pinkee

My sister Kate's birthday was on Wednesday, and I promised her a toy, and here it is. She named it Lucia, which is a nice name. Inspired by the taffy shop I posted a few weeks back, I made her in pink and white (the pink is Berkshire by Valley Yarns, which is 85% wool and 15% alpaca, in Rose; the white is Lamb's Pride Worsted in White Frost). I'm kind of enamored with the idea of combining knitting with crochet, so I crocheted a little flower and stuck it on her head - the pattern for the flower is modified from one in the formidable Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework, one of my most consulted books on the needle arts.

The toy itself is from my free bunny pattern - I just changed the colors, left off the ears, added the flower, and didn't do increases on the arms and legs (to make them more tube-like, less teardrop-shaped). I also embroidered on the eyes, which is becoming my preferred eye-depiction method. Plastic eyes are fine but I'm trying to get more expressiveness - I wanted this toy to radiate serenity. And pinkness.

More pics of the toy on flickr, just click on the photo to get to my photostream.

By the way, Berkshire is a great yarn for toy-making - it's very similar to LPW in its construction and its fuzziness, it even comes in a equally vibrant range of colors, but the alpaca content makes it slightly softer. Plus it's crazy cheap. And there's a sky blue (color 24)!