Character Name: Madeline "Maddie" Townsend
Fandom: The Holmwood Foundation [Podcast]
Voiced By: Rebecca Root
Yarn Used:
Hair: CraftSmart Value - Butter
Skin: CraftSmart Value - Peach
Dress: Loops & Threads Soft Classic - Aqua
Character Name: Wilhelmina "Mina" Harker
Fandom: The Holmwood Foundation [Podcast]
Voiced By: Rebecca Root
Yarn Used:
Hair: CraftSmart Value - Burgundy
Skin: Loops & Threads Soft Classic - Taupe
Dress: Loops & Threads Soft Classic - Navy
Basic pattern here.
Look. I didn’t necessarily PLAN to do Maddie and Mina so early, but the one-year anniversary of the pilot dropping was last month and it seemed fitting. Plus it’s the start of Dracula Daily season, so here goes nothing. Anyway, here’s our girls!
For anyone who hasn’t listened to the pilot of The Holmwood Foundation, or isn’t familiar with the premise, Maddie Townsend, former history teacher, is a junior archivist at the Holmwood Foundation, an organization founded by Arthur Holmwood (Lord Godalming) and Mina Harker to study vampires, especially Dracula (the book really happened, just…slightly differently than their friend Bram wrote it, with their blessing). Something goes catastrophically wrong, and long story short, Maddie is possessed by the ghost of Mina. (Her cranky, crotchety wet cat of a boss, Jeremy Larkin, is possessed by Jonathan Harker and is rather pissed about it.) I wanted to find a good way of displaying that, and since I don’t think I can adequately do one of those turn-me-inside-out toys, I figured this would do.
Obviously, Mina and Maddie are wildly varying from the base pattern! I modified it as follows:
Maddie: I actually went top down with her, so inverted the pattern starting with 6sc in a circle and proceeding in reverse from R77 to about R36, except I never increased to 38sc. When I hit that round, I did the same thing I did with Mini, Azu, and Alice and crocheted the round in front loops only. I did her hair with the same method I’ve been using for long hair since Gerry, except that I gave her a side part like in the official art.
Mina: I let Mina have a high collared blouse, which seemed appropriately Victorian/Georgian, and basically did her according to pattern starting with R37, in the back loops of the previous round. (I’m not sure why her face came out more angular than Maddie’s.)
Mina’s Hair: I wanted to give Mina a classy turn of the century updo, so I made the strands twice as long as I would have expected and stitched them around the outer edge of the scalp, then took the long ends and crossed them back and forth over the head to form the hairstyle. I actually really like how it turned out! (I also untwisted one of the bits of yarn in the front to give her an errant curl over her forehead.)
Skirt: I did Mina’s skirt first, not for any real reason other than I was at the ballpark and only had the navy yarn with me rather than the aqua. It went as follows:
R1: Join yarn to middle back of R36, ch 1, sc in each front loop around, sl st in first sc (36 sc).
R2: Ch 1, sc in back loop of each st around, sl st in first sc (36 sc).
R3: Ch 1, [sc in first 4 st, 2sc in next st, sc in next 4 st] 4 times, sl st in first sc (40 sc).
R4: Ch 1, [sc in first 9 st, 2sc in next st] 4 times, sl st in first sc (44 sc).
R5: Ch 1, [sc in first 5 st, 2sc in next st, sc in next 5 st] 4 times, sl st in first sc (48 sc).
R6: Ch 1, [sc in first 11 st, 2sc in next st] 4 times, sl st in first sc (52 sc).
R7: Ch 1, [sc in first 6 st, 2sc in next st, sc in next 6 st] 4 times, sl st in first sc (56 sc).
R8: Ch 1, [sc in first 6 st, 2sc in next st] 8 times around, sl st in first sc (64 sc).
R9: Ch 1, [sc in first 7 s5, 2sc in next st] 8 times around, sl st in first sc (72 sc).
R10: Ch 1, [sc in first 4 st, 2sc in next st, sc in next 4 st] 8 times around, sl st in first sc (80 sc).
R11-R13: Ch 1, sc in each st around, sl st in first sc (80 sc).
R14-R17: Ch 2, hdc in each st around, sl st in first hdc (80 hdc).
R18-29: CH 3, dc in each st around, sl st in first dc (80 dc). Fasten off.
I then flipped her over and switched to the aqua for Maddie’s skirt. I wanted the style to be a little different (in the official art, it’s a tea-length skirt, but I had to make it go all the way to the ground to cover Mina’s face), so I did as follows:
R1: Join yarn to middle back of loops from inner skirt. Ch 3, dc in each st around, sl st in first dc (36 dc).
R2: Ch 3, [dc in first 4 st, 2dc in next st, dc in next 4 st] 4 times, sl st in first dc (40 dc).
R3: Ch 3, [dc in first 2 st, 2dc in next st, dc in next 2 st] 8 times, sl st in first dc (48 dc).
R4: Ch 3, [dc in first 5 st, 2dc in next st] 8 times, sl st in first dc (56 dc).
R5: Ch 3, [dc in first 3 st, 2dc in next st, dc in next 3 st] 8 times, sl st in first dc (64 dc).
R6: Ch 3, [dc in first 7 st, 2dc in next st] 8 times, sl st in first dc (72 dc).
R7: Ch 3, [dc in first 4 st, 2dc in next st, dc in next 4 st] 8 times, sl st in first dc (80 dc).
R8-10: Ch 3, dc in each st around, sl st in first dc (80 dc).
At this point, I decided to do a bit of a fancy pattern for the rest of the skirt. To do this, I did a triangle pattern. The first round I did it in dc and did it too narrow - a “V” of two dcs crocheted together like a decrease (dc2tog) followed by 2dc in the same stitch - but that didn’t math right, so following that I did it triple crochet and did three stitches crocheted together (tc3tog) followed by three tc in the same stitch, as follows:
R11: Ch 3, [dc2tog, 2dc in next st] 26 times, dc2tog, dc in next st, sl st in first dec (80 dc).
R12: Ch 4, [tc3tog, 3tc in next st] 20 times around, sl st in first tc3tog (80 tc).
R13: Ch 4, [3tc in first st, tc3tog] 20 times around, sl st in first tc (80 tc).
R14-15: Repeat R12-13.
R16: Hold both layers of skirt together. Ch 1, [sc through first st on both skirts, sk 3 st, 7dc in next st through both skirts, sk 3 st] 10 times, sl st in first sc (10 sc, 70 dc). Fasten off.