I made her as a test for Carola and as ever I feel very privileged to be doing this, especially as the patterns are pretty much perfect when they come to me (I feel like a complete fraud!).

For a wheeze I decided to count up the stitches in the hair because that part always seems to take me longer than I expect. 7722, just in the hair. My point being that there is no rushing these patterns. They are a complete work of art with no little detail overlooked. You need to count, and count, follow the pattern (they are very precise) and enjoy the process. It is a lovely challenge with delightful results.

I have made many of these dolls now and I can honestly say that the only ‘standard’ parts so far are the hands, feet and head. Every other part varies across the dolls and I almost always learn something new with each pattern.

I haven’t put all my colours in because tbh I used my stash. Supply of Scheepjes Catona is very limited in the UK atm (Brexit? COVID? Combination of the two? Neither? Who knows ). Hope more arrives before my next test else well end up with some pretty awful combinations!