Crafting fun: toy robots make adorable gifts

A good friend of mine is very pregnant and due at any moment. For her first son, I knit a sweater. It turned out to be a very international sweater as it was knit on a plane en route to Europe, on trains throughout Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France, and I worked on it at my Master's degree convocation (side note, I hate convocations, I've been to 8 of them now). I thought that since I'd already made them a sweater, I'd do something different this time, but I wasn't sure what.

A month or so ago I was at Gather Here for the knitter's brunch and I was nosing through some of the bits and bobs that were out on display when I came across a little booklet with a pattern for a stuffed astronaut, and an accompanying robot. I thought it was kind of cute, and suitable, and as I poked around for potential fabric I discovered they sold bags of leftovers, in which there was plenty to cut out pieces for the toys.

On Labour Day the hubby and I stayed home, so I spent the time cutting out the pattern pieces, fabric, and then sewing the toys. For the most part, I think they both turned out rather well. Since the toys are for a newborn I opted to paint on the face and other decorations, which was probably the most fun bit of the whole thing.

If I make any more I'll change my procedure to match more closely to what the directions recommended (go figure that they would work better...). And I'm considering it. More than once I've been asked why I don't have an Etsy shop, and this might be something I could do. They're easy to do, don't take too much time, and I could easily change the colours to make them look different, or customize them for potential customers. For now it's just a fleeting idea. I'll continue to ponder it, do a little market research, and see where things go.

Ciao,