Dirty Dorris, our tom-bunny!

I'd like to introduce you to Dorris, she's the little sister of Bella Bunny and is part of the u-ni-k gifts knitted family.

Our youngest family member!

Dorris is not like her big sister, Bella, she's still growing into her ears and most of her clothes. As the youngest member of the Bunny family, Dorris has a lot of preloved clothes. Not that this bothers Dorris, she's not a bunny that cares too much about her appearance. To Dorris one dress is pretty much the same as another. So she can usually be found in an old hooded jumper doing what she likes best. Digging!

Not your average hooded youngster

Yes, our Dorris is an explorer or adventurer – she's always off somewhere digging up ancient artefacts or looking for dinosaur bones. She's happiest outside getting her paws muddy while discovering the next big palaeontological breakthrough. This is how she earned her nickname – 'Dirty Dorris'.

Unlike her sister, Dorris is knitted in cotton. This makes Dorris more hard wearing for the rough and tumble life of an adventurer bunny. Also she can be put through a washing machine cycle for when she really is very dirty.

Both Bella Bunny and Dirty Dorris are knitted from the excellent Babara Prime's Fuzzy Mitten pattern for rabbits. As always, I've adjusted the patterns to the yarns I use but I try to keep as close as possible to the pattern.

Dorris and Bella both take me about a week to knit and their clothes take a couple of days. So if you'd like a Dorris or a Bella, please allow for about 10 days for making & posting.

Dorris and Bella are available to purchase on www.unikgifts.co.uk

Indoor games for outdoor babies

Baby in a 'tent'

Dens

Probably the most obvious game we can play and as you know our Shuktara blanket comes into it's own for making dens. The light dapples through the patchworked colours making lovely dark and light contrasts that you can spot through the patterns. We LOVE the way it drapes, better than any synthetic parachute that we've played with at toddler groups.

Hide and Seek

A firm favourite as long as Kathryn is the one to hide, although don't take too long finding her as 'chase me' is also a good game as you run back to your hiding place. A quick dash around the side of the larder or open door, a little face peeking around at you for the 'peekaboo!'. So much giggling...

Make a rainbow

Colour me beautiful?!

Out comes the art mat, a plain canvass mat that's waterproof on one side and an empty canvass on the other. It's time to put Mummy's art supplies to good use... I can recommend pastels for those under 2, as long as you don't mind the mess. We mixed colours on the paper with our hands and then looked at our hands to see the result! Such a pretty mixture of colours, our own private rainbows.

Baking

Well, mixing cornflour and water together. If you get it just right then you have a watery paste that will pour but will not be pushed. Drop a few pieces of food dye on to it and watch the colours swirl. Try to mix it together and it crumbles?! A hard one for an adult to understand and magic to the baby.

Bubbles

Washing up has never been so fun! A sink full of bubbles, a saucepan that needs cleaning... around and around with the bubbly brimful of soap suds. Messy work, as both Mummy and baby will be damp but the washing up gets done.

Egg hole can also be peeked through

What noise does this make?

Our knitted friends and breakfast boards have come in to their own. Into a box they go, baby picks one out and Mummy says 'It's a bunny, bunny goes hop hop!' or “It's a chicken, chicken's go cluck cluck”. The knitted animals are soft to the touch and usually come out of the box first but Kathryn loves to peek through the 'eye' on the breakfast board and tries to say 'Meow' with me.

Twist vs Pull

A collection of old bottles washed clean and ready for recycling are all that's needed for this game. Some twist but some pull, which is it? Try them both and watch the squeals of delight when the top finally comes off... 'POP' shout Mummy and baby when the cap is finally released. Same game in reverse to put the top back on (Twist or Push!).

Slow boat to China

Is your Summer holiday suitcase still waiting to be put away? Well for someone small it can become a boat to an adventure. Quick put in some T-Shirts and other essentials (anything baby wants to put in) and climb on in. Most suitcases can be pushed forwards and backwards like they're on a rocky sea. Don't forget to sing those sea shanties... “A sailor went to sea, sea, sea to see what he could see see see but all that he could see see see was the bottom of the deep blue sea sea sea”.

Enjoy your time indoors!

[Turns out DangerBaby is not allergic to the garden – YAY! We've picked up a virus that's currently spreading around Surrey; similar to baby hand foot and mouth but not the same virus. http://www.babycentre.co.uk/baby/health/handfootmouth/ 

Thank you to all the Mummies that contacted us with helpful information and support. Very very appreciated]

My name's Sarah & I'm a knit-a-holic

So the secret is out, I'm a knitter. It goes further than that, I'm addicted to knitting and I usually have at least two projects on the go at anyone time, a bag of wool/cotton/bamboo for the next set of projects and an array of knitted pieces lying around waiting to be stitched together. I'm not so keen on the sewing bit as my sewing skills usually let down the beautiful knitted piece. But with the help of the mighty YouTube I think I've cracked that one.

It all started when I was pregnant, my Mum had a hip op and needed some TLC, so I went and stayed with her for a while to help out (ROFL, I had a huge bump and wasn't much help she couldn't bend to pick things up and neither could I... we made a right pair!). Since there's not much an invalid and heavily pregnant person can do of an evening we started knitting squares.

I hadn't knitted in YEARS, in fact my Mum taught me how to knit about 20 years prior and I don't think I'd picked up a pair of needles since. However, we knitted and purled stocking stitch squares in white, pink and green. I'd mastered it, and the squares were piling up next to me, I needed a challenge. So I started to mess about with purling when I should have been knitting to make up letters in the stocking stitch – low and behold I had a K, then a T, then a Y... soon I had squares that spelt KATHRYN. Yay! Now all I had to do was make sure I had enough squares to fill the blanket. Needless to say, I was hooked.

I've now had a few more years to perfect some of my 'make it up along the way' patterns, mainly of small animals:

The Sugar Mice

Loopy Larry the lamb (he's a lovie darling!)

Big Boss Panda:

And more to follow once our chief soft toy tester has finished putting them through their paces:

[My Mummy knits!]

So I'm planning to certify my creations as toys and launch the whole range with the new website in time for Christmas.

I will of course knit to order as well!