So how is your gift crafting coming along?  For myself, I’m a little over halfway on my handmade gifts – I have 4 nieces & nephews and each requested some sort of knitted item (yes, I’ve trained them well).  They run in ages from 5 to 12 and all of them love silly little toys – which is good, because I love making them!  So I thought I’d share with you some of my favorite toy books & patterns if you need some gift ideas!

If you’ve been following the blog for awhile, you may remember that I’m a huge fan of Rebecca Danger and her monsters.

So naturally, I’ll be using this book for some of toys I’m making.  I finished my first gift monster from the book this past weekend – meet Iris the Icebox Monster!

I used Swish Bulky for the main part of her body and some pretty yellow worsted yarn I had in my stash for contrast color (I held it double). I named her Iris since the original pattern is named Irving – but I thought it looked more like a girl monster.  I realized after I tweeted about her on Saturday that I forgot to add her teeth, which is a DangerCraft staple!  But I opted to not add them anyway – she looks pretty cute as she is.

Another favorite knitted toy designer is Anna Hrachovec aka Mochimochiland!

I’ve made so many of Anna’s creatures over the years & I’ll likely make at least one this year as well!

If crochet is more your thing, check out IDP designer Stacey Trock‘s new book!

Such fun! I have my copy of the book right here & I can’t wait to break out my hooks.  I think I may start on the Lobster first for a friend of mine back in Massachusetts (though, of course, we call them Lobstahs)

So how about you?  Are you making any toys this year?  What are some of your favorite knitting & crochet toy patterns?