to Love dolls. They are more expensive but if you can't find them at other locations the school market is worth checking out for the dolls.

Baby Doll Wipes Round 2

I did a little more research since my last post and the Etsy store I purchased this pattern set for the diaper bag set and several of my play food patterns Crochet N' Play designs has posted on Etsy that she is taking a break. I do hope she will be back as I am a huge fan of her work. I not only use this pattern but I have several of her food sets as well. They are well written and fun to make.

This is the second set of 3 I need for the baby dolls this year. This set will be going to the Lots to Love 14 inch Baby Doll and do to my sister's hard work already has a diaper bag to go into for storage.