She's Crafty » stuff for kids

Owl Amigurumi Rattle

mikocoffey — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:33:30 +0000

My friend Ruth bought me a book called Amigurumi World for my birthday, so I was really looking forward to finally getting some amigurumi patterns that were in English, rather than me having to try to decipher the Japanese patterns using my limited Japanese reading skills. So when I heard my friend Catriona was pregnant, I thought it would be the perfect chance for me to use one of the patterns from the book.

I chose the owl pattern, and made it with felt eyes instead of plastic ones, as it would be for a newborn baby. I also added a rattle inside, by putting some beads into a little plastic spherical container and nestling this in the stuffing. The container is from one of those vending machines that looks like a gumball machine, which you sometimes find in petrol station loos (usually containing a wet wipe or a fuzzy brush). I knew it would come in handy for something & I hate throwing away plastic, so why not recycle it!

A rabbit for a pearl

mikocoffey — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 18:06:25 +0000

Public libraries are great. I had forgotten just how great they are until I started working right next to the wonderful and fantabulous Swiss Cottage library, which is a beauty to behold and chock full of literary goodness. The only downside is that many of the knitting and craft books are for use in the library only, and cannot be checked out for leisurely perusal. But they do have a cheap photocopier, so I managed to copy several patterns from Stitch & Bitch Nation that I plan to knit as soon as I can find/afford the yarn.

My first project from S&BN is this cute little bunny hat for babies. The yarn is a lovely soft Rowan merino wool, and I was fortunate enough to be able to find the exact colours and the exact yarn specified in the pattern – which doesn’t seem to happen very often for me. I like to make things my own, and often purposely deviate from the pattern’s specified yarn, but in this case, the yarn shown in the picture on the pattern looked perfect, and when I felt the softness I couldn’t resist.

I seem to be on a bunny theme at the moment – maybe it’s because all of my friends seem to be breeding like rabbits! Whatever the reason, I think this cute hat turned out really well, especially considering it was my first attempt at decreasing and knitting on double-pointed needles. Here’s a picture of the recipient of this gift, the beautiful baby Xanthe Pearl. She has a little growing to do before it will fit her properly, but I am sure it will fit in no time.

Wonky bunny

mikocoffey — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 14:04:37 +0000

My lovely friend Sunny Kate is having a baby, so I wanted to knit her a pressie. My mother sent me some yarn in a care package, and it looks like it would be great for some kind of baby thing, because it’s washable and has lots of pastel colours in it. But what to make?

Earlier this year, another friend (Miss Digger) went to Australia and brought me back a couple of knitting magazines. In the back was a pattern for an easy-to-knit bunny rabbit, that was supposed to be made with wool and then felted, but I thought I might try using this washable synthetic yarn from my mother to see if it would work. Lo and behold, after a mere few hours of knitting, stuffing and sewing, Wonky Bunny was born.

I call him Wonky Bunny because he didn’t turn out exactly the same on both sides, mainly due to my inability (or lack of desire) to accurately count stitches. But here he is in all his wonky glory!