Yesterday Miss Darcy allowed me to take more photos of her. She knew I was busy with Caramelo, then with Miss Matches and later on with Bella. I can't get mad at her for any reason, because she has been the most patient doll I have ever had the pleasure of working on. She just hangs out in my studio, lets my girls come and talk to her, answers questions politely for the ten thousandth time (what is your name? how old are you? who will be your Mom?...questions de rigueur by the ladies of the house). Sunday seemed a good as any other day to dress up in fantabulous linen with shiny streaks, flouncy flutter lace sleeves and hand knit vintage hats, anyone?
Darcy has always, always struck me as a very independent doll. Like I have mentioned before, my ideas and plans for her were quite different...if not diametrically opposite. This doll however, knows who she is, where she belongs and what she feels most comfortable at. Even her little dolly is like that, a bit obstinate, but not in a bad way.
She seems to have fallen in love with this set of vintage knit clothes, a pretty bonnet and lacy socks. I am nowhere near being able to knit something of this nature for my dolls yet, and so maybe Darcy is letting me know is time to venture in either of two directions: knitting with finer gauge yarns, or delving into the scary territory of turning a sock heel. Both of which terrify my achy hands, and turn my brain into a mush resembling three-day old goo. But she just won't take the things off, believe me, I've tried. She just loves it. And so, I have zero heart to fight her on this one, for now she will go home with this pair of vintage goodies, which I didn't make, but as a promise to her I am working courage and a shopping list in progress of beautiful DK and sport weight yarns to add to my future repertoire. I cannot begin to explain to you the terror I feel inside when I contemplate the idea of knitting on 2.50 mm knitting needles. Dear lord, so help me. But in all honesty, is better than trying to understand how to knit a sock. At least for now.
Another quick realization happened while working on Darcy. I used to be terrified of working with knit fabrics. Skipped stitches, tension issues, not really knowing how to handle the fabric through the sewing machine, and cursing in two languages at the serger turned out to be less than peaceful. My friend Barrie, who I am sure sews with her eyes closed while she does her make-up and throws a ball for her dog to fetch, told me (and gently pushed me) to work more with knits. And look at me now! I can't honestly say it is all a breeze, but at least I can grab knit fabric without trepidation or sweating buckets. So, maybe Darcy is telling me: remember how scared you used to be of doing this and now you don't even thing twice about it? Start knitting me a pair of socks you lazy dollmaker!. (Ok, maybe I added the last part, Darcy would never call me lazy).
So Darcy has been quite the pleasure to get to know, she has taught me a lot about myself, and she has finally pushed me into a finer gauge knitting adventure. Since I am the slowest of the slowest knitters on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, don't expect to see anything finished until the Fall. That is if I am lucky. In case you are having a serious case of itchy fingers and you want to knit something super quick, easy peasy, no fuss no muss, I finally published (with extensive revisions by Madame Winterludes) another knitting pattern, the little heart-warmer which I named Corazon, and is available now in my store. Enjoy!.
I will go now and persuade Darcy to take off her hat so I can at least add some ribbons to it or something. See you soon!.