Yarn Dolls

Friday night, I made pies for the pot luck baby shower I went to on Saturday. And as I am the Queen of Multi-Tasking, I also created yarn dolls to go with my book gift to each pregnant co-worker/friend. Each set of pies took 8-10 minutes to cook so I had that much time - in sections - to devote to the yarn dolls. Not to mention the kitten decided he wanted to help by wrapping the yarn around himself and Doodle kept jumping on the counter coz she knew I was bound and determined to finally make a dish sans cat hair. And Hobbes just looked at me from the cat tree as if to say "Now you see why you should have just stopped at me?". Point well taken. Until Sunday night - cold and damp - with three kitties on my lap making me all warm and cozy and melting with warm cat love! Sounds slightly pornorific, I know, but cats on my lap and books on my table put me in a stupor.

Here is the pink yarn being wrapped around a Cheerio cereal box, the large kind. For the body I wrapped it long ways and for the arms I wrapped it the other way.


Then when I determined the head thickness (by touch while still on the cardboard) and deemed it big enough, I tied the top off and slid the bundle off the cardboard. Then I wrapped the arms. When I deemed them thick enough, I slid them off and tied off the ends to make hands.


Then I put the arm wrap in the middle of the body wrap under the head and tied off the neck and criss-crossed to then tie off the waist. I criss-cross several times to make a nice bodice. Once everything has been tied off to my liking, I then cut the bottom loops to open up the skirt. You can leave it loopy if you want. I like to cut them and even them out. I do the same for the hands which is optional too.


Here are the finished products. For the boys/men, I divided the bottom into two for legs and tied the feet off like the hands. I added flowers tucked into their waists. The dolls are laying on a regular-sized pillow case to give you an idea of how big they are. I usually make these smaller, like for Christmas tree decorations. The women loved them by the way.