Magikal Journeys : Making a knitted doll

Summary:
Spending your free time in activities such as craft making can boost up your creative skills and also help you to make some good stuff for your home and family.
Keywords:
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Article Body:
Many times, you have some free time to spend and you are confused as what to do then? There are many great ideas to utilize that time efficiently and creatively. One of them is making or designing some craft work. Craft is the art or skill of doing something in an artistic way. There are lots of craft ideas such as candle making, scrap booking, fabric painting, painting projects, knitting etc. Among these, knitting is the most favorite craft work for women and many of them love to knit soft toys such as dolls.

Requirements for making a knitted doll 
The knitted doll is very soft and simple to make. You can make it with any soft yarn kept for baby clothing that will really make it a gift for your kid. For making this, you need to have scissors, darning needles, ruler, knitting needles of size 8, cream colored ball of yarn or nay other color of your preference, a piece of 5/16 blue sheer ribbon, 5/16 blue elastic.

Steps to make a knitted doll 
 1. You need to cast on 34 stitches with the help of soft colored yarn but remember to leave a 5 inch end that you will sew later.

2. You have to knit eight rows so that the bottom of the doll is formed.

3. Then, change the pattern to create the body of the doll and for this you need to knit one row, purl one row till you complete 62 rows.

4. Next, cast off your stitches and cut the knitted piece from the ball of yarn again leaving 5 inch that you will sew later.

5. Now thread your darning needle with any of the 5 inch end and sew the end in the closest side. This will later roll up the sides of the doll such that the stitching is not shown.

6. Again, thread your needle with remaining 5 inch end and sew it to the closest side so that you can roll up the knitted side to form the doll.

7. Once you have the knitted piece complete, you need to roll and shape it up in the form of a doll. You have to lay down the knitted piece front side down on your work surface but keep the backside facing you flat.

8. Next, roll the edges tightly starting from each end so that they meet in the middle but remember to keep each rolled side even in size.

9. Now, turn the knitted piece that you have rolled up over your work surface. This way, the rolled side should be facing your work surface and the other side with eight knitted rows towards you.

10. Then fold the rolled knitted piece almost in half and the edge of the side you have just folded should be touching the top edge of the eight knitted rows.

11. Next hold the folded knitted piece tightly with one hand and wrap elastic twice over the folded area nearly one and half inch down from the top. This will make the head of the doll and also secure the fold you made to form the body of the doll.

12. Now, partially unroll the folded over knitted piece below the elastic but you need to unroll the knitted piece till you get the resemblance of the arms on either side of the body and also knitted areas stretched between them.

13. Now, flip the partial unrolled portion below the elastic over the head. This will make a hood covering the head with rolled up arms near the elastic that divides and creates the neck and hands.

14. You need to cut 15 inch length of sheer blue ribbon and wrap this blue ribbon round the hood from back to front in same position as the elastic. You can tie a bow in the blue ribbon with the bow in front of the doll. You can trim the end of the ribbon at a slant.

Thus, you have a knitted doll that you can gift to your kids or decorate it as a craft work piece.