Meet Silas

I have been drawing long legged cats in the margins of my notebook for over a year now. Always telling myself they would make a great toy. I am sure my coworkers thought I was crazy.

But I am very happy with the way this drawing translated into yarn. At 22 inches tall he is by far my tallest toy to date but because he is so skinny it only took 380 yards of yarn to make him.

Honesty the skinny legs are what kept me from making him for so long. But when I finally started knitting them they flew by. I really think the stripe pattern on the pants took a lot of the stress away. After all it is much easier to count 99 rows when you know it is only 33 stripes.

Craft: Knitting
Type: Toys
Published: June 2011

Yarn weight: Worsted
Gauge: 22 stitches and 32 rows = 4 inches in stockinette stitch
Needle size: US 5 – 3.75 mm

Available for $6.00

Summer is for Toys

Today is the unofficial start of summer in the US but here in Atlanta we have already had several days over 90 degrees. It is far to hot too think about making anything piratical to keep us warm this winter. Right now it is starting to be hard to believe winter will ever come. So this summer I decided to make toys. Just toys. It should be fun.

Care to join me? I have two fresh toy patterns coming out in the next few weeks and I already have a few more in the works for later this summer.

Make Your Own Under The Bed Train “Table”

At May 23, 2011
By Carey
In home
2

When 3 people, with lots of hobbies, live in a 1000 square foot house you have to get a little creative with storage. When it became clear to us that our son’s love of trains was not going anywhere we started looking at options. We loved the train tables we saw at the store but knew there was no way we could fit one in our house. We found a few that fit under a twin bed but nothing that fit under a toddler bed. So we made our own. Or rather my husband and I planned together and he made it. The best part: these tables retail for around $200 and we spent lees than $50 on materials.

To make this project we used:
4′x3′ piece of plywood
1 piece of molding
12 12”x12” Cork Tiles (optional but they help keep the track from sliding all around)
8 Furniture Sliders
1 Bottle of Guerrilla Glue
Primer
2 Cans of Spray Paint

And here is how you can make your own:
1. Measure your clearance under the bed. For our toddler bed we had 50” and 30” deep. Because most of the train layouts were at least 32” deep we opted to pull the bed away from the wall a little. If need be cut plywood to dimensions that will fit under your bed. Tip: Most home improvement stores will cut boards them for you.
2. Cut molding to fit the long side and glue to the outside edge of the plywood and allow to dry.
3. Cut molding to fit over the short side and the ends of the the long side of the molding. Glue edges together and allow to dry. Using a hack saw cut ends of the molding to match the profile of the long edge of the molding.
4. Sand and calk edges.
5. Prime and paint.
6. Glue cork tiles on the top cutting tiles down if needed.
7. Flip over and attach furniture sliders evenly across the bottom.

And you are done. Have fun playing with your child and shoving the mess under the bed when you are done.

Giveaway with the Minimalist Knitter

When Robyn of Minimalist Knitter contacted me last week saying she was doing a write up on my Baby Shell pattern I was thrilled. Robyn has been writing about what she sees as essential patterns for knitters — basic patterns that you could knit again and again each time making it your own. This was exactly what I was going for when I originally designed the baby shell.