the newest member of the family. in this house of mutating names she may not stay the same for long, but she was initially christened ramanda and has been a real hit, even usurping beegu the alien as bedtime companion on christmas night. she was finished in the nick of time on christmas eve, hence rather out of focus rubbish pix. will try to get some details at some point.

she’s made in rowan wool cotton, a truly lovely yarn to work, on a 3mm hook (3.5mm for her dress and shoes) and is around 14 inches tall. i had 5 balls stashed, an impulse ebay purchase, so limited in my colour choices - i would have liked blue hair but wanted to go for something mostly conventional. she’s heavily influenced by elisabethd’s work, especially the big feet, i just love that shape. and the eyelash details were lifted straight from here, too. but i didn’t want to go full-on amigurumi-style, i wanted something comfortingly traditional too, still not sure whether that balancing act has really worked. i remembered much too late (christmas eve!) how difficult embroidering onto crochet can be, and how a slip of the needle can make the difference between an adorable expression and something rather alarming 8O

i got a bit confused when it came to the stuffing. i was so focussed on making sure she was fully washable (i.e. working interior circles to keep poly pellets and stuffing from mixing in the wash) that by the time i realised i actually only wanted the body weighting and not the feet it was way too late. so she’s rather heavy but happily can stand (supported) and sit rather well.

she has rather a lot of hair - a whole ball’s worth in fact. i didn’t have time to think about styles, so she’s ended up with the first thing i did to keep it out of the way while i was working (the hair had to be threaded before the head was finished). there’s all the time in the world for playing around with do’s now though.

her dress and shoes were worked to the corresponding body part pattern, but on a larger hook, so they fit snugly. although i clearly wasn’t paying enough attention when i was writing out the pattern as - once again, too late - i realised that the shoe worked to the written pattern is one row shorter than the other. even getting the pattern right is no guarantee, though - the second leg worked up at such a different tension that i had to omit a couple of rows to make it roughly match the other for length.

i originally envisaged the dress as sleeker, but as i was working it the white frill suggested itself so strongly i was powerless to resist. i think it’s cute and it definitely edges the whole effect back towards the traditional.

which is rather a blessing, since i really didn’t want her to be too out of place against the wonderful bed. when i saw it on treefall i was besotted. i’ve loved manda’s work since i first saw her princess and the pea sets, but this was something that i just knew i wouldn’t be able to make myself (even if my sewing machine did still go backwards, i don’t have a suitable stash of cute quilting fabrics, but mainly i’ve never made a quilt, and yet another new learning process to digest that close to christmas wasn’t going to happen).

the bed arrived so beautifully wrapped i had my very own mini christmas opening the parcel. and it’s just as beautifully made, really meticulous. madam was gratifyingly impressed with both doll and bed when she opened them. she insisted on putting ramanda (spooky name coincidence by the way, i didn’t mention manda’s name to her at all) to bed, taking off her clothes, turning the light out and reading her a story before we could get on with opening the rest of her presents :D