Time out for toys

This month I have found that suddenly I am knitting only toys. I enjoy making toys, but they don't seem to inspire me to blog very much. People are always impressed with the finished objects, but while in process, they don't tend to look like much. Additionally, I've been dividing my attentions among three projects. This makes them all go more slowly, but helps keep me moving on them by having a small range of choices -- I can stuff or knit or sew up depending on available time and/or brainpower. But there doesn't seem to be many good picture opportunities throughout this process. For example, here is a picture of my current focus:

Not much to see yet. This project is due this weekend, so I'll tell more about after then.

I have finally finished one of the toys, and gifted it last weekend. Nephew R turned three, and is (of course) interested in dinosaurs.

So I made him a stegosaurus. The pattern is by Jacob Haller and can be found here on his blog, What Cheer, Netop? It's a straightforward and easy-to-use pattern, and there are more than 150 Ravelry projects using it. Ravelry is such a fantastic tool. I can think "Hey, I'll knit my nephew a dinosaur toy," and right away have more than 50 options at my fingertips.

I made this using Plymouth Encore Worsted Weight, in blue and red colors that I had in my stash. Using size 5 needles makes it tight enough to hold the stuffing well. Hopefully I can use the energy boost from finishing this project to help me finish the next two quickly.