This knitting project began when I received a mysterious package in the mail containing a very disheveled Treasure Troll with a note taped to his belly saying: “Please take care of me. My previous owner doesn’t even dress me.” This little guy clearly needed some TLC, and luckily for him, I have a soft spot for troll dolls, so I rummaged through my supplies to see what I could do about showing him some love.
I later learned that my hilarious pal Michele was behind this baby-on-my-doorstep prank. She found him at Goodwill and thought of me. I still haven’t figured out whether she actually meant for me to clean him up or just wanted to give me a giggle. But, of course, I took it all very seriously!
Troll Doll Makeover Time!
Queue: Supermodel by Jill Sobule.
The first thing to tackle was his matted hair. After all, what’s a troll doll without his hair?!
Although I’d never done this before, I came to the party with a little knowledge about restoring doll hair thanks to Pinterest. I’ve seen tons of pins where people douse tangled American Girl Doll hair in fabric softener, then rinse it out, and it’s magically restored.
But on the flip side, I’ve seen other pins saying fabric softener will 100% ruin doll hair, and the only solution is AG’s special wire doll hair brush, plus a little water and a lot of patience.
Well, I happen to own that fancy brush, but I don’t have the required patience. I decided to go the middle route and use the brush, plus my favorite lazy-girl laundry product: Downy Wrinkle Release, which is essentially just watered-down fabric softener.
This combo of the softening spray and the wire brush really did the trick to get the mats out! But the hair was still a little frizzy, which was unacceptable after we’d already come so far, so… I reached for the same tool I use to fight my own frizz: a flat iron.
I considered that there was probably a 50/50 chance the heat would melt the synthetic hair and ruin both the troll and my flat iron… and possibly set the house on fire… But those are better odds than I get at the craps table, so I decided to say a little prayer and heat up the iron!
And… before you try this at home, note that my flat iron has adjustable heat settings, and I set it to the lowest option! If you don’t have an adjustable iron, I might veto this idea for you. And, even if you do have one, remember what I said above: this could ruin your troll and your iron. Lawyer Pepper would really love for you to sign a liability waiver at this point, but that’s impractical, so let’s just pinky-swear that you won’t blame me if you start a fire, okay?
How to Knit a Troll Doll Sweater…
After I restored my troll hair, I moved on to the main request: dressing him. Obviously, I needed to knit him a sweater!
The yarn choice was easy: it had to have sparkles! Luckily, I had some of this pretty turquoise glimmer sock yarn in my stash, so I just had to source a pattern. I searched Ravelry for a troll doll sweater and only came up with one result: a pattern in a 1966 pamphlet, aptly named Knitted Sweater for the 3½” Troll Doll by Virginia Lakin. I dutifully hunted down a copy of the vintage pamphlet on eBay, thinking I could use it as a starting point to knit a sweater for the slightly larger 1990s troll doll, but ultimately I decided to improvise.
I’ve freestyled top-down raglans before, for both humans and dolls, so I know the calculations. The tricky part was the troll’s proportions: his enormous head and arms sticking straight out at 90-degree angles meant a standard raglan pullover would never work. I needed something with an opening in the back.
I worked the upper portion flat with an opening in the back and once I was certain it was large enough, I joined to work in the round so it would be more like a sweater, not a hospital gown. Then I came back and finished the sleeves off with ribbing and picked up stitches along the neckline for a matching ribbed neckband. I really like the look of the structure this created, but picking up the stitches on such a small-scale piece was challenging. If I knitted this again, I’d probably just knit the ribbed neckline at right after casting on.
Finally, I picked up stitches along the back opening to knit two large panels with a button closure. I think there’s a world where you could shape this with short rows (or maybe it’s as simple as casting on more stitches for the back) so the back flaps aren’t necessary and you could have a more stylish closure, but I’ll leave that math for someone else to figure out. If you try it, please report back!
In the meantime, here are some rough notes for how I knitted the sweater, including all the stitch counts I used, plus a few afterthoughts on changes I’d make next time. If you decide to knit one of these yourself, I’d love to hear how those mods work out and if you make any of your own.
And, now, the moment you’ve been waiting for… here is the “After Shot!” The funny thing is, as I’ve been writing this post, it occurred to me that I put all this effort into this little guy’s makeover, and yet I never gave him a name! If you think of a good name for a well-dressed troll, drop it in the comments, please!
yarn details
FiveBoroughYarns Sparkle Sock in Mermaid Lagoon
fingering weight
superwash wool
machine wash gentle and lay flat to dry
Purchased in June 2020
notions
project details
pattern: no pattern, but here is a pdf of my notes that one could use as a guide to knit your very own troll sweater
needles: US size 1 (2.25 mm) circular needles (these ones, specifically)
gauge: 38 stitches and 48 rows over 4 inches.
yarn used: 28 yards (7 grams)
finished size: length: 2.25”; laid flat: width at bottom: 2.5”, width across top of sweater, including sleeves: 3.5”
duration: June 29-30, 2026
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