When I think back to the good old days I recall that the most popular of baby toys were the ones that were crocheted. We really have not seen much of these around since the seventies. They are hard to find online and it is more difficult than I ever thought to find crocheting patterns so you can stitch up some of your own.
I remember that the patterns for making these toys were quite simple. It was like making a tube sock. You would take the yarn, create the shape in crochet, and then fill the toy with some kind of stuffing like cotton or foam. I remember we use to make little mice and bears with tiny coin shaped crocheted ears out of yarn.
Of course all of these projects were very seventies in look and style. Each row of stitching was a different color. It was also trendy back in the seventies to crochet caps, tops, boots and mitts for all of your dolls and stuffed toys. Many little girls in the seventies had a teddy bear sitting on their bed that was also wearing a crocheted sweater.
I guess they are hard to find because they are a handmade item but I did manage to find them at a very expensive high end online store called Sense of Luxury. You would think that these toys would only cost about ten dollars to make but the mark up on them if you buy them commercially is huge. A single small crocheted mouse or bear can cost anywhere from forty to two hundred bucks online. This is quite exorbitant when you think that many of these high end luxury crocheted toys are probably hot even handmade. They are more than likely created by some kind of knitting machine.
There are some commercial crocheted toys that have become very popular lately. A sought after item on this luxury baby toys website that I looked is the lanky crocheted monkey which is striped in bold colors from head to toe. Also very traditional and popular is the hand crocheted elephant (which is a unisex type toy that is good to give away at a baby shower where you do not know what the sex of the baby is yet.)If you have a baby boy you can also get art deco style crocheted and stuffed airplanes.
You can also get the En Gry and Sif Teddy Bear on this site which comes with its own crocheted booties, sweaters and cap. This is a very sought after collector's item for some toy collectors. The bear also usually comes with a one piece night shirt that it can be put to bed in as well. This is a toy that definitely hearkens back to the nostalgic seventies. Of course because it is so nostalgic it also costs upwards of seventy five bucks to purchase online!
