I’ve wanted to make a crocheted toy for my niece ever since she was born in February. Now she’s finally getting to a stage where she’ll actually hold toys so I’m putting this pattern to use (I’ve had the book for about 2 years.) I think this will be a great, easy to throw in the washer type of toy, that will hopefully get lots of use.

The pattern is very easy to follow and has both a schematic and written instructions to follow. I ended up lining the ball with a layer of cotton batting so that the fiber fill stuffing wouldn’t poke through any openings in the crochet work. I also washed and dried the ball in after it was finished to see if it would get really lumpy in the drier. It came out just fine and the layer of lining material didn’t seem to move any.

I did find the last few rows to be a bit cumbersome since the ball was stuffed and I was trying to close it up. Looking at the ball after its been washed/dried I feel like I probably should’ve stuffed it even more. Oh well, it was a fun project and hopefully will get a lot of use.