New Ball

If you have visited my etsy shop you may have noticed that I have a "thing" for rainbows.  When I found this knitting pattern on Ravelry for a 12 section ball I just new I had to do it in a rainbow of colors.  It's a very simple pattern using short rows to shape the curve of the ball.  The only change I made was to" wrap and turn" instead of just" turning" so there wouldn't be any holes.  You use small needles, I chose size 5, with worsted weight yarn to create a dense fabric which keeps the wool stuffing from peeking through. 

 

This ball is much bigger than the variegated rainbow ones I make as you can see by the photo below.  It's approximately 5 inches in diameter or 14 inches in circumference.

A ball is certainly not a new inventive child's toy, but it is a classic which is why I choose to include it in my shop.  My version is made with all natural plant dyed wool yarn and natural wool stuffing making it ideal for babies and children.

Venturing in the Realm of Footwear

Fancy title huh?  Yes, I am venturing into the realm of footwear via felted slippers.  Slippers are required in my son's kindergarten classroom as the children leave their shoes and boots outside the classroom door to keep their carpet clean.  And, since I LOVE to knit I decided to make his slippers myself.  I used this awesome pattern by Fiber Trends simply called Children's Felt Clogs (there is an adult version too) in which you first knit the slippers and then felt them in your washing machine.  It's a very easy to follow pattern, but lots of counting is involved so I worked on them after my son was asleep in order to concentrate.

My son picked out the yarn from his school's store where I volunteer two afternoons a week:  Lamb's Pride worsted weight wool yarn in bright orange.  While I was knitting the slippers I realized I didn't have enough yarn to make both of the outer soles and being the weekend I wouldn't be able to purchase any more yarn until Monday when school was open.  So, I decided to make a bold decision and frog (knitter's lingo for rip apart) a sweater of mine that I had knit with Lamb's Pride yarn and reuse it for Sam's slippers.  Strange decision to make, but it wasn't a very practical sweater and I'm trying to pare down my belongings in a BIG way (more on that in a later post.)  That yarn was blue which complemented the orange beautifully.

Now the issue was what to do with small bit of orange and a large amount of blue yarn I had left over after finishing Sam's slippers.  See, it just isn't an option to let them lay around waiting for a future project as I also LOVE to use up every little scrap of yarn from my current project, before moving on to the next one.  It's a just a weird little quirk of mine.  Then I had the idea, seriously it just popped into my head, to make some smaller pairs of slippers and sell them in my shop.  I have no idea if they will sell well, but I thought I'd give it a try since it fits into the Waldorf philosophy that also inspires my toys.   Below is a photo on how they turned out.

 

My son wanted his trimmed of all the fuzzy mohair, but I left these fuzzy as I think it looks so cute.  Have you ever noticed simply shrinking items makes them cute?  Well, they are now for sale in my shop soon to be followed by many other blue pairs.  Now I'm eying a pink sweater I don't wear so much  maybe pink slippers are in order?

New Baby Toys

After I let the month of January and most of February slide by without much notice, I decided it was time to get back to working on items for the shop.  I came up with a few new things for babies, because making things for babies is such fun!  First off I have a new rattle/teething toy.  It is a felted wool ring, in rainbow colors of course, with 5 maple wood rings attached.  It makes a nice quiet rattle sound and provides lots for little fingers and new teeth to explore.  I made one in pastel and one in a bright colored rainbow as who doesn't love a rainbow?

 

Secondly, I have a simple knitted ball stuffed with natural wool.  So far I only have the pastel rainbow, but will be making a bright rainbow as well.

And lastly, I have put these 2 new toys along with a gnome in a packaged gift set.  They come wrapped in a biodegradable cellulose bag  with a piece of tissue paper and a yarn bow.  Again, I only have pastel rainbow at present, but will be coming out with a bright rainbow version as well.  You can currently choose between brown or peach skin for your gnome.  

That's all the news for now.  I'm hoping to make more of a regular appearance on this blog so stay tuned for more.  Have a great week everyone!