'Hush-a-bye Baby' knitted doll (Jean Greenhowe)

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I wanted to try something different. I had thought about the Jean Greenhowe Cinderalla doll, with two bodies and two entirely different outfits, but decided to start with something slightly easier. So I opted for the 'hush-a-bye-baby' doll, which has two faces, one on each side of the head, depending on whether the doll is supposed to be awake or asleep.

This doll is in the Jean Greenhowe 'Christmas Treasures' booklet, which is not currently in print but reasonably easy to find second-hand. I bought mine originally because I wanted the donkey for my Nativity scene.

I had some bright yellow yarn, and some turquoise, and - as so often - decided to make the skin town a pale olive rather than pink.  I used the author's excellent method of creating eyes by making a knot in the middle of a piece of black yarn, then sewing each end so that it comes out in a place that isn't going to show, and knotting them together.

One of the techniques I particularly like in Jean Greenhowe's knitting patterns is what she calls 'picot edging'.  It feels very odd when knitting it, but the result, as shown in the skirt hem and also the bonnet edging, is very effective.

Here's the finished wide-awake side of the doll:


Here's the other side - the bonnet is taken off and put on the other side - for the fast-asleep version:


There was supposed to be a bit of extra stitching to make a little fringe on the doll's forehead, but I decided against that.  I find the embroidery part of knitting the least interesting, and most prone to mistakes. The faces came out much better than I expected, and I didn't want any risk of spoiling them!



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