Baby Knitting and a Homemade Rattle

So hubbs comes home and says one of his co workers' wife just had a baby. Yep, baby knitting instantly welled up inside me and I couldn't contain myself. Ya'll know what im talking about.

So I pulled out the ol' stand bys that I give every child born within my earshot. Cuz I absolutely love these two things and think they are the cutest things on the planet. So naturally every baby needs them to complement their cuteness. Also, they are both super easy, and quick knits. And both are free patterns!
So perfect for the "Oh crap I need a present for the baby shower tomorrow!!" emergencies.

I speak, of course, of the ever famous Christine's Stay-On Baby Booties, and Lion Brands Bunny Blanket Buddy. (you have to sign in to get the blanket buddy pattern)

I love history. I had no choice but to knit Christine's booties. And not to mention I know all too well the problems with keeping shoes on a baby. Perfect match.

From Fuzzy Galore: “This pattern was published in Threads no 22 (April 89) in a letter to the editor from Christine Bourquin. She was at the time 95 and living in Redwood City CA, still knitting, and expressed the desire to have her pattern live on. As Christine would be 108 today, we can only hope that she’s still around, but perhaps she’s not able to see well enough to still make them. …Christine’s legacy is this pattern for booties that stay on because of the clever side ribbing, and as we all know keeping booties on babies is not a straightforward task…”
“Christine used Red Heart acrylic baby yarn or a 3-ply Wintuck but recommended trying one of the new Superwash wools as well….the many colorful sock yarns for adult which are usually superwash wool and reinforced with a bit of nylon.”

The folks whom I've knit these for say its true! They do stay on! Well, the ones that have talked to me about it.
Fair warning tho, while the pattern is super easy, it leaves MUCH up to the knitter. I was thinking about writing a blog just about these with directions on how I make them, filling in the gaps so to speak. If anyone wants me to do this, let me know. But if 2,456 people can knit them....im not thinking that's needed.

Here's a shot of my 7th, 9th, crap I cant remember how many I've knit, pair.

I've done some mods to it(is anyone surprised?) which you can find on my rav page here.

And then there's the ever adorable, also super easy, Bunny Blanket Buddy by Lion Brand. Yanno? These guys can really pull off the cute every once in a while. Let me just say, the picture does not do it justice.

Same thing as the booties, I cant remember how many of these I've knit either.

My mods for this one are on my rav page here.

But for this blanket buddy, I put a rattle in his head. (man, how many times have I thought that about people? That they have a rattle in their heads?) And I wanted to share this with you guys in case you wanted to do this too.
First off, lets give credit where credit is due. I always like to see what everyone else is doing and so I look thro the other projects when I start one. Its a good practice, you can avert many problems just by looking at what everyone else is done. Not to mention get great ideas for your project.
So when I started a project for this one, I looked thro and found Swirlee9's blanket buddy and she tipped me off on putting a rattle in the bunnies head! BRILLIANT I said. So I did it. This will work with all your stuffed knitting and it's super simple. Thank you Swirlee9!

You will need this stuff.

Run to your local quarter machine and get you a toy of some sort that comes in a small container. After your done playing with the toy, get you some rice and fill the container about halfway up. Run you a bead of superglue around the top of the container and put the lid on.

Voila...instant rattle.

I tried bb's because I knew after a while of this thing getting shaken, the rice would turn to dust. But I didn't like the sound as well. The rice gave it a nice soft rattle. And I made the decision to go with rice also because hubbs in all his infinite wisdom said: "If somehow this thing gets crushed and the contents come out of it, rice kernels wont hurt the baby, but bb's will."
The word "duh" automatically came out of my mouth. Sometimes I just need my hubbs, aka "captain obvious" to show me the light.

So rice it was. Besides, the baby wont be playing with it for more than a year or so anyway.

Anyway.....after your done knitting your stuffed toy, you would take your stuffing and put some in. Then nestle your home made rattle somewheres in the middle of your toy. Then stuff around the sides of the rattle and finally, stuff the rest of it.
Sew your toy together and play with it. And then show everyone in the house your coolness and make them play with it. Or am I the only one that does that?

If you have done this or something like it, please share your stories or mods to my method. I would enjoy hearing them!

TTFN