Doreen Dolls 1951

2/28/2026

Doreen Dolls was written by Nell Armstrong and published in 1951 by Doreen Knitting Books in Lowell, Massachusetts. Many other fiber publications from that era use a woman's name but are written by a man, but that isn't the case here. The only other biographical information I could find lists her birth year as 1915 (Nellie Cislo - she married Stanley Armstrong Sr.) and her year of death as 1994. She has a 1946 patent listed for knitting socks on two needles, and one of the books she wrote, called Two Needle Mittens, used the that method. I've found at least 18 knitting and crochet books listed with Nell Armstrong as the author. The booklet I have is Vol 102, so I might be missing a few in that count.

The doll patterns in this book are for 8-inch plastic or character dolls, and the yarn used ranges from size 30 thread to sport weight yarn. I'm not planning on making any of these since I don't have an 8-inch doll to try it on.

Park Avenue Belle

The patterns above are made with bedspread cotton or all-purpose cotton. The hook used for the all-purpose cotton is bigger than the bedspread cotton so it's probably a bit heavier.