Mermaid Revisited

It's been a rough day, well a rough couple of days, but I wanted to get a post up.  I had to go to the doctor this morning for a two hour glucose test.  The drink made me sick to my stomach, and when the girl went to take my blood for the second time, she couldn't find a vein, so she had to poke and prod more than necessary.  Hopefully, I won't have to get my blood drawn again for at least a couple of weeks, because I'm starting to look like someone who does intravenous drugs.  I've only been home for about an hour and am still feeling nauseous, a little weak, and tired, because I didn't sleep at all last night, so I hope that this post will be understandable.

Okay, enough of that, let's get on to the fun stuff.  Some of you may remember the mermaid that I was working on a couple of months ago.  I've decided to write up the pattern and offer it for sale, but not without making a few modifications first.  This pattern seems to be one that I'm never 100% happy with.  Every time I knit it up I try to make changes, but I just can't seem to get it perfect.  Maybe part of it is just me and the fact that I'm hardly ever completely pleased with the things that I make.  The main modifications I made for this version are a knitted on nose, and I shaped her chest a little better.  This is what the current version looks like:

I'm still on the fence over whether or not her nose is too big, but I kind of think it gives her some character and makes her face different from all of the other dolls out there.  What do you think?

I know this is WIP not FO day, so I'll show you a second mermaid that I'm currently working on to make sure that I included everything in the pattern.

I'm going with a darker skin tone for this one.  I've never used this color for doll skin before, but I figured mermaids hang around the beach all day, so she should have a tan.  I'm also trying to solve the problem of how to keep her neck from flopping over under the weight of her hair.  I'm trying to steer clear of wooden dowels, because I want to keep it safe for young children.  I usually roll up felt and stuff it into the neck of my dolls, and that works good enough, but my mermaid is my biggest doll and the weight of her head is just too much for that.  On this doll I tried rolling up a 6" piece of stiff felt, and instead of just stuffing it into the neck, it extends about 3" into the head and body.  You can see it poking out of the body in the picture.  We'll see how it holds up.  It kind of stinks that I won't know if it works or not until the doll is finished.

Well, I think that's it.  Now I think it's time for a nap.

Be sure to check out Tami's Amis for more WIP Wednesday fun!