Baby Things!

If you ask any of my friends and family, they'll tell you that I don't have a maternal bone in my body. And they're quite right but that doesn't mean that I don't have a little bit of a squee over teeny tiny baby clothes and toys. Also, I will admit that I did melt more than a little when I saw my new niece and nephew at the weekend - they are adorable.

Obviously, I just had to make stuff for them. I'm so going to be that random aunt who knits clothes for their toys when they want the proper bought stuff, lol. But I don't mind that, I have very fond memories of toys my Nana made me when I was a kid.

The first things I made, I didn't actually end up giving to the babies because they were far too small. The twins were premature and even smaller again because they are twins so I made a pair of hats in the 'premmie' size but by the time we managed to go to Dorset and see them, they'd grown to 'new born' size and the hats I made were comically small. That's okay though, I have brought them back home and put them on a couple of our Funko figures instead.

The pattern I used was this one from AlliCrafts. I'm definitely going to make them again because they are so cute but this time, I'll make them in the correct size.

The next couple of things I made were far more successful, to the point that my sister-in-law claimed that she wanted to keep them for herself, lol. Cuddly toys, they're always a winner.

The first toy I made was one that I'd made before for a my mum's friend's baby. So I already knew how easy the pattern is and just how adorable the finished product is. I'm talking about Rachel H's L'il Baby Unicorn I love this toy so much, it's really to fun to make and looks great; I highly recommend giving it a try. The first time I made it, I stuck Rachel H's colours of pink and red because it was for a little girl and the colours were one of the reasons I wanted to try it in the first place. This time, even though it's a unicorn I wanted it to be something both the twins could play with if they wanted. I had a ball of Robin DK in bright pink, blue and white in my stash that I've been looking for a good project to use it on and I thought this would be perfect, especially if I used plain blue as the contrast colour to offset the pink even more.

The original L'il Unicorn I made a couple of years ago.

The second toy I decided to make was Emma's Crochet Stripy Giraffe. Just look at it, I could not resist something that cute. Again I wanted both twins to be able to play with and cuddle it so I tried to use colours that would appeal to both boys and girls. This was a great pattern; I know that there have been some negative comments on Emma's page but I didn't have any problems at all and would definitely recommend giving it a go. In fact I'm planning on making a couple more for my friends because I had lots of fun making this [and so did my cat who discovered a fun new game of stealing a leg and making me chase him to get it back].

Na na - na na - na na - na na - Slippers!

I named this blog the Stitchy Nook because I wanted it to cover most of the crafts I like doing but so far, it's been very knit-heavy. Obviously, this is because I'm currently working on the Blanket of Doom. Usually, though, knitting is a lot lower down in the favourite crafts list because I much prefer crochet and cross stitch. So even though, I'm still working on the blanket, I'm going to try and drop in details of other things I've made that aren't knitted, every here and there.

The first thing I want to show you, purely because I'd completely forgotten about them until a few days ago, are my Batman slippers. I'd been meaning to crochet a pair of slippers for a while and finally gave it a go. The link to the exact pattern I used has died and, having looked through the other posts on that particular blog, I think the creator has taken the pattern down completely. But if you wanted to recreate these slippers then any pattern for a basic slipper will work, as long as it's for a slipper that will cover the top of your foot rather than a strappy or Mary Jane slipper. Zoom yummy's slippers or Mammy Made's slippers look to be similar to the ones I made.

I crocheted the actual slipper in a shimmery black wool that I have in my stash and then I used the Batman applique pattern from the amazing Louie's Loops site [seriously, you need to check this site out, it's fab!]. And ta da! Batman slippers!