** Pattern Test **

Ginger the Christmas Elf

https://www.etsy.com/listing/4416896184/crochet-pattern-g...

1.5mm hook for the belt, 2.5mm hook for everything else.

10mm safety eyes.

Yarn quantity:

Fluffy: 13g
Green: 37g
White: 25g
DMC red (belt): 3g
Red (hair): 50g
Red (body): 15g
Beige: 24g

The pattern calls for brown lace weight yarn for the belt. I used DMC Petra size 3 but the belt still turned out a little too wide for my liking (see last picture). So I decided to change the belt a bit to maintain that same look while using the thicker yarn I had at hand. I made a very long chain - I didn’t count how many ch stitches, just measured it using the doll in order to have one that was long enough for a bowknot. Starting on the second ch from the hook, I made 1sc in each ch. That was it.

Other changes I made:

• Used 10mm safety eyes instead of 8mm.

• Used 2.5mm hook instead of 2mm and 1.5mm for the belt instead 1mm. I find working with hooks smaller than 2.5mm quite tiring and painful on my hands.

• For the doll I used yarn under / yarn over sc stitches (X stitches). I just really like the look of it. The pattern calls for V stitches. I made the hair and dress with V stitches (yarn over / yarn over). With that in mind I had to fit the dress on the doll a few times to make sure the size was ok. I had to adjust the length of the sleeves: I made only 3 rounds with regular white yarn and 1 round with fluffy yarn. For the hair strands: yo/yo (V stitches) for longer, looser curls; yu/yo (X stitches) for curlier, shorter strands. I used yo/yo.

• I embroidered the freckles with the same embroidery thread colour I used for the eyebrows. The freckles in the pattern are made with an acrylic marker.

• I only used wire for the arms (one piece per arm). I took the other end of these two pieces, twisted them together and used that to wire the neck / head (it was a bit too long but I didn’t cut the excess wire; I just folded it in half, twisted a bit more and covered it with masking tape). I would highly recommend wiring the neck and stuffing the area well to avoid a wobbly head - the wig is a bit heavy.

The doll measures approximately 28 cm (11 inches) without the hat.