Happy
(20 in/50 cm)
The colors in this doll made me happy just looking at and working with them. I put them together quite by accident when I got a freebie at theStitches Midwest yarn market of Malabrigo lace weight in green (the edging of the dress and here and there in the body). I had a bag with pinks and oranges that I was taking on a weekend trip. I tossed in the Malabrigo because I wanted to play with it a bit and I liked how it looked with the pinks and greens, so I tossed in a few other similar greens. I had already made a few pieces with just pinks and oranges and they just weren't doing much for me, so I started to add some green surface work to them and I thought it improved things a lot, so I continued, and the body took shape.
My favorite part of Happy is her hair. As I described on Heiroglyph's page, I love doing the hair and always try to do something new. Happy's hair is a variation on Heiroglyph's. For one thing, I used only one yarn and it wasn't fuzzy, so the individual branshes show up more clearly. Also, I crocheted a little blob at the end of each branch, which really changes the look. The blobs are pretty easy: basically a small puff stitch into the 2nd chain from the hook, with 2 yo-pull-throughs and a ch at the end before slip stitching back down the branch.
Happy is in the Winter 2009 issue of "Art Doll Quarterly" in the "Show and Tell" section, p. 104. Unfortunately they included the description for Serendipity by mistake, who I had submitted at the same time, and who did not get accepted in the magazine. Queen Lula also was not accepted.
