Twenty years, now and then, KnitOwl Toys

 

  

 

Someone whose mom bought a KnitOwl handsewn toy twenty years ago contacted me today with a picture of the much-loved kangaroo and it's tiny joey, intact after many washings and adventures.  It was heartwarming - and I remember many times when our own daughter E lost her own kangaroo's baby joey and we had to go looking for it among all the toys before she could sleep at night.   The fabric had originally come from a men's cotton shirt - and I had chosen it at a thrift store to make some quilts with.  The entire toy except for one seam was made with tiny stitches with a hand sewing needle and hand quilting thread, from my original hand drafted pattern.  The joey stood only 2.5 inches tall.

 

I think sometimes about making some more toys - and putting them up, but as I told her, life gets in the way and I am always off to do something else.  Even last week, I was wondering about making another one of the dinosaur world type toys I had sent to another friend's daughter - or the forest rabbit log toy that E had (and we spent some time with that bunny getting lost, as well, as it was supposed to live in the log *ha* and it had some leaves for food etc.)

 

 

Most of all, it was nice to hear that it had been loved, and brought joy to a child - which was the entire point of making them in the first place.  I tried to - through some sort of Velveteen Rabbit magic - put some sort of personality and happy feeling into every one hoping it would carry through in some way.

 

Thank you for sharing your memories with me, and letting me see that the craftsmanship really did hold up very well over the years.

 

Marie at KnitOwl Toys (formerly MarieMeyer.etsy.com) 

  

Esme helps make her cat doll

She asked for a cat doll the other day when she found these amber and green safety eyes in a box. She waited patiently tonight until I finished the pair of shorts to match her purple dress. Then she told me what she wanted it to look like. She wanted it to be a 'cat machine doll' with a GO button and a STOP button on their paws. She wanted it to be a girl cat and it could be 'like Pollywog' our mama cat. This is the best I could oblige, and she helped (some) to make it.

Alien Invasions continuing this holiday season...

at the KnitOwl Toy Shop

All the usual suspects have been rounded up, thread, scissors, felt and stuffing for the holiday season crush. The KnitOwl is working in her workshop four days straight!

Sluggish around here? No not at all!

Custom slug order for JB - here they are!
One is a little longer than the other and has a bigger mouth - but every toy has its own unique personality, even when they come from the same pattern!



Sluggish? Actually we've been quite busy!

Our Thanksgiving was simple, at home and relaxing. We had a 'traditional pepperoni pizza' as CarrieK said. We took Esme up to see Grandma and Grandpa for about an hour, but she was more interested in tromping about their house getting into things than actually visiting (she is one after all). We went home and made pizza and watched a movie, then tired Esme entirely out so she would go to sleep early. I had to work on Black Friday at 6 am. That actually wasn't so bad, but then I have five years of experience under my belt and I didn't have to open the doors -- that poor guy in New York!


Slug with carrot
He has finally come back from St.Louis
He'll be in the shop

The toys all came back finally from the Crammed Organisms show in St.Louis. Some of them were just a little worse for wear. It took them a long time to turnaround the shipping (which I had to pay for both ways and that sucked) and they didn't do very well on getting pictures of things while they were at the show. I saw Bumblephant in just one photo out of the twenty some they took. I was glad to be invited to what was a wonderful and original idea but was kind of left wanting for more. Maybe they'll do better next year, as this was their first try at anything this large.

Dragon Pillow

One of my workshop items was this dragon pillow. I'd planned a large bed pillow out of this nice red and white striped fabric. But not just any boring rectangular pillow - it had to be special and interesting, something unique. Mark helped me evolve the idea into something worth it's stuffing ;) This 30 inch wide dragon took about two hours to make and one yard each of the front and back fabrics. With 100% cotton ticking fabrics and good seams he should also survive the washing machine.


Shown on top of our plushy dragon blanket which also helped inspire it


Esme thinks it's an interesting toy too, with his curly tail, floppy arm and mouth full of teeth. Here she makes for good scale as she pages through a new board book.

I've been using the dragon as a head pillow at night the past few days as well. It makes me happy to make something that actually gets used. I think this dragon bears repeating. A couple of times maybe... in slightly different incarnations. Mark already says he needs one of his own because I'm monopolizing this one :)

Next: Purple bassinet quilt, more aliens and lots of fabric!

More Cotton Slug Attack pictures

More pictures of Mark and Esme with the cotton toy slug the other night. I really need to make more but won't get more time until this weekend. I've also got a request to make a 'plush foot' for a sandal company... which I've done one mockup for and need to make another.

Original Art and In the Toy Workshop again...

We're getting into the slow season at work - so I'll be spending a little more time in the workshop. I have a few patterns to PDF, and a few more I'd like to tweak into other forms. Up North we collected boxes of my old prints and sketchbooks from college. I've been posting those in the art shop a bit at a time.

These ones all have a similar art style and theme - from 2002-2003 while I was in college.


'Disarming Creatures'
ink sketch on paper

'Small Woman' original linocut print

'Medicine' 4 color screenprint

I'm also making up a box of toys to send to a craft art show in Iowa. I'm hoping to make up a few more elephunks (plush elephants) and slugs etc...



Wouldn't it be great to have a pile of blue or pink elephant toys?

Custom plush slugs in 6 colors

Got a whole box of printmaking stuff for rock-bottom clearance price lately as well. That was a great find, as I couldn't find the box with the good studio stuff up North. We also finally got my Mom's photo album back to her, which made her cry some. A few of my own personal photo albums, diplomas and personal treasures were in another box and it is nice to have those again too.

Elephants!

We'll be headed through the Twin Cities when the Republican National Convention is on - so Mark suggested we bring some KnitOwl elephants :) This is a new (sort of - I shrunk Bumblephant freehand) original pattern from KnitOwl (me!).


Showing some Stars and Stripes


Cool in Blue

A few more days until we head off on our trip!

Esme meets a Slug

New flock of plush Slug toys coming into KnitOwl toy shop!

It was love at first sight
or was that love at first bite?

And then of course the obligatory 'Om Nom Nom' followed...
(toy was rescued quickly)

Esme is getting so big! It's hard to believe she is almost 6 months old. She has been trying squash and sweet potatoes and bananas along with her cereal. It was quite cute today, she actually indicated to me she wanted her bottle of juice on the table while I had been feeding her bananas. She refused the spoon for a moment, leaned forward and made lots of noise in the direction of the bottle sitting on my side table. I picked it up and asked 'You want this?' Esme opened her mouth wide and made excited kicks clearly communicating 'Yes I want THAT!' It's wonderful to see her doing new things :)

On My Desk: Bumblephant

On My Desk with Kootoyoo

A buzzy - uzzy elephant,
A bumble - umble Bumblephant...

Original Bumblephant pattern designed by Marie Lamb @ KnitOwl Toys

He's a work in progress
for Crammed Organisms
By the way I'm going I have to Express Mail!

UPDATE: I sent out my package to Cranky Yellow (Crammed Organisms is being held there) today! YAY!

Weekend Roundup

New Arrivals at the online KnitOwl Toy Shop

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We were at MamaMade in Franklin, TN on Saturday. There were lots of talented Mamas there selling their goods. The atmosphere was nice and friendly, and the owner of Lillie Belle's tea house offered up a private room for baby changing, so taking care of Esme without leaving the show was a breeze :)

I made friends with Lil from 3 Lil Muses and we talked about our children and crafts during the slow times. She makes beautiful children's clothing and has three little girls.

We here at KnitOwl made back our booth fee and a little more. It was a nice learning experience, since we had never been to a show like this before. Mark and I both went out in turn to the Franklin Main Street Fair with one of our slugs on his hat to pass out flyers. I hope it helped with the traffic ;) There's a picture but we have to get it off the small camera.

And when I got home I started working on my entry for Crammed Oraganisms again, which has to be mailed out ASAP.


The Slug rider gnome with his wagon full of vegetables.


from the side...

MamaMade!

We're here at Mamamade! We left at 4 am and Mark drove us two hours to get here. It is raining at the moment but we hear there is a canopy to set up under. We're waiting for the coordinator to arrive.

There are 50-60 KnitOwl toys waiting to be taken out of their boxes and spread out on our table :) Esme is sitting in her carseat (she slept most of the way here) cooing and hugging her Mousebear.

Slugs Galore and another kitten picture

Slugs Galore
for MamaMade this Saturday in
Franklin Tennessee!

Kittens at play

The little orange kitten is coming out of the box now, which is good. He is still dragging one of his back feet. He can move it, just not easily. Up until last week he wouldn't even leave the kitten box. We hope he continues to get even better with it. Sherpa (grey) and Hobbes (tiger-striped) are feisty and rolling all over fighting each other. The other grey one (in the background here) hasn't yet earned a name.

Plush Jet Plane

Happy Jet Plane Softie

I've had this idea for a while, and finally got around to making it happen. This airplane softie is large, huggable and very friendly :) 14 inch wingspan, 12 inches from nose to tail.

More pictures and Available at the shop

Working on custom orders...

Working on some custom dolls. Thinking about other things to do next week. Haven't said this here yet but we are awaiting Pogo to deliver a litter of kittens soon. We weren't sure how she'd take being kept inside but so far it is going ok.

Esme ad her first semi-solid food yesterday. Pureed peas and carrots mixed with breast milk. She loved it but later that night, predictably, she had worse than average tummy troubles. We're discussing switching her to formula soon along with the new foods so we can both feed her equally and Mark can feed her when I'm out for the day.

Crafting365: day 31: Citrus stripes Zebra (and more to come)

A brightly colored Zebra baby toy with a little collar in a matching fabric. I need to stack up a few of these in different fabrics for MamaMade too.

MamaMade was featured on Music City Bloggers!

Back to the shop... I have so much to get done!

Crafting365: day 30; Multicultural custom Rag Dolls

The first few dolls in Almond and LT1 skin colors
I now have seven different skin tones to make my custom Baby sized rag dolls in. I'm working up a few in each color for MamaMade. A previous customer had asked me about a different skin color for a doll for her friend's baby. I had a few different choices but none of them were quite what she wanted. I went out to town today and picked up a few more to fill in the gaps from light to dark. I think this will really add to the 'make-your-own-custom' quality of these little dolls.

I also got a really great review today on these dolls 'Stands up to the vigor of playing with a 1 year old' YAY! I love to hear the toys I make are loved AND durable. Another customer sent a beautiful picture of her 3 month old baby girl asleep with her hand around her red-haired dolly. I'm smiling from ear to ear :)


Rag doll skintone chart

Crafting365: day 27: Special Edition Alien Monster Dolls for MamaMade

Aww, no baby yet for Rhiannon, but we're keeping an eye out!

Special Edition Alien Monster Dolls
Bright bold colors make for one weird looking but cute alien softie.
I'm making six for MamaMade (besides the normal colors)
There will also be one in the Online toy shop.

Esme says: 'What IS that thing Mom?'

Note: These are also the very first alien monster dolls to NOT be made of felt! Their mouths and eyes are still felt, but the body is in another cool bold fabric I found at the Paris quilting shop. It's called Michael Miller Pom-Pom Dots.


Esme's 'Esmerelda' pants

These are 3-6 months size and I'll make her a 6-12 month size as well out of the other half of the yard :)

Crafting365: day 26: Happy Easter!

EVERYBBODY THINK GOOD THOUGHTS for Rhiannon!.
It looks like she'll be having her baby boy soon :)

Happy Easter!

For Easter we'll probably take Esme up to her grandparents for a short visit (have to call them yet) and make Mark a good dinner :) We still have a steak left in the freezer. Esme is a little too young for any other Easter festivities, but she'll get to chew on a cotton bunny I'm sure ;)

I'm still going strong on Crafting365. The hard part is keeping a post up of the things I've done, since I'm truly always doing something. Yesterday I made a few toys and set out some 'big plans' towards making more of the things I've mentioned.


Checklists like this sometimes help me keep on track

Crafting365: day 25: Is it really Saturday already?

Oh wow it's already the day before Easter! I can hardly believe it. I have a few things to get done early today and then we can relax for the weekend.


Nap Zone
Mark and Esme get a head start on the relaxing part...
This was so cute they had a symmetry going on with the utter collapse of consciousness ;)


Custom order for Tillie going out today in the mail.

Things I'd like to get done soon:

• Esmerelda pants for Esme
• Playtime Rabbits in mike miller scraps
• Alien softies batch
• Pink and blue haired rag dolls