Educational Fun: Letters

This is a fun, and easy project for toddlers who are just learning to draw and write shapes and are trying to learn to write their letters for the first time.  You can encourage them to paint within the lines, to trace the shapes of the letters, or let them go crazy and paint wherever they choose!

Materials: 

child safe paint

outlined letters/names on paper (either printed from the computer or drawn by hand)

Paint brushes

paper/cloth towel (I use scraps from old T shirts)

Water for cleaning brushes

New in the Shop: TWO Dollies!

We just love these dollies in my house! It takes me about a week of naptimes and bedtimes to make one, so over the past month I've done about four--and three are in my shop now! I went to www.knitpicks.com and got all sorts of wonderful skin tones and hair colors for dolls in the future, including this amazing heathered blonde color from their Palette wool yarn collection.  I hope you enjoy them!
Come on over and check them out. 

One blonde doll:

And one African American doll:

 

Upcycled Planters: A Wordless Post

Educational Fun: Numbers

 Bunny loves to count--in English and Spanish--so these cute cards with numbers on one side, and things to count on the other are wonderful for some educational play. 

100% Wool, Handknit Dolly in my shop

I've got a new listing in my Etsy shop--a 9" hand knit doll made from 100% wool.  She's even stuffed with wool, and she's beautiful.

I've been wanting to knit a dolly for sometime now.  I somehow have a knack for understanding how to make shapes without a pattern with my knitting needles and for about a year I've had an unwritten pattern in my head for how I'd make a little dolly to sell.  But being a knitter means that I've always got a project in the works for someone and I didn't have the opportunity to knit any dollies until the last two weeks.  Last week, I did the first dolly--one I almost sold but then gave to my daughter who was fairly drooling over her.

We named her "Elica" after one of Bunny's daycare friends, and then I commenced to perfecting the dolly, and writing down the pattern I'd done.  I normally don't write patterns down, I just look at what I've already made and counted the stitches where necessary.

See, Bunny has one of everything that I've ever sold on Etsy so that's been possible.  But since her dolly was just my tester, I really needed to write things down this time around.  So I did.  I don't know that it's written in a way that others would be able to understand it, but I do, and that's all that matters.  Maybe one day I'll write patterns.  It's kind of a goal of mine, but I'm scared.

Well, last week, I knit Elica.  She actually only took me a couple of days--four I think--and this week I knit the perfected Elica.  I sort of named her "Joy" in my head (though Bunny insists that Joy is not a name, but a word in one of her favorite Christmas Carols), but really she has no name because she's not mine to name!

She's adorable.  She's symmetrical.  Her hair is marvelous--and took HOURS to complete because I pulled apart strands of worsted weight wool to give her thinner hair, but it's soft and thick and you can sort of run your fingers though it.

  My husband insists that she has too much hair, but I feel that too much hair is a thing that is somewhat difficult to accomplish.  As a little girl who LOVED to style doll hair, I can say for a fact that I would have loved this dolly.

She's also got adorable clothing--pink underwear, crocheted shoes (this is the first time I've made up a crochet pattern on my own, I'm not really a crocheter), and an adorable, off-the-shoulder seamless dress that is pulled on and requires no snapping, tying or buttoning.

She's for sale for only $30 ($33 shipped).  It's a little under priced, in my opinion, and I'm okay with that  for now.  I might raise the price in the future and I might not.  It all depends upon how many dolls I knit and if I decide that this is something I want to stick with.  It's hard to charge what hand knit things are actually worth since even small items take hours to complete.  Most knitters who sell their wares, have to price them lower than what they're worth for that reason, I think.

But currently, I'm over at www.knitpicks.com in my free time drooling over delicious colors of wool for different skin tones and hair tones that I envision knitting in the future.  Yeah, I'm a yarn dork, I know.

Bunny is completely potty trained now. Well, she was potty trained as of two weeks after her second birthday, but we're now even out of training pants as she's down to only one accident every week or two.  I find that my interest in making things goes along with the flow of her life.  I'm not really interested in making cloth diapers or training pants now that Bunny no longer uses either.  I'm not saying that I won't make them, but I'm just not as motivated to do them anymore.  I find myself extremely motivated, however, to make play food, plushies, and dollies that she loves.   Many of those things I make but never sell.  Maybe I'll sell them soon, who knows.  But for now, I've got my new little dolly up for sale, and if I do say so myself, she is adorable and well worth your money. :-D