Finished my Ariel

She's all done!  took two separate two hour sessions of crocheting, and then about one hour to assemble.  She's so cute!  I love her so much! I could do these in one sitting easy. for these princess dolls I did get mostly the recommended yarn in the pattern, but for time and money and availability interests, I subbed a bit.  for instance, Ariel's tail- the light green is Simply Soft, but a different shade, the dark green is a Red Heart Super Saver.  and the hair is a different shade also.  not really a big deal.  I tried to work with my stash where I could, but I still had to buy a crapload of yarn for this, as my stash was very small.  only changed a few things in the pattern itself.

 first of all, in many places the pattern says to ch-1 at the beginning of the round and then work in the same space.  I had a bit of trouble understanding this. maybe I was missing something but this seemed to add an extra stitch.  I was probably just misunderstanding it.  so I ignored it and just crocheted into the next stitch.  didn't seem to create any visible differences.  her arms are so small I didn't even try to stuff them.  and I made her torso a bit longer, cuz with the bra and everything it just seemed too short.  I was using different yarn than the pattern calls for for the bra, it's Caron Simply Soft, and that may be heavier than what the pattern uses, I'm not sure, I'd have to look. it may have created a bigger bra taking up more of the body.  regardless, I just added about three rounds to the torso and it's fine.  also, my mermaid's bra is not detachable.  this is going to be a gift for my 6 year old.  a detachable bra would just get lost. so I just sewed it down.

also, in pictures the fins appear to be folded over a bit and sewn on that way.  I'm not quite sure how she got that, but I decided to leave mine flat.  I liked the bigger fins.

So, while I was working on this one night, my husband seemed very concered about the fact that I wasn't working on my Rinoa jacket.  He seems to actually care that I finish that. which is interesting.  I thought he was rather indifferent.  It was gratifying to know that he cares.  However, I'd worked an eight hour shift that day at my job, rather than my normal four hours, and I spent the entire time knitting.  I assured him I got plenty done that day, I just needed to do something different.