Toy making

Trying times, we have had a couple of scares, firstly with MiL who is in a care home. We were told by the home that she was not well and they suspected covid, they told us they had given her antibiotics but she was confused.

I immediately rang Mum and had a lovely 37 minute conversation with her, perfectly lucid and perfectly normal.

24 hours later we find out that there are 3 Joyce´s in the home and even though we identified Mum and the family connection, they got the wrong one.

Terribly unnecessary worry and we complained about the lack of attention and questioned their policies.

Then Shine (DiL) was sent home from the care home where she nurses as her immediate colleague had contracted the virus and she had similar symptoms.

She self isolated whilst waiting for test results, which I´m happy to say proved negative.

Phew, and breathe!

I have continued to make toys for Theo, he has grown and changed so much and it´s been so difficult to contend with the fact of not being able to visit. 

I tried to incorporate lots of different elements, such as rattles, crunckles, plush, colourful fabrics and different shapes.

Chris made the support for the mobile using dowl, which he sanded and polished and made it in such a way the arms can be dismantled for posting.

Such a difficult thing to take a good photo!

I used pentagons to make another smaller ball

and a squishy cloud that rattles, a plush butterfly and one that crunkles

A cloth book, using wadding to give it some thickness and the (washed) inside packaging from a box of cereal, just the right sound

The material was a mix of dolphins, cat, ducks and dragonflies, so I added some shapes to match the pages

These multi sensory toys seem very expensive to buy, so I was quite pleased to use items from the stash to give him a variety.

In the meantime, I finished off his hooded jacket, but I wasn´t very pleased with the result, especially as the hood seems to be rather big, but at least it will give him another thing to wear. This jacket was from the same pattern as the last one that just had a collar but it seems to be a little too short. Don´t think I shall bother with the pattern again. Have to have a look through Revelry and see what I can find.

There was enough yarn left to make a pair of bootees too.

One of Rebecca´s friends is expecting a little girl in a few weeks, so I sent along a lilac pair and a light grey with sparkly speckles

The first parcel took nearly 2 weeks to arrive, but the second only took 4 days, I also popped in a bar of dark chocolate so Rebecca had a little something to open too.

On my searches for suitable patterns etc, I came across a site suggesting making toys using household items, some are not suitable at the moment, but one was taking an empty tissue box and stuffing either light scarves or little socks inside that can be pulled in and out. At the end of the day he doesn´t know what toys are, just wants different stimulus.

Thought I would try an owl next, so off to look for some patterns.

take care

xcx