Baby's Stacker toy

I love to make little toys, I always try to make them baby friendly - by that I mean, no hard eyes or sharp bits that can be bitten off or chewed or cause injury.

I saw this pattern and decided to make this little stacker toy which is available in my Etsy shop

It is made this using Sirdar Snuggly DK yarn, which is a baby yarn and - as the name would suggest - very soft.

The whole toy is the post to stack the rings on, which I think looks like a turtle



And then three rings of decreasing size.  The largest is a bumble bee - which I made in yellow and black with white wings.



The next ring is a ladybird/ladybug and then the smallest is a dragonfly



The ladybird is created all in red with individually made and sewn on.  The Dragonfly is made with purple yarn for the body and tail and yellow for the wings.

Finally the base is decorated with little pink flowers and green leaves.

Bet you thought I'd forgotten about you

I know, I know ... its been too long since I wrote in this blog.  I blame the summer (which I know is long gone) because I don't crochet so much in the summer ... I've got a few half finished projects that I just couldn't sum up the "bothered" to finish.

My shape sorter stalled at three sides !! Not much of a shape sorter really, I think I need to revisit the circle side anyway - it didn't turn out so circular in the end ... So I guess the shape sorter is really two sides and a experiement went wrong.  I'll need to get back to that one again at some point.

The giant rose project stalled as well - I have the giant rose and decided to make it into a tie-together Alice band .  So I have the rose and half (if that) an Alice band ... then this one was abandoned as well.

Now I've had a request for a pattern for my Red Cowl. 



I should have thought of writing it down at the time - I usually do, but not this time.  So I need to make another so that I can get the pattern right ....

So that will leave me one 1/3 finished shape sorter, one 3/4 finished Alice band and another project on the go .... Plus a holiday (Hoooooo-ray) coming up next week - I see this ending in a third half finished project, well at least I am starting to think about picking up my hook again, I suppose that is progress of a sort.

Shape sorter - side 3 completed

Sorry I've been away so long ... no excuses, just havn't been doing a lot of crochet recently.  I think that the hot weather makes me just want to spend time in my garden reading rather than crocheting (see Stuff and things)

Anyway I managed to organise myself to complete side 3 of the shape sorter (finally!!)

This time its a circle.

So now I have a triangle, circle and an offset square



So far I am happy with how it is turning out, I particularly like the bright colours.  Time to raid the yarn stash again and find the next colour.

Shape sorter Triangle side

Since the weather wasn't as good yesterday evening I managed to get my triangle side finished.

I'm still wondering if I've gone too large on the holes but, I am committed now and will keep on going and see how things turn out.

Two sides down four more to go :) Maybe I'll do circle next ?

Shape sorter Part 2

I have started making my shape sorter.  I decided to start with the offset square (parallelogram) side.

In order to give the toy some structure I need to make two if each side

Then they need to be sewed together creating a sandwich.

And then the sandwich is stuffed with toy stuffing

The final result has some substance and can hold its shape.

I am having some doubts right now, I'm thinking maybe the hole is too big .... I think I'll create the next side and see how things are looking then.

Crochet Shape sorter

I think I'll give the shape sorter a try ... in the spirit of if you don't try you'll never know :)

I'm going to keep it pretty simple.  One sorter hole per side, that way I only have to create 6 shapes :)

I'm thinking of the following shapes

Circle

Square

Star

triangle

Cross

Offset Square

I had thought of creating a moon shape, but I just can't get my head around how I would create that successfully.

I think that creating the Star hole will be the most difficult to create, so I think I'll save that one up and do it later.  I don't want to put myself off the whole idea before I even start.

I'll start with the holes, I think I'll have more scope to adjust the sizes of the shapes rather than trying to adjust the sizes of the holes.

So, first thing I need to do is start to design the sides & figure out what size the holes need to be.

Keep checking back for progress.

Ideas time again

I still really need to use up some of this stash of yarn I have.  So I need to think up some ideas.  I spent a bit of time before my holiday just making things for me so perhaps its time to make something new for the shop.

I have an idea for a shape sorter toy, it needs a bit more thought and planning though. 

I am thinking of something even simpler than the one in this picture, with just one sorter hold in each side.  I'm just not sure if a completely soft shape sorter would work ... perhaps an experiment worth trying?

Or perhaps I could make another mobile, they seem to be popular ...

Every time I've made one of these little bird mobiles they sell quite quickly.

I have an idea for a little boy one, with cars and trains etc.  It would need much smaller versions of some of the toys I've made so far

I'm just trying to work out if I have the patients to start into this one!!

Crocheting Toys

I love making crochet toys, they can be quite fiddly and difficult to create because they often have many and multiple parts - but the end result is usually very satisfying.

I have a few guidelines I try to follow when creating new toys, I like to use cotton yarn if I can.  I find that cotton is more durable than wool for something that will be played with - some early toys I've made with wool have needed some surgery after some playing.  The seams don't hold together as well and they generally don't wear so well.

I prefer to use DK cotton yarn for larger items, although if I want a finer look I'll use 4Ply.

Also, I like to avoid buttons or hard eyes if I can.  I prefer to sew on eyes and other "decoration".  That way you don't need to worry about letting little hands play with the toy afterwards.

Happy car

My happy car is a good example. everything is made with yarn or embroidery cotton.  There is nothing on this toy that is sharp or hard.

Where possible I like to use several colours, in many instances the more the better :)  This train pattern I created is just an example of how you can combine many colours into a single toy.

Cuddly Train Pattern

All in all, creating toys should be just as much fun as the end result will be to play with.

Walnut Baby Bear .... Nearly there

So the saga continues ... but the end is in sight.

I managed to get the motivation to finish the ears & put in a nose last night.  I'm thinking about how to do the eyes & mouth and if I need to add a "tip" to the nose ... maybe something embroidered or something else.  I need to add the eyes and then think what it needs to be finally complete.

The walnut baby bear

The Walnut Baby Bear is my latest project.  I want to create a good toy for newborns and have started to crochet a bear/doll.  Its not going to be a classic teddybear.

Up to now I have a head, body & 2 legs ... arm #1 is in progress.  It is all crochet using 4Ply 100% cotton yarn & will be stuffed with standard fibrefil toy stuffing.

The finishing touches will be some ears and a nose.  I plan (right now) to sew on eyes and a smile, but as with all my inventions it will probably evolve when I get to that point.  I am thinking of adding a jumper with a WB Logo.

Finally finished it.

Finally got the airplane finished

Airplane progress

Its taken some time and a bit of faffing but I am slowly getting there with my airplane.  It really does take so much longer when I'm writing the pattern at the same time.

LOL I just realised that my yet to be trimmed threads look like airplane trails LOL

I made my decision, I think that the front looks bare, so I'm making propellers ... still not finished !!  

Just too damn lazy

I was just too tired and lazy last night to make much progress. I did remove my airplane wings :)  and unstitched the ends ..... sneezing as the stuffing floated up my nose !!

So I am now back to a situation with a body, two wings & the tail fin parts and nothing sewed together.  I'm getting to that "I wish I didn't start this project" stage.

So tonight, I really HAVE to spend some time getting this thing put back together.  Otherwise its going to be one of those things that sits in bits for months.

I haven't even thought about writing up the pattern yet, I really should - there seems to be a distinct lack of crochet patterns for toy airplanes available.

Crochet Hearts

I finished my crochet hearts :)  I decided to create a mobile with them so the four hearts hang one below the other.

I have also added lettering to each one so that they spell out "Love".

As soon as I get myself organised I'll take some photos and load them, and also load this item onto my Etsy shop!!