Two fairly new eight inch (20 cm) dolls, Dora the Explorer Everyday Explorer and Lalaloopsy Littles, can wear doll clothes made from some of my patterns.

Dora is wearing the T-shirt and A-line skirt from my pattern Pants, T-shirt and Skirt pattern in Florabunda’s size. Lalaloopsy Little is wearing the A-line dress from my pattern A-line Dress, Jacket, and Bloomers in Twinkle’s size.

Here are the two dolls wearing knitted backpacks from my new book, Learn to Loom Knit for Your Doll.

To order down-loadable patterns, see the small dolls section of my Patterns page.

To order a book with the patterns, see My Books page. Florabunda’s patterns are in the Sew a Small Doll and her Clothing book. Twinkle’s patterns are in the Sewing for Mini Dolls Book.

loom knitting for small dolls, Patterns for Dora the Explorer, Patterns for Lalaloopsy Accessories for small dolls

I have been recovering from a cold in the last few days. While I was ill, I had just enough energy to play around with spool knitting. I used the spool knitter to make a few things for Florabunda. The hat and scarf were made with a four pin knitter. The mittens were made with a six pin knitter and were a little more difficult to make. I hope to have instructions for making Florabunda’s hat and scarf and a few other things with a spool knitter in a month or so.

Here is a photo of Florabunda in her new felt coat and her new knitwear.

loom knitting for small dolls knitting for small dolls

When my cousin and I were children, thread still came on wooden spools. One time she had a contraption made from a wooden spool and four nails spaced evenly around the hole in the spool. By looping the yarn correctly, she was able to knit herself a thin belt. I was fascinated by spool knitting, but I didn’t try it as a child.
When I became interested in loom knitting, the first thing I tried was spool knitting. Today thread comes on plastic spools. It would be difficult to make a spool knitter from a plastic spool. Fortunately there are many commercially made spool knitters available for purchase. If you are interested in this technique, remember that it is sometimes called French knitting and sometimes called corking.
To make my rug, I chose a spool knitter with four pegs that were fairly close together. I used Lily Sugar’n Cream cotton yarn in rose pink. I knitted a string about 42 inches (107cm) long. Technical support (husband) referred to my knitting as a snake sweater.

I shaped the string into an oval rug.

I used the yarn ends of the knitted string, extra matching yarn, and a plastic needle to sew the rug together on the back.

Here is the rug next to my doll bed.

The rug is a nice place to leave bedroom slippers.

If you or a child in your life is interested in spool knitting check this video on YouTube. Spool Knitting 101

loom knitting for small dolls, New Things knitting for small dolls

I never learned how to knit. I blamed my grandmother for years, because she did not know how to knit, and so she could not teach me. My grandmother did know how to crochet, but neither my mother nor I ever learned. I really cannot blame my grandmother.
Because I have seen so many people having fun knitting lately, I decided to teach myself to knit. I have a fairly slow learning curve. After doing some online research I decided that round loom knitting would be an easy way for a slow learner like me to get started.
I wanted to do small projects for my small dolls. I ended up using flower looms to make small hats.

The Nifty Knitter Flower Loom is made like other Nifty Knitter looms and is easy to use. The pegs are wide and have enough space between them to require a thick yarn. I used Nature’s Choice organic cotton.

To make a hat with a smaller knit stitch I used the middle size round loom from the Clover Flower Loom set. This loom is not made for the type of knitting that I wanted to do so it was more difficult to use. The knit stitch that it produces is more in scale with my small dolls. I used Sugar’n Cream Twists and Bernat Bamboo for the two hats with small knit stitches.

Twinkle, Tender Heart, and Floribunda model the three hats.

loom knitting for small dolls, New Things knitting for small dolls