The child-play-cube is ready to be enjoyed by a special little toddler! I like the result and especially that it is completely made with natural fibers.

The geometric shapes as well as the nature inspired shapes, such as the flowers, will help trigger young minds.

Crocheting a decently shaped can be quite a problem if regular filling, such as polyester or, preferably, natural fibers such as wool or cotton are used as the cube would almost turn into a sphere. In addition, I am find it important to use as less synthetic fibers as possible to avoid any spillage of persistent fibers from my creations into the environment and cause harm to our fellow earth inhabitants. To circumvent the need for regular filling and at the same time maintain a cube shape, I started with a tiny cube and added subsequent larger cubes around it to form a sort of matroesjka cube. In the end, 19 layers were necessarily to obtain a sufficient size cube that will be the ‘filling’ of the child playing dice.

The last three pieces of the ‘child play dice’ are done! The last thing remaining is to crochet all six sides together! 🧶

Maybe I should set up a small production site for the Bifidobacterium amigurumi that I am sending as gift to friends and family who recently became proud parents. Bifidobacteria are usually quite abundant in the gut of babies where they help stimulate a healthy immune system.

Ever since I became an uncle, already one year ago, I have some new inspiration for crochet projects. Most of them are just ideas in my head that will stay there until my neurotic self approves them for production.

This time, I started working on a children’s toy. The nerd in me wanted to make this… well… nerdy, by incorporating some numbers or geometric figures. I ended thinking make a dice as it may help children be gain familiarity with this shape and numbers.

I found crocheting a cube is not that easy. You can start with a magic loop and working in the round, but in my hands this did not give a symmetrical cube. Alternatively, you may want to use ‘granny squares’, but this results in rather large openings and I found this less suitable for a shape work that should not leak its stuffing.

In the end, I will try to crochet squares Starting in the round, but crocheting them together as one would with granny squares. I hope the result would be something kids would like to play with as much as I enjoyed making it.