FO: Birdie Rattle

After my return to crocheting baby toys a few months ago, I kept the momentum going with another gift. A girl from church who I've known since she was born was about to have her first baby. How's that for making me feel old? She had a girl, and I always like to check out the gift registries for baby showers to see if there is any type of nursery theme the mother has in mind. This time around things seemed pretty general to "baby girl", but there were a few woodland animal printed items, so I went the animal route.

I knew I wanted a smaller toy since this was for a fresh baby, and looking through my Ravelry library I came across a pattern I've always wanted to make up - Sweet Tweeter! from Stacey Trock's newest book, Modern Baby Crochet. I've had the book for quite a while and only just used it! Isn't that nuts? It's a great book, and I will certainly be making up at least a teddy bear in the future. Plus the blankets are adorable. And the other toys. The whole thing is just great, so I foresee going back to it lots in the future. Stacey's patterns are always so cute and easy.

I love how the body is all one piece and that the tail gets nice and flat. I did sew a few hidden stitches right where the body meets the tail after I closed up the birdy just to make sure the stuffing doesn't move around and fill the tail later on. I also made sure to stuff this birdy quite firmly - in my experience the stuffing compresses over time with lots of squeezing, so I wanted to make sure it doesn't get too soft too quickly. I also put a rattle in the tummy to make this more interesting for the baby :) I'm all about the rattles lately, folks. Yarn-wise I went with some acrylic workhorses: Red Heart Super Saver in Perfect Pink and Red Hear With Love in Daffodil. You really can't go wrong with these yarns for kids. It's funny - when I bought this pink yarn for my Bing Bong project I thought I would never use the left over. I certainly was wrong there! I've used this yarn a ton. It's such a nice pink color.

I did use safety eyes on this rattle. Usually I go with felt for a baby, but I just had a feeling that this would be fine on this project. I think these eyes just make the bird even cuter :)

So that is my first Sweet Tweeter! This is such a simple and quick pattern I know this will become a go-to for gifts. Who doesn't love a cute, rattling bird? Even though I made this back in February (!?!), I only just got to give it to it's new owner - Zion :) I hope she enjoys it as she gets older!