(Tenth Doctor in Yarn, having Soft Adventures through Yarn Space & Knitted Time?)

I can’t crochet.

Most people I meet say that when it comes to knitting or crochet, you only get one. You can’t have both dang it, no matter how many times you successfully make a chain only to howl in frustration as you cannot make that braid into anything other than a knotted up mess to be tossed with great enthusiasm across the room. I ust wanted to make cute Doctor Who dolls!

I was trying to create a magic loop. I keep thinking if I watch enough videos and I try hard enough that someday I will pick up the skill of crochet. I love the patterns. I love how fast they are and I love how many tiny dolls can be made in literal minutes. I want that. Knit takes days. Knit takes years. Crochet is fast.

I never made that magic loop.

I watched a video fourteen times in a row. I tried. I cursed. I tried again. I cursed some more. In a fit of rage, I threw everything against the wall and gave up. I just wanted to make tiny dolls. My frustration was real. So I gave up on crochet and turned to my only skill: Knitting.

Guess what? Knitting has its own form of the magic loop which I failed to master as well. But I am stubborn. If I can’t do it the right way, I’ll just make it up as I go along. So a month after the hook incident, I was sitting in front of the PC looking at cute crochet dolls, and some knit dolls of the Eleventh and Tenth Doctor. They were fantastic and I wanted them. But there were no patterns.

Fine. I was willing to buy a pattern but it wasn’t on offer. But my knitting skills had been growing and I decided if I can’t but a pattern: I’ll make a pattern. Or wing it. Yes, I’d wing it. I had DPN (double pointed needles) and enough stubbornness for days. I also for some reason had a ton of ecru yarn that could pass for pale people skin. So I took the needles, cast on a few stitches and by increasing and decreasing, in no time at all, I had a head and shoulders. Flush with success, I stopped because my hands looked like claws and my eyes were crossed.

(Oh so mitten-y mitten hands!)

The next day after work, I worked out how to leave arm holes by switching to two needles and knitting each side flat before going back to knitting in the round. The legs were made by separating the stitches into left, middle, and right. Legs became tubes and shoes were created by switching yarn color and adding stitches in the front to get a shoe-ish shape. When the legs were done, I made arms.  I didn’t count any of the stitches until after, so I am sure one leg is longer than the other. And I had no idea how to make hands, so my hands are sort of mock mittens that I used the ends that needed to be weaved in to shape them into more mitten-ish mittens.

(Cream Chucks, complete with Blue Star and Red Seaming because it’s all in the floss.)

I did manage to learn a seam that was invisible for when I pieced together the Doctor’s jacket. Also, I insanely hand pinstriped him for no good reason. I just wanted to see if it could be done. The blue is too cyan. When I make my second one, I am switching to a medium blue. The tie, however, is an actual tie. I knitted it and had my friend Chris tie it for me. He even knew what knot the Doctor wears… so authentic as heck.

Brown button eyes, embroidered smile and a painstaking process of making doll hair from yarn ensued. Dayna upstairs helped me make and style it. But it’s a bit floppy but nice and messy. It’s all in details and that mad twinkle in his eyes anyhow.

(Relaxing between adventures on my messy bed that is too red for good photos.)

Eventually, I am going to add eyebrows. I keep saying that and I keep not doing it. But I think he looks like he’s having fun. That hair though…

I still can’t crochet but I don’t think I care anymore. I’ll just wing it in knit. Also, immediately after finishing the Doctor, I started right in on a Rose Tyler. I’m a sucker for love and the Doctor needs a hand to hold.

Details/Materials: 

-I used size 5 DPN (double pointed needles)
-All the yarn was Red Heart. I doubled the yarn to make sure the weave was tight enough for stuffing.
-Two brown buttons were used for the Doc’s eyes.
-Felt embroidered with a blue star was used for shoes.
-Metal snap for his jacket
-Red embroidery floss

He’s a big boy and stands over a foot high, and is perfect for cuddling.