Sunday, July 23, 2006

Doll times ahead




Our granddaughter LOVES Dora, the Explorer. We watched two episodes with her yesterday.
Her enthusiasm and interest on the show was amazing. She knew how to say "abri" and some other main words, which she would remember, but I forgot already.

She has a Dora doll, but this grandma decided that the girl needs a handmade, knitted Dora doll.
Guess what, there is no pattern in the internet for a Dora doll. I should have known it. I had to find a good picture of Dora to model for me.

Hubby and I were looking for yarn in my stash for the doll. We found a few suitable yarns, and I started with one, but then hubby came to me with two skeins, and asked "what about this?" and I screeched, "that's it". The yarn is good old Phentex Merit yarn in true gold. So far I have
knitted the head and half of the body part.

I am very excited about this challenge, and hope from the bottom of my heart that the doll turns out believable enough. If not, then I can say, I tried, and hope that somebody somewhere gets the rights to make a pattern for Dora doll. I am not talking about the charts that one uses to knit a picture on a sweater, I am talking about a DOLL.


What do you know, the picture showed up.

11 comments:

Janet said...

Dora seems to be very popular with little girls. One of our granddaughters is completely a fan of hers. I'll look forward to seeing Dora as a knitted doll. I'm sure she will be adorable.

Pirk said...

Janet, I have done the head, body and both legs. No feet yet. I made one arm, but have to re-do the finger part.

Looking good so far. I might have to be really creative with the eyes.

Anonymous said...

hi will you be putting up yhe pattern for dora the knitted doll please if so please please could you email me
as i would make a great xmas gift for my granddaughter
crossofraine@aol.com

Anonymous said...

I would love a pattern for this, thank you

raine said...

please could i have the dora doll pattern it would make a little girl very happy

Anonymous said...

please could you send me the dora doll pattern as i would make a little girl very happy

raine said...

please could you email me the pattern of dora doll as it would make a little girl very happy

Pirk said...

I am very sorry, but I have no specific pattern for my Dora doll.

I used the basic pattern from internet, and then just tried to copy the clothing as close as possible.

Pirk said...

Hi,
I am so sorry, but I have no pattern for the doll. I made the parts and then used Dora pictures as a guide to make my doll look like her.

I copied a picture of the eyes on a paper and then used that as a pattern. I used a crochet hook to put the hair on, one by one, to one loop of a stitch.

Later on I made some rows on the back of the head with purl stitch, instead of stockinette, to make it easier for attaching the hair.

I was using ww yarn, and 5 dbl pointed needles, knitting in the round.

I used 20 stitches for legs, 44 for body, and 16 for arms. There was some decreases for shoulders (similar to toe shaping decreases)(in every row) until some 20 or so stitches were for the neck, and then knitted a row, then increased in every stitch to get 40 stitches and then knitted until it was half the body size. then decreased gradually (k4, k2tog, k4, k2tog, etc.) and then on next row same unless you want faster shaping of the top of the head.

The stuffing around the neck is tricky, if you don’t stuff enough, the neck gets kind of wobbly. I think I ended up knitting a neck band for one of the dolls, just to keep the head properly on.

Please check if there are any patterns for dolls in the internet, and use that as a pattern. It really is the color of the skin, the hair, and face that are most important. Any other particulars will blend in with clothing.

Unknown said...

Hi I am in dire need of a knitted pattern for Dora the Explorer. If you have one please email it to me.
I know someone named Pirk is working on one. Really, really need it.

Pirk said...

Jeanie Lutz

I am sorry, I do not have the pattern. I invented it on my own using a doll patterns from the internet.