Baby Mobile Tutorial

A dear Charlottesville friend of mine is expecting and since she is fabulous I offered to make a mobile for her. I found some options on Etsy and she chose one that looks similar to this one.

It was $80 and I am pretty sure I made this for under $10 (this is assuming you already have needles and scissors). It didn't take long and it was fun to make. I saw mobiles in O' Suzannah which were constructed in a similar way with the circle covered in knitting. I figured I could duplicate that look and it was easier than I thought although I did knit the covering too big.

Anyway I decided to write up a tutorial for the knitting involved. You can make whatever ornaments you want. The only stitch you really need to know for the ornaments is the running stitch which I'm assuming is the most basic sewing stitch. For the knitting you'll need to know how to knit in the round and how to make i cord. Both are pretty easy and tutorials can be found here.

Supplies:

• Felt
• Matching embroidery thread and needle
• Embroidery scissors (the sharper the better to cut the felt accurately)
• 9" Embroidery Hoop
• Worsted Weight Yarn (I used Lily Sugar 'n Cream)
• Size 6 - 32 in circular needles
• Size 4 double pointed needles

For the embroidery hoop covering:

Using Size 6 - 32 in circular needles

CO 114 stitches

Join for kniting in the round

Knit 8 rows

Bind off

Slip knit tube over inside piece of embroidery hoop (you won't use the outside part that has the screw on it but you can save it for another mobile!).

Sew CO edge to BO edge.

For the I Cord:

Using size 4 dpns

CO 3 stitches

Work I Cord for 52 rows

BO

Finished I Cord should measure 9 1/2".

Repeat for second I cord.

Assembly:

I'm not entirely sure if this is how I ended up placing the ornaments because I forgot to write it down, but a little trial and error never hurt anyone.

The four ornaments and the I Cords are placed as follows:

Start with one ornament and including the stitch where you place that ornament count 29 stitches and the next ornament there. Then starting with the second ornament count 28 stitches, place third ornament. Starting with the third ornament count 29 stitches and place fourth ornament. There should be 28 stitches between the fourth and the first ornaments.

The I Cord is attached to the hoop on the same stitches as the ornaments. Attach one I Cord to first and third ornaments and the second I Cord to the corresponding stitches of the second and fourth ornaments.

I attached the fifth (and sixth since it hangs from the fifth one) ornament to the I Cord by finding the point which would allow the mobile to hang level. Again, a little trial and error since I didn't feel like counting.

To hang I attached a length of yarn to the midpoint where the fifth ornament hangs. I wasn't sure how my friend would hang the mobile so you can explore different options. For instance you could knit more I Cord instead of just the one strand. Another thought is to crochet around a small plastic ring and use that to hang the mobile onto a hook in the ceiling or on the crib.

I don't think I left anything out, but if I did feel free to contact me.