This was just way too much fun to design!

Kerin and I collaborated on the Land and Sea Playset kit, and it was a realy treat, since this is exactly the kind of toy my brother and I loved as children! I wrote the patterns for the pickup truck and taxi cab (brought it back to my New York routes with a real yellow checkered cab!) and Kerin did a great job on the sailboat and happy choo choo train! These are all knit out of soft, washable shine sport.

I wish we had a recording of the squeals of delight when these samples came back into the office–I think everyone reverted to childhood for a minute as we all got down on the floor and pushed the little toys along the roads and tracks on the playmat:

The playmat is a downloadable pattern I wrote to go along with the land and sea toys. Worked in intarsia, this little blanket features roads, train tracks, and a beach for putting the sailboat out to sea! At a finished size of 48″square, this works as a functional stroller or crib blanket as well as activity mat, and it works up surprisingly fast in worsted-weight yarn! Shine Worsted is recommended, as it’s also washable and has the same color palette as the toys, but a version in Comfy or Swish would be awesome too! Have you got any color substitution ideas? Share them in the comments! <