Keeping bath toys mould-free

This is not something I'd normally post about here, but when I was bathing my son last night I was reminded of the endless experiments we ran to stop our bath toys growing that scourge of the bathroom, black mould (mold). Mr Crafty Cactus reckons this is something that other people would like to know and I think he's right*.

I've always squeezed out all the water from the toys after a bath and that is important. However, it's not enough to stop the mould. Keeping the toys in a net to dry doesn't seem to make much difference and as ours kept falling down, I have abandoned it. Our toys now sit on the windowsill, usually lined up neatly by Mr V (anything to avoid getting out of the bath).

I tried using a weak disinfectant solution on the toys when they got mouldy. It made no difference to the mould and just served to worry me further. I didn't want Mr V ingesting mould, but I certainly didn't want him ingesting disinfectant. Those toys went in the bin (one by one, so they weren't missed).

Finally, Mr Crafty Cactus became interested. And of course solved the problem, so as to gain maximum smug points. What did he do? He first boiled all the toys in a large saucepan. I've got one I keep for dyeing things, so he used that. Then he made sure that each toy was full of water and microwaved them for a bit.

He did this a few months back and so far, no sign of the black stuff. I've continued to squeeze all the water out of the little blighters after each bath, but otherwise we've done nothing else. Problem solved. Hoorah.

As for non-slip bathmats, we just take ours out and lay it over the tub, sucker side up when it's not in use. No mould there either.

*I do have a slight concern that we are the only people worrying about this. Are we?

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Rabbit Rattle

My friend has had her baby and while I haven't given her the presents yet (Mr V and I are holed up with a bad cold), I can share my latest makes with you because she hasn't mastered being online and breastfeeding just yet. First up, a crochet rabbit rattle.



Over-reaction Man (new name for hubby, hereafter known as ORM) took the photos outside for me. I think the one in the tree came out best, but it makes the rattle look deformed, hence sharing both images. (Side note: if only the weather was like that now - it's hideous outside today, storm central.)

The pattern was from Crochet Today May/June '09 by Vicki Howell and should have looked like this:



Mine came out quite differently, as you can see. But as a wise woman
once said: "There's no such thing as the crochet police". So there.

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Matryoshka Keyring and a Daft Badge

I made this quick keyring to go with the Matryoshka pouch that I made the other day, which is now lined:



The lining isn't exactly professional, but it's not too bad and doesn't catch on the zip, at least. To make it, I just followed the directions for the pouch, but omitted the zip. Then it was a not quite so simple mater of sewing it to the outside (I used dark thread in the bobbin and light up top so that the stitching didn't show too much).

Since this was a birthday present for my oldest friend (we've known each other since we were babies, she's not that old) and she's about to go on maternity leave, I wanted to make her something baby-related too. So, here's the daft badge that I whipped up:



I used scraps of fabric, some cardboard and a safety pin to make it, along with the lettering stitch on my machine that I've been dying to try out. The lettering is on some bias binding and I've zig-zagged the edge of the middle layer of fabric. It's all stuck together with iron-on hemming tape, although the base fabric (some orange needle cord left over from a dinosaur I made for my nephew) is attached to the cardboard with stitches, as is the safety pin (not shown).

As I was writing the card it suddenly occurred to me that "not long now..." could be misconstrued when sent as part of a birthday gift :)

PS Please excuse photos - had to use the camera phone at night (which is pretty much all the time here in Finland).

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Patriotic Baby Booties

These have to be the fastest booties I've made so far. The Hubby announced that his friend had just become an auntie and since he also knows the friend's sister and husband, could I make something for them? The catch? Just two days before the friend came to collect the gift before making the trip to Amsterdam to visit them.

I took a chance and made a start on some booties I've not made before, knowing that this could very well end in boots fit only for the tiniest baby ever (I crochet very tightly). I don't know about you, but even if a pattern works out really well, I always want to try something new when I pick up my hook. I even get bored making the second bootie of a pair. I chose the "victorian aster baby's booties" from 201 Crochet Motifs, Blocks, Patterns and Ideas, but left out the aster flower adornment and the second row of embellishment around the top. These were for a boy, after all!

I used some white yarn form my stash (Red Heart Dallas) and worked my little (OK, freakishly long) fingers off. I didn't quite make the deadline, so Hubby's friend had to play with VV for 20 minutes while I finished them off (I don't think either of them minded). I added a bue ribbon to make them a bit more boyish. It was then that we noticed I had made very patriotic Finnish booties. And when I quickly wrapped them in some orange tissue I had (in yet another stash), we realised that was a very Dutch colour to choose. Almost as if I had carefully planned it all.

The booties looks a little Wellington-boot like to me, but I think the shape is good for fat baby legs and feet, so they might actually stay on. And they are probably too big right now, which is an achievement in itself.

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