FO: A Teddy for Teddy

Back in April, my sister had a baby :) When I was about to leave for the hospital while she was in labor, I grabbed all the stuff to make this adorable bear. When my first nephew was born, we had several hours of waiting around for him to make his appearance, and I was able to make this bib for him while I waited. This time I wanted to make a bear for my little buddy and grabbed my pattern and yarn and hit the road. But I had only been at the hospital for about 15 minutes when my new nephew was born. Wouldn't you know? Because I was actually prepared to sit and wait, lol. Anyway, my nephew's name is Teddy, so I thought it was a great opportunity to make him his own first teddy.

I used the Teddy Bear Bookends pattern from Stacey Trock's Modern Baby Crochet book. I've always wanted to make this pattern up, so this felt like the perfect opportunity. Interestingly, the bear turned out much smaller than I anticipated - I'm used to Stacey's animals being about 10 to 12 inches tall and this guy is about 8 inches - but that's only because I didn't read the pattern description since it's clearly noted in the book. It works out great though because he's the perfect baby size as he is.

I used stash yarn for this since I was grabbing in a hurry (plus I have soooo much yarn). The brown is Caron Simply Soft in chocolate and the cream is Red Heart Soft Solids in off white. I was able to make this bear the night after my little buddy was born in just a few hours - it was much faster because it was so small.

Just look at that cute little face :) I think he will serve my nephew well by the time he is big enough to appreciate him.

Here he is at about a week old - unsure of my gift.

Clearly he appreciates my offering, lol.

It was so nice to make a toy again and to know it was going to a very special little person. I hope he enjoys it for years to come! Welcome to the world, Teddy!

Hurricane FO: A Pair of Birdie Rattles

After making my Lions on Saturday night, I had to get situated for another project on Sunday night (when the worst part of the storm passed through). When packing my yarn, I deliberately chose colors that I could use on multiple projects for multiple babies. Next up were a couple of birdies!

This is the Sweet Tweeter! pattern from Modern Baby Crochet by Stacey Trock of Fresh Stitches. I just love her books, and I love this pattern. It's so simple (and quick) to make, but babies seem to love the shape and they make for a fun opportunity to use bright colors. This one is for a particular little girl, so having already made a pink one I wanted to make this different and chose purple. I used I Love This Yarn in the hGrape colorway for the body and Red Heart With Love in Daffodil for the beak.

And of course I added a rattle :) Rattle all the things! I haven't seen the baby this one is intended for in a while, but I'm hoping she likes it.

Since the storm was still raging, I settled in to make my second bird rattle of the night. This is where I had to do a lot of starting and stopping as well as crochet by candle light and/or flashlight, lol. Our power kept going on and off while I was making the body of this birdy, but I was undeterred.

This is another bird intended for a baby girl, and I just love this color so I try to fit it into projects wherever possible. I used Red Heart With Love in Jade for the body and the same Daffodil for the beak.

And this has a rattle as well :) Don't you just love their little faces? I used 10 mm safety eyes for both birds, and I like to put them a little closer together then the pattern calls for.

And here are both birds just after I finished them :) This picture was taken by candle light and with my camera flash, lol. I hope the little ladies I made these for like them and have as much fun shaking them as I do!

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!

FO: The Bird and The Bee

I already revealed half of this project on Wednesday, but I wanted to show everything here all together :)

Last week my sister asked if I could make her an animal to give as a baby shower gift. I had a lot of other projects in the works already, so I decided to make something simple. I decided to use the Jay, The Bird pattern from FreshStitches, but make her girlier. My sister also requested she have a flower in her hair.

I call this little lady Jayne, The Bird :) Isn't she cute?! I just love how she turned out. I used Red Heart Super Saver yarn in Baby Pink and Yellow, as well as Red Heart With Love in Hot Pink for the flower.  

Since this birdy was for a baby baby, I went with baby safe eyes. I used my Sizzix paddle punches to cut out circles of black and white jersey left over from some of my recent t-shirt making endeavors and it worked out really well. I hand sewed the eye pieces on and then embroidered her eyelashes with some black yarn scraps. The flower is the "Little Flower" pattern from the book Crochet Garden by Suzann Thompson - it ended up being the perfect size! Just the little touch the project needed.

Mr. Bee here is actually a slightly altered version of the bees from the Buzzy Bee Mobile pattern from Stacey Trock's new book, Modern Baby Crochet. As part of the shower all of the guests were asked to make something to contribute to the baby's mobile - cute idea, right? When my sister saw the bees, she asked if I could make one but add wings. I made the bee body up til the point where you start decreasing so that I could get an idea of the scale of the wings. The wings I made were just free-handed, but it worked out well. 

Bee Wing Pattern:

1. Chain 10

2. SC into 2nd stitch from hook and all the way down (9 stitches)

3. Turn and SC 4 stitches. Fasten off with a long tail.

4. Bend the wing in half (pivoting at the end of the 4 sc stitches) and sew the wing together down the center.

Mr. Bee is made of Vanna's Choice yarn in black, mustard, and white. I added 6mm eyes and an embroidered smile to give him more personality. While I was making him, my husband suggested he should have a stinger. After brainstorming for a short while, I decided to tie off at the end but not pull the knot to the inside like I usually would. I kept the knot outside, tied it tightly, then cut off the excess leaving a little pieces sticking out. I put some fray check on the stinger and it was done :) I think it came out well.

I really enjoyed the break from my larger projects to make these. Sometimes quick and cute can cure your problems :)