Felt Board Shapes - Ant Picnic

Good morning all!

Woohoo, it's time for some more felt shapes! This months set is.... Ant Picnic!

Master J has such a fascination for ants. He'll sit there watching them for ages, and follow them about the yard to see where they go. Super cute! I figured an Ant Picnic might be a fun play set and boy was I right!

This set includes some oversized foods, and of course, the ants! It's all really simple to make too, yay!

Never made felt board shapes before? It's sooooo easy! Here's how!

First, gather your supplies. You'll need some felt, some scissors, some glue (I use 450 quick dry), and if you like some paint! I use fabric puff paint, but really, most would work just fine.

1: Download and print the template. You can download the PDF file here.

2: Cut out the templates from the paper. Then, you can either use them to trace around with a pen onto the felt, or pin them to the felt. I prefer to trace, it's much easier. Chalk works great for darker colours!

3: Cut all the felt pieces out. You may want to cut more than one of each thing. We did extra ants, 2 apples (one green and one red) and used the same shape for cheese, a piece of pie, and a couple of cakes!

You'll also need to cut out some thin strips for the ants legs and glue them to the back of the ant. Trust me, its WAY easier to do that and glue them on, cutting around tiny legs, insane!

Glue the stem on the strawberry, and the rind behind the flesh of the watermelon.

4: Optional. If you want to add more detail to your pieces, this is where you get the paints out! I tend to mainly just outline mine, but you can go as crazy as you like here!

That's it, your done! See, super simple!

Peter Gown - Free Angel Gown Pattern

Good morning all!

Phew! What a crazy month it was last month with the blanket CAL! It was awesome, but it's nice to get back to some normalcy here on the blog. Of course, that means today is Preemie Pattern day! YAY!

Today's preemie pattern is for a small gown, that is made to match the Peter Beanie from 2016's Hat Drive! Like the hat, it also fits 24 weeks gestation. I did say I wanted to get some sets sorted, and I'm glad I finally have time to do so!

This is a very simple, straight forward gown and uses no more that 50g of yarn in your main colour, even less for the contrasting. This gown is fully open at the back, and uses ties to close. Of course you could do your own closure type should you choose to.

I used some Patons Fairytale Fab DK yarn for this one, but of course, any DK/8ply yarn will work.

Note: Row 5 LOOKS insane, but it isn't. It's just spaced out increases that have been wrote the long way that I usually do, so that beginners can easily follow along <3 Promise it isn't hard at all. Also, if tails bother you, weave them in as you go, because where there are stripes, there are lots of tails!

Peter Gown

Sized To Fit:
24 Weeks Gestation

You Will Need:
3.5mm hook
DK/8ply/Light Worsted weight yarn in a main and contrasting colour.

dc cluster - yarn over, insert hook in stitch, yarn over, pull through (3 on hook), yarn over, pull through 2, yarn over, insert hook into same stitch, yarn over, pull through, yarn over, pull through 2, (3 on hook), yarn over, pull through all 3 stitches. Cluster complete.

1: Ch24, dc in the second chain from hook, 2dc in the next chain, *dc in the next chain, 2dc in the next chain*, repeat across. -34

2: Ch3, turn, *dc in the next 2 stitches, 2dc in the next stitch*, repeat across. -44

3: Ch3, turn, *dc in the next 3 stitches, 2dc in the next stitch*, repeat across. -55

4: Ch3, turn, dc in the first 8 stitches, ch2, skip the next 12 stitches, dc in the next 15 stitches, ch2, skip the next 12 stitches, dc in the last 9 stitches. -35 including chains (which will be refered to as stitches on the next row).

5: Ch3, turn, dc in the next 2 stitches, 2dc in the next stitch, dc in the next 2 stitches, 2dc in the next stitch, dc in the next 2 stitches, 2dc in the next stitch, dc in the next 2 stitches, 2dc in the next stitch, dc in the next stitch, 2dc in the next stitch, dc in the next 2 stitches, 2dc in each of the next 3 stitches, dc in the next 2 stitches, 2dc in the next stitch, dc in the next stitch, 2dc in the next stitch, dc in the next 2 stitches, 2dc in the next stitch, dc in the next 2 stitches, 2dc in the next stitch, dc in the next 2 stitches, 2dc in the next stitch, dc in the last 2 stitches. -48

6: Ch3, turn, dc in the first stitch, skip the next 3 stitches, *(cluster, ch2, cluster) in the next stitch, skip the next 3 stitches*, repeat across, dc in the last stitch.

Change to your contrasting colour

7: Ch3, turn, dc in the same stitch, *2dc in the ch2 space, dc in the next 2 stitches (cluster tops)*, repeat across, dc in the last 2 stitches, dc in the turning chain from the previous row.  -46

8-15: Repeat rows 6-7

Change to main colour

16: Ch1, turn, sc in each stitch across. End off

With the right side of your gown facing up (completely up to you, I prefer the dc rows to be facing the outside) rejoin the main colour to the top corner of the back of your gown and ch2, evenly hdc down the side of the opening, in the bottom corner stitch make 2hdc, hdc along the bottom of the gown, 2hdc in the next corner, hdc evenly back up the remaining side of the gown and slst into the top corner (do not crochet along the neckline) End off and weave in all tails.

To make the ties, attach the yarn to the spot on the back you want them, and chain 25. End off, weave in ends and trim the free end of the chain, not too close, you don't want it to unravel.