As Rosanne mentioned in the December DHY newsletter, I’ve finished up the Mr. and Mrs. Claus dolls from the Jean Greenhowe booklet she sells in the shop.
These are really fun to make and don’t take long at all. As I worked thru these dolls, I did change things up a bit and learned quite a few things that I’d like to share, some tips and tricks I used to make the shop models.
First, some general guidelines for using a Jean Greenhowe pattern:
- read through the WHOLE pattern before starting out; she uses some interesting construction techniques that can be confusing until you look at the whole picture. For instance, you make the doll body all in one piece except for the arms which are made separately; the arms are not attached until after making and attaching the skirt (or Santa’s lower jacket).
- Greenhowe says to US knitters “use knitting worsted”. NO. She wrote this design with the assumption that DK yarn is not readily available in the States. Rosanne carries plenty of DK. I used Plymouth Yarn’s “Dream Baby” for both dolls. Here are the quantities I used for both (I made them slightly differently than the original pattern, but this will give you an idea for amounts):
- red: about 270 yards (1-1/2 skeins)
- white: about 230 yards (1-1/4 skeins)
- light pink: about 140 yards (3/4 skein)
- black: about 140 yards (3/4 skein)
- dark-green: about 140 yards (3/4 skein)
- yellow: about 10 yards (I used the leftover to make the knitted piece Mrs. Claus is holding and to wind some balls for Santa’s bag)
- fiber fill — I used less than a whole 150z bag of fiber fill to fill both dolls
- For a tight tension, you’ll be knitting primarily with US#2. You’ll switch to #7s only for Mrs. Claus hair and shawl.
- Greenhowe knits everything flat and then seams. I knit most of Santa according to the directions. For Mrs. Claus, I switched to knitting mostly in the round (I HATE seams). In next week’s post, I’ll give the specific pattern changes (including how I did Mrs. Claus’ skirt) .
Let’s get specific. We’ll start with Santa since I knit him first … and he is a bit finicky with separate pieces for the beard, mustache, and hat with added holly leaves and berries. But he’s a great exercise in manipulating knitting and doesn’t take long once you “get it”.
Santa all done
You’ll start with black and knit his boots. These should be knit flat because of the way you sew the seam so the boots face out properly. Once you come to the direction that says “mark each end of next row with a colored thread”, you can begin working in the round (marking the beginning of the round; this will be the center back). I was able to get all the body sts on a 16″ circ (the Chiao Goo’s worked great for this pattern) until I had to switch to dpns for the head shaping.
I did put cardboard in the base of his boots — don’t use cardboard if you want this doll to be washable. You could substitute plastic canvas for the cardbooard, making sure to nail-file the edges, to make him completely washable. You need two 2×3 pieces for the “insoles”. [Mrs. Claus will also need a set to make her stand up.]
When you have made the nose (basically a small bit of knitting that is gathered on all four sides and pulled into a bobble) and sewn it on, you can take a colored pencil and tint his nose and cheeks. You could also use powdered blush (which may be easier than the pencil…. but I had a pencil and no blush so I did the pencil).
I knit the arms in the round on dpns (Greenhowe has you knit them flat) until the top shaping which is similar to a raglan sleeve. Stuff the arms after you have finished, but set them aside as you won’t attach the arms until the skirt of the coat is knitted and attached.
The sleeve cuffs and boot cuffs are garter stitch so it’s just as easy to knit these flat, leaving a long tail at CO and BO so that you can use these tails to attach the cuffs.
I knit the bead and lining as one piece on dpns, until the “work opening for the face”. I knit the first 8 sts from both halves together and made the “sideburns”; I then BO the center 26 (as if doing a 3-needle BO), and then worked the final 8 sts as for the first 8. Before BO the center sts, I lightly stuffed the beard to give it shape (you could also use a piece of batting if you have it to ensure even distribution of the filling).
For the mustache, I made it just as described. It comes out cute with the 2sts at each end for the tips and the 6-sts CO sewn together.
For Santa’s cap, definitely knit in the round. You’ll be CO on 82 sts and can either work the garter st portion flat (it’s 8 rows worth) and then join or just alternate knit 1 row, purl 1 row in the round. I find knitting SS in the round so much faster! Also, knit the jacket skirt in the round, again doing the garter st flat if you’d like.
I put all the Santa pieces together as decribed in the booklet. Make sure you stuff him well (she gives how big the stomach and head should be) and add a bit of stuffing under his cap to make sure it fills out smoothly — I didn’t and should have!
Santa's sack loaded with ... yarn and needles, of course!
For Santa’s sack, I used Judy’s magic CO. I cast on 32sts with the black yarn (I didn’t have any brown in DK) and knit the bag in the round on dpns for 7 inches (50 rnds). To spruce it up a bit, I added a 3-st red/green alternating stripe that shifts each row for 4 rounds. I then added evenly spaced yo’s ([k1, k2tog, yo, k1] rep) to make drawstring holes and then finished off the top with 4 rows in SS that rolls to the outside. I made an i-cord drawstring approximately 9″ long that I threaded thru the holes and joined, hiding the join within the bag. I sewed the drawstring to Santa’s hand so as not to lose the bag filled with balls of scrap yarn and “needles ” (toothpicks, broken at the base with a bead glued to the base) .
These are really fun to make and don’t take long at all. As I worked thru these dolls, I did change things up a bit and learned quite a few things that I’d like to share, some tips and tricks I used to make the shop models.
