I crocheted the saturn V and I'm ambivalent about the result

For our WI's annual entry into the craft competition at the Fenland Fair, I was persuaded to crochet the Saturn V.  The pattern is pretty cool and so is the subject, but nevertheless I had a bad attitude to this project, probably because of the cheap acrylic yarn in my stash that had to be used.  My white yarn was so cheap that it showed the darker stranding inside it.  Also, crochet stitches don't align on top of each other like knitting ones do, rather they are shifted about 1/4st to the right.  Therefore, the vertical black blocks look like they are twisting clockwise around the rocket (they are).  No idea how the designer avoided this fate - vigorous blocking perhaps?

Anyway, it made it back to be stuffed wonkily into Baby B's toy bucket, to look comically bent at me whenever I see it.  Banana rocket.  At least that bit makes me smile.

Henry the Hoover

Toddler Button is obsessed with Henry the Hoover, the Numatic Vacuum cleaner.  No, he doesn't have his own TV show, but we do have an example in our garage.  We also have to peruse the range for sale in the supermarket each visit, and it's important to be familiar with the whole range of names and colours of this device.

To keep him quiet on a super long car journey, I made a cuddly Henry.  If you've found this page by googling for "Henry Hoover Sewing Pattern", then welcome!  I googled that too!  I couldn't find a pattern, so I made up the pattern myself using the magic of geometry.  I think I used this image as a basis.

Henry is made from felt (because that's what I had to hand).  He's about 6" diameter.

Check me wheels.

Henry's cheeky face is more felt appliquéd to the front.  I correctly predicted that Toddler would immediately enquire about where Henry's tube nose was, but too bad because (a) I couldn't think of a way to make one look good and (b) I ran out of black felt.

I secretly made him in the evenings and I totally had to hide his iconic little face during the day so Toddler didn't clock him.

Fiddly letters are such a pain.

Henry's front wheels turned out to be such a fiddle that they had to be stitched entirely by hand, and I'm not a fan of hand-stitching.  Also, I ran out of time before we left for the journey so they were attached during a traffic jam on the M4 when the road was closed and toddler happened to nod off.

Henry also has an appliquéd top winder wheel and hand-sewn knob thing.  But no on-off switches because I didn't have any green felt to hand.  Shame.

I'm pleased to note that Henry has been promoted to bed-time companion alongside Doggy and Ted.

Busy cube for little fingers

Our family holiday this year was a lovely trip to stay with my parents at their home on the coast.  However, it's 6 hours away by car (this does not include any stops or traffic jams, so you can reckon on a whole day in the car).  With a baby and a noisy toddler.  In a small 10 year old Corsa with an enormous roof-box stuffed to the brim.

We don't own a tablet or anything, so videos cannot be deployed.  Therefore, Mr Button and I got down to a little crafting to keep toddler entertained.  He made some lovely wooden lacing boards and wooden beads.  I made a glitter bottle to watch.  I also did a little preparatory sewing.

Not sure what this toy ought to be called, as it's the product of my fevered imagination at 3am.  I guess "busy cube"?  If there is interest I can share a pattern, but essentially it's a 6" sided cube with doors on each side, shut by every different fastening I had to hand.  Toddler likes to play with fastenings.

Sides as follows:
1.  Eyelets with ribbon lacing
2.  Side release buckle
3.  Giant button
4.  Four small buttons
5.  Four poppers
6.  Zipper

...plus added tag with a clip thing on because I have 9 left over from my baby sling.

The lacing ribbon is stitched on at one point so it can't get lost.

A different fabric hides behind each door.

The whole point was the small buttons so Toddler could practice buttoning his own clothes.

You could perhaps keep treasures in the zipped pocket?

I had to have a little bit of Toddler's favourite colour fabric in here somewhere!

I had a cute idea to put little clear pvc pockets on the cube faces behind each door, and slip photographs of favourite family members or characters in.  But I had just a few evenings to make this thing plus all the other stuff we'd planned, so it didn't happen.

This toy ended up being presented at Granny's house instead, as we thought he might be a bit young for some of the activities on it and the screams of frustration in the car with nobody to help might be a bit much for us to bear!  However, calmer or older children might get on better.