Knit It | Mushroom Baby Rattle

You know those ideas that slowly evolve? It's like a shadowy, illusive thing at the back of your mind, that evades your eyes so that you can't quite see it clearly. You know it's there, you've a vague idea of what it is, but you can't quite see it yet. And then, one day, it comes forth and you have a "ahhhh" moment - you've realised what it is and you can see it clearly.
That is how some of my ideas come. Often I'll first become aware of them in the morning, when I'm feeding the chickens. Don't ask me why, but chickens seem to have a marvellous way of bringing ideas to my mind. Most of my best ideas have been thought up in the chicken pen.
The other way ideas come is like an email - whoosh - and it's arrived in your mind's inbox.
That is how the idea for these mushrooms arrived. I was innocently walking to the kitchen when my brain-inbox said mushroom baby rattles!
The excitement that hits me when ideas arrive like that is a little annoying, as it makes me want to abandon whatever I'm doing and go and start work on it right that second.

I stayed on task, however, and later that night pulled out my pencils and my sketching paper and starting drawing out ideas. Despite what one might think, there are several different looks a mushroom can take on. Having decided on my mushroomy-style, I started knitting.
And it was so much fun that I knitted another, then another. I probably would have kept going if I hadn't run out of rattle inserts, and this pattern would probably still be in my notebook whilst a pile of colourful mushroom rattles continued to grow.
It's so much fun choosing different colours for the tops. Mushrooms can be a whole heap more than just the classic red-and-white. (Although I think that combination looks pretty good too!).

Now, the delicious details of this pattern:

- Knitted in DK (8ply) yarn; I recommend a good quality cotton as rattles can have a tough lot in life!

- The finished rattle measures approx. 14cm tall x 31cm round at the widest point and 11cm around the stem

- They are worked all in one piece, flat on a pair of straight 3mm needles. If you're not a fan of seaming, rest easy that you've only one to deal with and it's very straight forward.

- And of course it comes on an instant download PDF so that you can get knitting right away!

The pattern is available both in my blog shop and on Ravelry - there's more info about it on both those listings is you need to know more before purchasing.

Now, for the exciting part - I've released this pattern at a very special price of just $5!
Yes, you read right. It's only for the very limited time of 3 days though!

If you're wondering where you can find rattle inserts, Etsy is a good place to go. Of course you can make these without the rattle as toys for older children too.


I'd love to know what you think of the Mushroom Baby Rattle.
Leave a comment below!

Happy knitting x

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