It's Juju...

but the toddler insists it isn't bad.

My youngest son showed only a passing interest in the doll while I was knitting it, which means that he only came by to check on my progress 2 or 3 times while I worked. I knit a lot and he is used to it, so it had no real novelty to capture his interest other than fitting the stitch markers onto the stitch holders and learning to open and close the holders (and the usual toddler fascination with the properties of sticks and the cutting of yarn). This is the way of things; Mom knits, he wants to play with the tools but has no real interest in the finished product unless it was specifically made for him. Until now.

Just as I was stuffing the doll through the top of its head, the toddler came along and investigated this new thing that I was doing. He played with the loose fiberfill, helped stuff some into the doll, and then watched while I closed up the top of the doll's head. His attention began to wander as I drew up the cord that defines the head and forms the neck of the doll, but once I'd tied it off and set it down on the table he zeroed in on it.

"It's a little boy!" he cried and grabbed up the doll, claiming it for his own. "What his name?" he asked. I told him,"It's Bad Juju." He replied, "It not Bad Juju, it Good Juju." And so it is.

He may eventually let me put a face on it, but for now he is content with the 'amish' version of the doll.

If you're interested in what the doll was originally intended to be, you can read that story at the Bad Juju Knitalong.