Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Something so small....


I tell you, my kids still surprise me all the time. See these balls? See how they are already well-'loved'? David's teacher mentioned to me Friday that David always has to have something in his hands. Oh, snap! I know this, and hadn't put anything in his backpack for that. He loves textures, and things he can fiddle with. I call them 'finger fiddlers'. I try to make little things for him. He fell in love with crocheted balls at Target one day, they're in the dollar bin, and they're about an inch big. I was like 'no way! I can make those bigger, and cheaper.' So I do. I make them. So easy. Five rows of increase, five rows in the middle, five rows of decrease. It takes less than an hour, and makes a ball that's about three inches around. David loves those balls. I used to cut the tail off, but David likes the tail, so I don't anymore. So Sunday, I made some more balls, one for David's backpack, and a few more because I haven't seen any lately, so he must need more. Thing is, apparently, David is not the only one who loves those balls. Tim and Jon kept highjacking them and playing ball games, throwing them around the house. Hey, better those balls than just about anything else, right? Those balls hit you in the head, it's no big deal, seriously. So I made one for Tim and Jon. If I get a spare minute today, I'll make a few more, enough for everybody. Ha. I might make more of these for Christmas, too. Heck, maybe these'll do well in a craft fair, might just spend a day making balls!
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Thing is, you know, when your kids are babies, any little thing is a toy to them. I think about a little guy my cousin babysits, and one day my aunt gave him an envelope, oh, he loved that. It was so sweet when he came to me, tore off a piece, and gave it to me. Bless his little heart. Kids will play with anything. But isn't it cool when your teen-aged son just really enjoys a little thing you made, and it didn't cost you a hundred bucks! I mean seriously, I can make probably ten, twelve of these balls from one two-dollar skein of Red Heart yarn. And I made it with my hands, didn't buy it. That's cool. It's neat when joy comes from something so small.
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Y'all have a wonderful day!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great idea! My grandkids love to throw things around too. Maybe I'll have to make a bunch of these for the toy chest.

Marie Anne said...

I made a little ball similar to this for my kitten just this evening. I stuffed it with a piece of an old sock.

The dog liked it better than the kitten. It is no more.

Don't forget WIP Wednesday at my place!

Designing Lady Jane said...

Those balls are really cute, and I can imagine anyone playing with them. And with a string, you can swing it, or play hackysack, or bat it around. They do remind me of kitty toys, on a larger basis. And yep, you could just loop that string around, and hang it from the tree. Have a whole little tree of yarn balls, LOL.