Hey there, baby doll

doll face
Originally uploaded by TravelingAnn

I've never been into baby dolls. Not even when I was a kid. I much preferred expressionless stuffed animals to those fixed faced plastic humanoids. Stuffed animals could have much better adventures and a wider range of emotions.

Because of this, it totally surprised me when in June 2006 I became obsessed with the doll from the Rebecca Baby & Kids book 6. It looked fun to make and there were all these little outfits as well! Going for yarn that matched my skin tone, I settled on Alpaca & Silk from Blue Sky Alpacas. Maybe not the best choice looking back, a little on the soft side, but it's not like I'm giving it to a kid. If I was going to make the doll again, which I probably won't, I'd probably wait for a good color of Cascade 220 or even Zara.

Anyway. The pattern worked up quickly and was fun (she has waist shaping and cute little feet!) and I even sort of enjoyed attaching all her hair (the original is braided but I think I might leave mine loose). Then I hit the part where you are supposed to embroider on her face. Yeah, embroidery, not my strong point. So she had languished, faceless and nekked in the back of the dining room credenza for over a year. Poor thing.

Then on Monday I had to go to Micheal's Craft Store to pick up a picture mat we had cut. I spontaneously wandered through the doll isle (the aisle head said beads, another area I don't excel at) and found faces. Flat iron on faces and embroidered faces. Blue eyes, brown eyes, large and small. My poor doll had a chance! As you can see, I bought an embroidered set with brown eyes. I convinced my mom to attach them. Then I set her up for her Ravelry photo shoot....

And the dogs went nuts. They didn't know what to make of her. They circled the chair. They sniffed her. They snuck up from behind and sniffed her through the slats. They nudged her with their noses and then jumped back, afraid she might move. Baru (above) even started barking at her. It was all terribly amusing. I have to wonder if they could tell she had a human face and form and it was confusing them. I don't think I've seen them bark at stuffed animals (although Samson did murder a Pooh Bear Hubby gave me).

She's up on the dining room credenza now, welcomed into the light of day, sitting in the ice bucket from the champagne set we received as a wedding present. She is still quite nekked. I started a little dress for her in some lavender Zara I had in stash, but I haven't made much progress. You see, I'm working with this really nice sock yarn and it's taking precedence over everything else.

Oh, happy leap year!