Kelly

I completed the lovely knitted 'babe' for my daughter, Emma, lovingly crafted with felted eyes which are brown to match her's, stitched to the knitted face with black embroidery thread to emulate eye lashes, red yarn hair which we braided with beads in just the right shade of orange similar to Emma's red curls. I also have nearly finished knitting her first dress, a simple pink a-line in stockinette. I bought fat quarters and the notions I will need to sew a few of the outfits shown in the book. Emma was delighted.

And what would you think?

The doll is missing and my four year old has no idea what happened to it.
Now, I cannot begin to tell you how much time I spent on this doll. Needless to say, I have torn my house apart looking for her and have, so far, turned up several tape measures, a plethora couple of stray projects, many missing utensils in odd places, and one tapestry needle, but no Kelly. The only room that I have not unearthed is my 19 yr-old daughter's and I ain't goin' in there without a gas mask.

Of course, I have considered the possibility of just knitting another doll. After all, my child is only 4 yrs-old. Maybe I should have been more diligent, kept a closer eye on Kelly. Too, there was our work together to finish the Babe. Emma was up well past her bedtime the night I finished, helping stuff the body and cut yarn for the hair. She fell asleep beside me on the couch before we could finish. I won't soon forget her shrieks of delight when I presented her with the finished doll the next morning. She took it everywhere with her that day. But, by the end of it, the doll was gone, and Emma, when asked if she remembered what she did with Kelly, simply shrugged her shoulders and said 'I don't know,' and went back to watching Jo Jo's Circus. So maybe I would be teaching her that if she loses something or breaks it, she can just have another one. That's bad and I have taken pains to avoid that mistake in the past.

Well, I don't know what those of you in knitter-land would do, but I am not about to give up very easily on 9+ hours of knitting.

So I have donned the rubber gloves and gask mask. I'm going in. If you do not hear from me in the next couple of days, send a posse. Or better yet, a box of kleenex. I have a feeling I'll be needing it.