Playmunchies

A group of us are getting together for a handmade play food swap. This is going to be a big part of RM’s holiday gift, as she loves play food but SW is very attached to the collection he’s put together over the years and isn’t real hip on the idea of sharing it. Not that she doesn’t try to swipe things as often as possible. But it’s the whole Autism and avoidance of change thing; when I was unexpectedly pregnant with RM, I promised him it didn’t mean he had to give up anything, toys included.

So RM needs her own play food. I couldn’t find a suitable picnic basket, so I picked up a nice wooden crate we are going to do a simple paint treatment on as storage for this new collection. SW is being very helpful with the whole thing, probably looking forward to being able to redirect RM to her own stuff. I’ve seen pictures of some of the other people’s creations so far: a beautiful felt cake, some adorable felt veggies, and a scrumptious looking plate of cloth ravioli and sauce. I started out with one idea - and wow how fantastic it was - but there was a little problem.

Great aren’t they? I found the pattern for the corn, and the inspiration for the banana here. (Cute stuff there, adorably and inspirationally cute - I may have to find the time and right color scrap yarn for a mushroom. And for some other toys too.) The peel of the banana and the husk on the corn are removable. I love them. But the problem was each one took up all my spare knitting minutes over 3 days or so. Even accounting for each one getting faster, no way was I going to finish enough of either one for the swap. I should plan ahead in case we do this again next year and start making them in January.

So I switched to good old crochet cupcakes, mostly like this pattern just sized up a tiny bit. These are very quick and easy, but it probably helps my speed that I’ve been crocheting something like 30 times as long as I’ve been knitting. I also tacked down the ruffles because mine looked weird - or maybe the heavy play use made them look weird. I’m also thinking maybe I’ll cut cardboard circles for the bottoms to flatten them a bit. SW thinks they are fine though, he already made off with my two practice ones.

I am liking these a lot too; this one is just lacking a few sprinkles to finish it off. (Forgive the lousy picture, no time to get one when the lighting was right.) Of course, my guilt over being too slow to make the bananas has led me to want to make several for each person in the swap, so I’m doing a whole lot of cupcakes! This, sadly, is neither all of them nor the parts for all of them.

Next task after this one is Holiday Ornaments. Thank goodness I found something perfect yet quick this year.

November 20th, 2007 Posted by Tracy | Knitting!!, Autism, Crochet, Family | 2 comments