The first educational toys for a newborn baby are rattles. They attract the attention of a child with their sound. Bright colors and unusual shapes surprise and help to know the world. Sound-producing toys can be not only plastic or rubber, but also crocheted. Hand-made rattles carry warmth and love. And they also give the child a lot of joy, since only the mother knows what her baby needs.
Materials used
Yarn for creating toys is used mainly from natural cotton. Needlewomen recommend taking mercerized threads, as they are brighter and easier to work with. Also, for crocheted rattles, acrylic yarn of various shades is purchased. The size of the tool depends on the thickness of the threads and is indicated on the yarn label. To avoid holes between the loops, for work, take a hook smaller than the specified size by 0.5-1 mm in diameter. The sound emitting base can be a plastic egg from Kinder, a bottle of vitamins, juice, or any other small hollow container with smooth shapes. The selected capsule is filled with beads, buttons, various elements that can rattle loudly with shaking. To create a less loud crocheted rattle, buckwheat or rice grains, pebbles, dry peas, and any loose and contact-safe material are used as filler. Soft parts of the toy are stuffed with syntepon or holofiber.
Types of toys
The rattle can be of any shape. It all depends on the imagination of the performer. Most often, the main part is the head and face sewn to the handle. The muzzle can be anyone - an animal, a flower, a cloud, marine life, insects or funny fruits. All details of the muzzle of a crocheted rattle are embroidered with thread for the safety of the child. The holder may be in the form of a ring or a handle. The voiced filler most often fits in the head, but can also be located in the pen. The capsule is tied in a circle and connected to the top of the toy.
Master class: crochet knitted rattle
Most toys have a ball shape. Changing the appearance of the muzzle and ears, the mouse can be turned into a bunny or a kitten. The head is knitted in all animals and round toys according to the basic principle of creating a ball. In this master class, a crocheted teddy bear is given, the diagram and description are above.
Before work, it is necessary to purchase cotton threads of different colors, a soft filler for the handle, a capsule and beads. You also need a hook number 2 and a needle for stitching parts and design faces. The estimated size of the future toy is about 13 cm. Elements are knitted in single crochet columns with symmetrical additions and decreases of loops.
Knitting head
The main part begins with a ring of 6 air loops closed in a circle. Next, five rows fit in with increments of columns at the same distance. Each circle is supplemented by six loops as shown in the diagram. From the 7th to the 16th row, the number of loops does not change and should be equal to 36 columns. Further, the loops are reduced in the opposite order of increments. Each circle is reduced by six loops through an equal number of columns. Without tying the ball, you need to place a rattling capsule in it. For density, add a soft filler and stop knitting the head, having 18 columns in a circle.
Lever
Knitting a pen starts from a simple circle to the row in which there will be 30 columns. Then, on the sides in each second row, the number of loops decreases by 2 columns. Thus, you need to knit and reduce the circle until the moment when there are 18 loops left in the row. During knitting, you can change the threads of different colors. This will decorate the rattle and quickly attract the attention of the child.
At the end of the work, you need to fill the handle with a holofiber, embroider the muzzle of the bear, sew the ears in the shape of a circle folded in half, and connect the parts.