My students and I are making comfort dolls to send to the AIDS orpahns in Africa this spring. I have around 40 students from first to seventh grade and they are each making at least one. Our goal is 100 dolls by April 1st. Anyone interested in doing a quick project that will use up leftover yarn and make a little child very happy?
The pattern is quite simple. I use worsted weight yarn and size 8 needles. CO 32 sts with brown yarn for the feet. Knit 8 rows. Change colors and knit approx. 3" for pants. Change colors and knit approx. 2" for shirt. Change to brown for face and knit approx. 1 1/2". Change colors again for hat and knit as follows.
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: Purl
Row 3: decrease 4 times evenly across row
Row 4: Purl
Row 5: decrease 4 times evenly across row
Row 6: Purl
Row 7: decrease 4 times evenly across row
Row 8: Purl
Row 9: Knit 2 together across row
Thread needle and sew through remaining stitches pulling tight. I like to make the face before I sew it all up. Sew up center seam in back. Stuff head. Weave a string around neck and pull tight to make a neck. Stuff body and sew up feet. Using a backstitch sew from waist to just below neck to form arms. Define legs in the same way sewing from bottom to just below waist.
This is a great project for beginners and a quick knit for more experienced knitters and a great way to bring a little love to a little person. Email me if you have dolls and I will give you the address. Happy knitting!
3 comments:
OMG ... my grandmother used to make these same little dolls all the time when I was a kid -- she made them out of scraps of yarn, and made them look like all of the grandkids, and people we knew! too neat! Thanks for the trip down memory lane! She's gone now, and I miss her ... but now I'll be thinking about her and some of the fun things she was always making for us kids (she also used to make cloth Humpty Dumpty Dolls -- each one was different!)
i'm wondering how it went with knitting the dolls?
i'm looking to find as many people as i can who are knitting these little comfort dolls and creating a database of sorts - all of us in one place.
you can find me at
http://comfortdollproject06.wordpress.com
why is the pattern for boy dolls? Do girls not want something that looks like them, i.e., a girl doll for a girl? For the matter, why not make them all girls and the boys can get used to doing "woman" things, it's time for a revolution in Africa, as is happening in Rwanada, it truly is becoming "A Woman's Country"(Shari Tepper, The Gate to Woman's Country).
In any case, I would make these if the pattern was changed to reflect gender. And spare me the "what about the menz" arguments. Link to follow
http://nataliaantonova.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/sweet-jesus-what-about-the-men/
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