"No matter how terrified you may be, own your fear and take that leap anyway because whether you land on your feet or on your butt, the journey is well worth it."
-- Laurie Laliberte
"If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough."
-- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."
-- Anais Nin

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Part Two--"Body Building"

The next step is to crochet the body. This is probably the most important part of the doll because if the body is off, the whole thing will look funny. The pattern is simple enough and I follow it to the letter (or so I think).

You guessed it; it looks odd. I can't really tell as I'm working the lower half, but something is wrong. I keep stitching to the end because I know I can't readjust the pattern to suit my needs unless I see it fully done. Finished, my piece looks like it has "secretary spread." It has a bubble butt and a tiny neck.

I head back to the computer in an effort to determine whether the problem is me or a flaw in the pattern. As I read the comments posted on WolfDreamer's page, I find a blogger in France who has made the pattern and posted pictures of the finished product in her own blog. Sure enough, her Toad is perfect...Great.

My frustration level has reached a high. I know myself very well. If I push myself to keep going I'll only become more frustrated and eventually abandon the project altogether. I choose to walk away for a while. Perhaps I'll move on to the arms and feet before I return to finish the body.

3 comments:

  1. If I might suggest: The originals (as with all of my dolls) are made with acrylic yarn, which has a certain amount of 'stretch' to it. You mention that you're using cotton which is always going to give you considerably different results than acrylic, because it lacks the 'body' of the acrylic.

    I'm very interested to see your results when you're done! I've never liked using cotton for dolls (because of it's inherent difficulties) but you may well change my mind :D.

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  2. Sorry about the double posting, Blogger has been having issues today, and nothing worked right, then everything worked at once LOL

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  3. Hi Linda! Thanks for stopping by. I usually work afghans, etc. with Red Heart acrylic, but I'm trying to retrain myself with natural fibers. I know the cotton won't have the same memory as a synthetic, but I also know the washability of cotton can be a bit better. I will keep you posted.

    Thanks for the tip, too...I forgot in my haste to complete the project that cotton doesn't manipulate as easily as acrylic and that could be the reason for the "bubble butt" issue...LOL

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