Tutorial: Knitted blocks toy

Hi all my friends :)

I had a lovely day today... In the morning I did some knitting at home, preparing for the Blocks Toy that will happen over the next couple of days, then I went to our knitting group, where my dear friend Linda, another lovely lady, and myself sat and knitted and chatted. We were short a few people, but they should all be back again next week... These Wednesday mornings are a real treat for us, and I look forward to the companionship, and the pleasure of shared interests...
We laugh, joke, encourage and generally enjoy the fact that young and old can "sing along", so to speak...

Friends are precious, and I am so grateful for mine... so grateful...

We have two very large iron lights on our porch, and over the months a series of Red-headed finches have been nested and raised there. It's a wonderful thing to hear the sqwauking, shrilling and general complaining coming from the nest, especially early in the morning. Makes me realise that babies are birds of a feather (ha, ha!), human or bird, they are all demanding (I guess I should be more grateful that I have two arms as well as two legs, the notion of nappy changing using a beak just makes me....wellllll....I actually don't have the words!)

Today is my precious husband's birthday. Although he is not here, I want to wish him a love- filled and remembered birthday!!! We love you, and appreciate you and can't wait to see you, Mr P!

These lovely roses are from the Flower Market, I couldn't resist this colour combination! Love it....really love it...love it, love, love it!!! Ok, I hear you, you get the point.....

Makes me want to paint again...

The pic at the top of the post was taken in a stunningly beautiful area in South Africa called Mabalingwe, which is a game reserve. Mr P and I did a mountain bike race through the reserve, and I took this pic after the race day. Very nice place...

The Blocks Toy project is one that I really want to share with you, because it is really easy to make, and simply addictive to play with. Kids will love it, and adults will try resist (after all...you know...mmm...we're like....adults! )
However, I have had a bit if a dilemma.

The original toy (which I have used to draft a pattern) was given to me by a lady who ran a small quilt shop. This was about 12 years ago, and of course I have long since forgotten the name, etc of the giver... I do not know who designed it, nor do I know where it came from before, nor what the pattern's name is. I have tried to google every conceivable combination of words, phrases, ideas etc, in the hope that I find the original creator.... but haven't even come close to finding a picture that looks like this... Sooooooo, I am making an appeal: if anyone has come across info re this project, please let me know! I am very sensitive to respecting people's intellectual property, and do not want to infringe on someone's rights and inadvertently hurt their feelings. If I do receive info re the originator , I will give full credit and respect to her/him on my blog!

Now that that is out there in Blogland, I will get on with the process!

Mystery Blocks Toy

Requirements:

6 balls of yarn, in different colours (preferably colours that sort of go together)

I have used a lovely 100% merino hand-dyed yarn, in DK

One 3mm pair of knitting needles

(I have used circular needles, but straights are fine too. The knitting needs to be a bit dense, so I used a smaller needle than one would normally use on a DK weight yarn).

A pair of scissors

8 (5x5x5cm) firm foam blocks (I went to the local upholsterer, who cut them quickly)

A tapestry needle for sewing up seams

Row counter

Ta Da! That 's it :)

First set of instructions follow tomorrow!

Word of the Day

steenth:

an adjective meaning:

one sixteenth

Some interesting links: this is something I always suspected ;)

and this just plain freaked me out!

Have a lovely evening!

Lots of Love,

Heidi :)