Eat Your Veggies

This spring I will visit my adorable almost one-year old niece. I've been thinking about what to bring her and decided to make her some veggies since she's the only baby I know who actually likes eating her broccoli.

May I introduce: Madame Aubergine, the adorable pea-pod triplets Henri, Jaques, and Felix, Grand Mere Carotte, and Tante Tomato. They will soon be joined by Monsieur Brocoli.

This nutritious bunch would have not come into being without the generous contributions of these fellow bloggers who shared their patterns.

The pea-pod triplets are based on a pattern by Yarrn.
Grand Mere Carotte is part of a collection of Easter themed patterns by Midnight Knitter.
Madame Aubergine's pattern was provided by Lion Brand a long time supporter of our team.

I more or less made up the tomato on the fly. It's a basic amigurumi ball

For the Fruit

• Chain 2
• 6 sc in first ch.
• 2 sc in each stitch - 12 st
• *sc, 2 sc in next stitch* repeat - 18 st
• *sc, sc, 2 sc in next stitch* repeat - 24 st
• *sc, sc, sc, 2sc in next stitch* repeat - 30 st
• Crochet 3 rounds of sc in each stitch
• *sc 2 together, sc, sc, sc* repeat - 24
• *sc 2 together sc, sc* repeat - 18
• *sc 2 together sc, s* repeat 12 (at this point you probably want to start stuffing the tomato before the opening gets too small)
• *sc 2 together* repeat 6
• Sew up the top

For the leaf

• Chain 2
• 5 sc in first stitch
• Crochet 2 rounds of sc
• 2 sc in each stitch - 10 stitches
• *sc, 2 sc in next stitch* repeat - 15 stitches
• *sl, chain 8, sc in 7th chain and work a total of 6 sc back down the chain, sl, sl* 5 times.

Sew the leaf to the top and embroider the face onto the tomato.

Have fun

Simone
groundsel.etsy.com

The {New New} Toy Shops

For more Accessories from the Metro New York area - search: newnewteam, toys on Etsy



Purty Bird - I started making paper-mache birds (what PurtyBird was about originally) back in grad school when I wanted to give my mother a cute ceramic pig that I had seen in a gift shop window (she collects pigs) but didn't have the money. I decided to try making her a rough equivalent for Christmas. I chose to work in paper-mache because it was accessible---as a grad student I had an abundance of paper to work with, and the rest of the ingredients were cheap, even to me! In the process of realizing my vision I created a veritable barnyard of pigs and other potential animals. One of the non-pig-like body forms resembled a bird. I impulsively gave it a beak. Encouraged by the result, I added wings and a tail. I painted it as I had my mother's Christmas pig, covered in flowers. The result made me laugh so I made another, and another, and another, giving the more successful ones away as gifts. Everyone who got one said I should sell them somewhere. Being up to my neck in dissertation research at the time, I couldn't explore the possibility.