I think I have gone full circle and am in my second childhood!

First of all, Fern is a twin!  Who would have known?  On another trip to the Thrift store I found her sister, messy hair and all, thrown on the top shelf with a load of stuffed toys.

She was undressed, mucky and her hair was a tangled mess.  It is long though. She cost me 25 cents.

I bought her home, cleaned and sanitised her and spent a long time detangling her hair.  Her hair is actually very long and very thick and I named her Peggy as she too has wonky legs!

They are identical other than the length of their hair,

So far I have made them both a knitted jacket and a skirt for Peggy.  Fern did at least come with a skirt and top.  At least, they are now both presentable.

The little jackets were quite fiddly and took a fair bit of time each to knit.  I am now working on a third for our grand daughter.  I had nearly forgotten the purpose of getting the doll in the first place, hence the title of this post.

I have to admit though that I am enjoying making these clothes for the dolls.

The first jacket I made.  Was very thin yarn and US#1 very thin needles

Amended the pattern for thicker yarn and needles

Identical faces so must be twins!

Think I am done with knickers now!

After making the knickers with lace for Fern mentioned in a previous post I thought I would try my hand at knitting some.

I wasn't happy with the ones I made, the lace just didn't go on right.  I have since trimmed it a bit and it is better but still not as good as I would like.

Anyway, the first knitted pair were huge!!!!! Like a great big nappy (diaper). 

So I modified the pattern, used a thinner yarn and smaller needles and made a couple of pairs.  They are much better so it is time to move on from knickers. (phew!) I have two good pairs and one so so pair.  The pinky coloured ones will be the first of the doll clothes for our grand daughter.  I hope I can find a teddy bear that the big ones will fit!

Look at the white ones top right, they are huge!!!!

Next on the agenda is a cardigan.  I can sit and knit at night whilst watching TV, I don't have to set aside a time like I do for sewing.

A scorpion tale! (photo now added)

Regular readers will know that we have a scorpion problem where we live.  They are nasty little boogers that pack a very nasty sting that doesn't subside for two hours but are fortunately not toxic.
(Unless you get an anaphylaxis reaction to them, which fortunately, so far, we haven't).

This year, we hadn't had so many.  They came out in Spring then we have only seen a few since then until last night!!!

We were in bed and neither of us were sleeping that well as it was very hot despite the fans and a/c.  My husband felt something on his leg and it was heading in my direction.  He knows how I am about bugs so he grabbed it! It was a scorpion!!!!!

As luck would have it, he got it by it's tail, just below it's stinger so it couldn't get it's stinger in contact with his skin. 

He slowly got out of bed and put on the light.  I asked him if he was OK and he said he was directing all his attention to the beasty in his hand.  I jumped out of bed and got the pair of scissors we keep on the dresser by the bed to cut up said beasties if we see them.

If it had been on me I would have had a hissy fit, screamed knocked it off and probably it would have stung the both of us.

He is always my hero but last night he was my hero of heroes.

Head chopped off and tail cut off into 2 pieces!

The doll now has a name and also some knickers!

I always name things so it was inevitable that I gave the 18" doll a name.  She is now named 'Fern'.

She also needed some knickers.  I searched the internet and found several patterns for 18" doll clothes including one for knickers.

I didn't have the proper elastic lace the pattern called for so I improvised with some stretch lace I had but it wasn't stretchy enough so it puckered a little.

But until I make some more, these will do and Fern's dignity is intact.

Poor Fern is a little lopsided, her legs are a bit off sync but she makes a great model.

I now also have patterns for a t shirt, a skirt and a dress so I am looking forward to making them too and some more knickers. I have some ideas to make the lace better.  I will look for some knitted patterns for cardigans and sweaters too.

I will make two of everything, that way the second one should be perfect to give to my grand daughter for her doll and I will keep the first made of them all for Fern and my grand daughter can play with them when she visits.