Sumatra
(16 in/41 cm)
This doll was intended to be a fulled doll. I wanted something that would work up quickly and full nicely so I could experiment with the fulling. I had read that Lamb's Pride was good for fulling, so I gathered up some of that and some similar yarns and decided to make a magic ball. A magic ball is short lengths of yarn tied together to form one long string, which is then rolled into a ball and worked like a single case of yarn. In my case the lengths were about 5-6 feet long, placed is semi-random order, and tied with very simple knots. Well, when I started to work on the body, I liked how it was turning out and thought it might not look as good when fulled. I made a little test swatch and fulled it, and sure enough, I didn't like the way it looked nearly as much, so I decided not to full the doll, and thus didn't learn anything new about fulling. However, I did learn that I really like using a magic ball! It had never appealed to me before, so I never made the time to try it until I needed to for speed. I am really glad that I did, and will play with that some more one of these days.
I made this doll's hair using a technique that I created and call "Tunisian Fringe." I first surface crocheted dc all around her crown, and then into every other stitch, I pulled up a loop, cast on some varying number of stitches, and worked the loops off two at a time, in the way that one does for Tunisian crochet (hence the name). The photos below include a swatch that I fulled.
