onetwothreefour!

Look who I finished making today:  Can you guess who he is? Does the post's title give you a hint?

Here's a shot that should give you a clue.
That's right, its Joey Ramone!

When I first saw this pattern in the Stitch and Bitch Nation book, I knew that one day I'd knit this doll. My very oldest childhood friend is a huge Ramones fan. At his wedding two years ago he even had the string quartet play covers of their hits as the pre-service music and as they signed the register. I'm telling you, you have not lived till you've heard "I Wanna be Sedated" played by a two violins, a viola and a cello. Anyhow, when I saw this pattern I knew that if he ever had a baby, I'd be knitting this doll for him. And now he and his wife are expecting their first child in September. So I had to bust out the knitting needles and get 'er done.

I don't make knitted toys that often. Don't get me wrong, I love the way they look but there are a lot of fiddley little details, and I find they are a lot of work. But I really wanted to make this one. The directions for the actual knitting pattern were quite good, but the description of how to put it together and do all the crucial finishing touches were really not very helpful. For example "Attach strands of yarn to head for hair.", doesn't really give you much to go on. Its about as helpful as a sack of hammers.
Luckily, my local library had just added Hilary Lang's Wee Wonderful book to their collection. (she also has a blog) And the timing could not be better. It is a great resource for all things related to making soft toys. As she so rightly puts it, most of good toy/doll making is in the stuffing and the final touches of face and hair. I really wanted this one to look, you know, Ramone-y, so I was happy for the good advice. (btw, its really hard to stuff a toy and still make it look skinny.)
And even though there are no knitted dolls, it still had great directions for how to make yarn hair and attach it to a dolls head. And there are some supercute patterns in that book too! I've put a couple of them on my someday to-do list.   Despite the fact that I didn't find the finishing instructions helpful, I did like all the details the designer incorporated into the doll. For example, these shoes are awesome. 

The Little Dude was pretty interested in the process of putting this together. As I showed the dolls finished hair to Hubs, L.D. inquired "is dat a girl or a woman doll?" "It's a boy doll," I replied, "sometimes boys have long hair too." He thought about it for a minute, and then got down on the floor and put himself into downward dog position, so his head was hanging down and said, "My hair can be long to, when I point down like this. See?" And he bounced he shook his head around to fell his curls bounce. 

Here he is, channeling his inner Ramone. I didn't even style him for this picture. He often requests his sunglasses after nap time, when everything in the world seems too bright. And he just happened to be wearing that stripey shirt. Even though I'd tried to steer him towards something short sleeved. He insisted that he had to wear this one, insisting urgently, "I need a stripey shirt because today is stripey t-shirt day!" Indeed. 

Comments

[Marcia Van Drunen]

Just read your last two posts. I love the bib-etjes (mini bibs/kerchiefs) and marvel at your sewing dexterity. As I don't channel any sort of sewing genius at all. Or if it's trying to get through, I've thoroughly blocked it! And the Ramones doll is amazing! Love the pic with L.D. and the doll :) Your baby is precious and brings about insane desires to snuggle in chubby sweet goodness. Love your fam and your blog. P.S. when is Hubs going to be all better?

[finger thumb]

Aw Marcia, I wish you could come over and snuggle the baby. He is so ridiculously kissable these days, I can hardly get enough of him!
Hubs is still some weeks away from being fully recovered, though his is much better in terms of sort of day to day doing stuff. Can't use that arm so much, but can get around and be a dad in most of the important ways. And is not in pain unless he stresses the injury. And we sure do love having him home with us for awhile.