Rainbow Doll

  This is a Jean Greenhowe pattern and is easy and fun to make.

I love her patterns and find they always work, having a reliable easy to follow pattern is always a good thing.

These little dolls have their own little bag and can be made a wide variety of colours.

 The hat and scarf are sewn in place so nothing can be lost. The buttons down the front are stitches so again no choke hazard for small children.

I will be making more of these as they are fun to make and a fairly quick knit.

I want to make a boy elephant and maybe a few little ducks as they are small and some children like small things to hold.

Bunny Comfort Buddy

 This is a comfort buddy. The pattern is easy to follow and the result is good.

Bunny Blanket Buddy

I made this in an afternoon, it is a quick knit and makes a lovely gift for a toddler or baby.

I used super chunky yarn so it really squishy. Using 8mm needles for the main body and 7mm for the head and ears means it is a fairly close knit. This makes it soft and cuddly.

A fun knit and I had just enough to complete the project with a few yards left over. It used up nearly 200g of super chunky yarn.

Girl Teddy

I have named this teddy Candy due to her pink striped top.

I have thought about adding some flowers to her head to make her look more like a girl. I will ask the people who will be selling them, they may not want that so I will go with their advice.

Ted the Teddy Bear

 This bear is made using a Trauma Teddy pattern

Trauma Teddy

I found a YouTube video that helps if you are going to try the pattern for the first time.

Trauma Teddy Video

They are easy to make and you can use up some scrap yarn as well.

Meet Ted the Teddy Bear

I gave him a smiley face and used safety eyes. His top is blue, the camera did not up the colour well.

I will a girl one next. They work up fast and the pattern is fairly easy to remember.

I sued 3mm knitting needles so need 46 rows to reach 5.5inches for the head part. This one had 42 rows and could have done with the extra 4 rows. It is still cute.

Kola the Koala

 Meet Kola the Koala

I hope someone will decide to give him a home and love him.

He was a fun knit and he is so soft and cuddly. All the toys are around 6-7inches tall. I don't do metric measurements.

His eyes are sewn in and firm so little fingers will not pull them out.

Benji Rabbit

 

A cute little rabbit that has the addition of a scarf.

I am learning new techniques as I make the toys. I enjoy making them and I have a lot of patterns to try out.

I plan on making a lot of Jean Greenhowe toys and I have other patterns as well to use.

This little rabbit was simple to make and took me one afternoon and  evening to complete. If I can find a way of adding a tail that will be secure I will add one as the pattern does not have that option.

Little Duck

 

This little duck was a quick knit. He is so sweet and I will make at least one more. I love to change things up so I don't get fed up making the same things each time.

These toys are fun to make and again a Jean Greenhowe pattern.

You could say I am a fan of hers.

Rosy the Elephant

 Meet Rosy

I enjoyed making her and will make a boy elephant later on. I did not have any grey yarn so used pale lilac. I have some grey yarn on its way so the boy elephant will be in grey.

This was a Jean Greenhowe pattern and like all her patterns easy to follow.

I added some flowers to her head rather than a bow, I think she looks sweet.

Maybe a little girl will fall in love with her and being small Rosy will be easy to go anywhere with her new friend.

BEDTIME BABIES

 I wanted to make something small to start off my toy making project and found this site.

BEDTIME BABIES

They are so sweet I just had to try the pattern and see what I could do.

During the process I have learnt a new technique, that is why I love making things I often learn something new along the way.

I played around with the bonnet for the girl adding a frill to it.

I kept the bonnet plain for the boy.

 I have no idea why one is larger than the other, I used the same hook size and followed the instructions. I think the yarn was a little thicker with the boy doll even though it was still DK yarn. I have found that some DK yarn feels thicker than others. They are both cute despite the difference in size.

The bonnet can be removed but if they want them sewn in place I can do that.

The bed was simple to make and easy to adjust to the size I needed.  I found them easy to make and will probably make some more. I like to change things up so I don't get fed up making the same things all the time.

Next will be a toy Elephant.

Making Toys

 I have been in contact with MK Friends you can find out who they are here: MK FRIENDS

I asked what they needed and found they wanted toys or blankets to sell in their shop in the Milton Keynes Hospital.

As I have been making blankets galore I decided to make toys for a change.

In order for the toys to be safe I needed this

 

Safety eyes are either sewn in or safety eyes for toys that have a lock on the back so they can't be pulled out.

Yarn is acrylic as it can be washed and some people can have allergies to wool based yarn.

I have various books with patterns in them to use.

I love Jean Greenhowe's patterns they are easy to follow and you have all the instructions to assemble things so you are sure of a good result. 

Amigurumi is a lovely way to make small toys and the book I have is the knitted version of this craft.

The Rainbow Babies are a fun project and you can make a wide variety of colours.

I will also use some patterns that I have used in the past.

 This is simple to make 

Bunny Blanket

This Little Teddy makes a lovely first teddy or maybe one that can be tucked into a bag as a mascot.

Little Teddy

All of these will give me a range of projects to use and will provide something for MK Friends to sell and help those who need it.

Green Blanket

 This blanket is green as I had lots of yarn that I wanted to use and found that this would make a lovely blanket that would be nice and cosy.

A simple Granny Square worked well and I love making them. 

I use the No Twist method that is found here: No Twist Granny Square

This means you can make a square as big as you like and it will not twist on you. I added a brown border to each square and joined the squares with single crochet. Single Crochet Join

These worked up fast using Aran weight yarn and created a nice size blanket.

Spring Placemat and Coaster

 I love to make things for the seasons and decided to make a simple placemat and coaster.

All my crochet terms are US terms.

I had some cotton yarn I wanted to use up and the spring like colours were perfect for this project. I is a simple single crochet pattern, nothing fancy. I created a chain to the size I wanted for the placemat and started 2 chains in and worked a single crochet stitch into each chain. Chain 1 and single crochet across. Repeat until the placemat is the size you want. I added a picot border. This is easy to do. 

Picot Stitch

This adds a nice border that lifts the simple single crochet to make it look fancy.

The Coaster was made in the same way but smaller.

This would make a quick item for a gift and can be made in a variety of colours.

Blanket for Dogs

This blanket used up most of my Aran weight yarn. Large knitted squares make for a reasonably quick blanket.

Here is the pattern.

Seed Square Dishcloth

Just because it is a dishcloth pattern does not mean it can't be used for a blanket.

The pattern calls for 45 stitches but the instructions states:

 K10, P10, K10, P10, K10.

Kind of hard to do with 45 stitches. If you want to do that you will need 50 stitches and adjust the Moss stitch section. However if you want to keep to 45 stitches adjust the pattern to  K5, P5 K5, P5, K5.

 I connected the squares using crochet and added crochet border for a more finished look.