This is a continuation of my daughter's zookeeper requests. I have finished making Red last month just in time for her birthday. She even brought him along during our camping trip at Mt. Purro. As I've mentioned on my blog about Red, the little person requested for not one, not two, but three zookeeper dolls. Now, I've finished the 2nd one.
Everybody, I'd like to introduce our little rockstar zookeeper with her pink hair, Tina. While I was feeling anxious about making Red, I was a bit more relaxed while I built Tina. With Red, I followed the instructions to the T. But with Tina, I improvised a little bit. I got lost along the way, having to frog the stitches a gazillion times, but I still managed to finish it for this month. I have decided to make the zookeeper collection just a monthly thing.
My schedule suddenly became a little jampacked with all the activities my daughter wanted to enroll in. She now has arts class, aside from her weekly ballet class. She also joined the McDonald's kiddie crew so that's something she's looking forward to. And just last week, we found ourselves looking at formal piano lessons. (The self learning app didn't help, really.) Aside from all those activities for my kiddo, I also joined 3 book clubs in our homeschooling journey. For serious, I can read the book fine on my own, I just found that having a regularly scheduled meetings with other grownups who goes through the same things I go through as a homeschooling momma is like a balm that soothes my soul.
And that is why the zookeeper collection will have to wait a month to finish. I have to make sure that I still have enough time to spare for any unexpected MTOs which not only gives me extra money but also gives my crochet brain the extra challenge to go further. I figured I always tell my daughter the body can achieve what the mind can conceive. This I have to tell her everytime she needs that extra push on her splits and backbends and stuff in her ballet. The same challenge is also applicable to my crochet fingers. Because age is just a number, that's why. I always tell that to the joint pains on my fingers.
For Tina the rockstar zookeeper, I never really intended for her to have that undercut hairstyle. It just looked cool after I've attached the pink hair on the middle part of her head. I thought why not make her a zookeeper by day, a headbanging guitar slamming rockstar princess at night? It's a good thing my daughter loves my undercut hairstyle, she approved of this proposal. (Of course, gotta have your vision approved by your most important client.)
The instructions on Tina and Red are pretty much the same except for the hairstyle. I made a mistake on Red when I attached all the parts first before adding in all those little details like the arms, the little HDCs on the design of her polo, her pants, and also her shoes. So before I went ahead and attached the body, head, and legs, I made sure to work on the details first. It was a lot easier to add these details while the body parts are still unconnected.
Now, I got to be honest with you, Tina could have already been finished weeks ago. But I had to stop working on her because I got to my most disliked part. Sewing the parts together, and waving the ends off. I had to brave this one through. Fighting against all my demons telling me to not continue because I really don't want to. It became a teaching moment to my kid, actually.
After one of her ballet classes, she told me she did not like what they did that day. It was all stretches, and bends, and no dance routines. She prefers the dancing and the pirouettes. I had to tell her that those little bits that she did not like, though she thinks they are unimportant, those things are needed so that she could do all the other moves that she likes. So she has to do even those parts that are not fun to do so that she could make that graceful arabesque during their dance. She then proceeded to ask me if there's something I dislike doing in crochet. I then told her about my preferences. Then I asked her, "Do you think you'll be able to play with these dolls if I chose not to do those parts that I did not like?"
I like challenges like these. Not only did I learn something, my daughter had more understanding and appreciation of other aspects of the things she studies. She now knows that even grownups has preferences they'd rather not do, but because it's a part of a bigger picture, they have to do it. I also now know that not because it is written in a pattern book, I have to follow it by heart. Crocheting is an art and as a crocheter, I am free to do as I please with my artistic interpretation of the project. (Translated: I am free to work around some parts of the pattern and find methods that will make my life easier. LOL)
During Aya's visit to the doctor for her vaccination. Red and Tina's height had to be checked, of course.
My daughter now thinks of having me make all the animals too. Of course, she said, I can have some breaks too. She said, she's allowing me to take a break after I'm done with the third zookeeper. Now, isn't that the sweetest client anyone could ever have? Anywways, toodaloo!
Background photo from pexels
