Crocheted Baby Toy

I consider myself a beginner level crocheter. I have made a few blankets over the years, but nothing too fancy.  Then I was asked to review the book One Skein Baby Projects  . . . I forgot how much fun crocheting is!  Once you have a stitch down, it becomes something you can do while watching television or riding in the car to your daughter's hockey or lacrosse game.

The other great thing about this book is that it has photos of some of the different stitching techniques for beginners like myself.  I still need those little reminders of what some of the different stitches are to get me started.

Since I know my own skill level, I did not want to jump into a project that looked too hard, so I picked the pretzel baby toy for my first project.  Basically, you are making a long tube that you fill with stuffing and then twist into a pretzel shape.  Below is a photo of the long tube before I twisted it into the pretzel shape.

My mother had this rainbow yarn, and since she had no idea what she was going to use it for or even why she purchased it in the first place, I decided to use it for this project.  I also thought the bright colors would be fun for a baby toy.  This project is a great way to use up the yarn you have at home . . . either some odd skein of yarn like this or you can change colors of yarn and use up those partial skeins.

The book says to put a rattle inside of the tube, but I decided not to do that so that this could be a great toy to bring with when you need something QUIET to occupy a child.

Once the tube was stitched and stuffed, I just shaped it into the pretzel shape and did a few stitches to hold it in this shape.  Now that I know how to make the basic tube, I could make it fatter and it not as long and turn it into a roll pillow.  

Make sure to check out the other books from Leisure Arts!  They are the perfect thing to inspire your next crafting project.

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