Friday, 28 February 2025

Craft: Comfort or Izzy Dolls & Poppet-Making

One of my resolutions this year was to continue to blog about about crafting every month. Last week I was inspired to knit this little doll after seeing social media page devoted to making ones like them. I followed a free pattern from Ravelry called Pretty Izzy Dolls, which you can find here. It's really simple, but I think looks great.

The website shows ways of customising the pattern to create many different types using the same basic form. The social media page I looked at included versions that were animals and even little witches with point hats.

The name “Izzy” comes from dolls of this type knitted to commemmorate Mark Isfeld, who was killed in Kakma, Croatia, on June 21st 1994, while removing landmines serving with One Combat Engineer Regiment, United Nations Protection Force. However, the name "comfort doll" has also been used in the past and I've seen examples of patterns like this dating back to the mid 20th century. Mine is more a comfort doll, and I have attached her to my handbag.

I think this kind of doll would be wonderful to use as a poppet, which are are dolls used for sympathetic magic. They are designed in the likeness of individuals in order to represent them in spells. While the popular view of poppets is that they are stuck with pins as curses, I use them for more helpful purposes!

One of my Pagan Portals books, Poppets and Magical Dolls, explores the history of poppets and offers a practical guide to making and using them in modern witchcraft.


In-person workshop on poppets
On Sunday 16 March I'm teaching a Poppets and Magical Doll-Making workshop at Viktor Wynd's Museum of Curiosities, 11 Mare Street, London E8 4RP.  It starts at noon. Tickets are from £31.94 and include a drink. You can find details here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poppets-magical-doll-making-workshop-with-lucya-starza-live-tickets-692548169217


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