The girl LOVES dolls.  The girl has a few dolls, all of whom are called “Baby.” They’re all on the smaller side, except for an old Cabbage Patch Kid that used to be mine growing up.  (Her name is Colette Kate and she’s from Scotland, in case you were wondering.)  The babies use the toilet, eat, get their diapers changed, and when they are asleep the girl runs around the house shushing everyone so they don’t wake up.  We’ve actually had to leave the room not to disturb the babies.  While that may sound like we’re being pushed around by a two year old, you’ve clearly never seen the girl’s insistent side.

Still she didn’t have a soft cuddly doll to play with, so I thought I’d knit one for her for Christmas.  The other part of this is that I wanted her to have  a little doll that looked like her with tan skin and blond hair and they simply don’t exist for purchase.  American Girl comes close but I wasn’t going to buy her a $90 doll.

Look! She even has toes!

Here’s a closer picture of her hair, which I made using a light tan color and a butterscotch yellow twisted together so it looks as if there’s highlights.

Pattern: Baby Doll Set

Yarn: Takhi Cotton Classic (doll and hair), Knitpicks Felici self striping (dress), Lion Brand Cotton Ease (underwear)

The tricky thing about knitted gifts for kids is that you have to prepare yourself for the very very likely chance that they will refuse to wear or play with whatever you’ve spent so much time and care making and throw it aside for whatever battery-powered toy shows up under the tree courtesy of Santa, who then gets all the credit for the cool toy.

I hope she loves her new baby–I’ll report back after Christmas and let you know if she does.