A DOUGLAS ADAMS INSPIRED BABY MOBILE

It has taken me way longer than it should have to finish off this mobile. And, if I'd have known it would help our Oscar sleep, I sure would have finished it a lot quicker! But it was just so hard to decide on what mobile to make him. You guys, there is SO many cute mobiles out there, so much amazing inspiration. I wanted something cute, and simple, and was really drawn to clouds for some reason. Or stars? Or geometric shapes? Or mountains, or woodland creatures, or sea creatures, or, or... Sometimes I find it really hard to narrow down my inspiration and decide exactly what project I want to spend my energy on. Actually, that's not sometimes, that's all the time.

Anyway, I went through various prototypes in various materials before eventually making something I was happy with, and as a result I also have a good stash of unused felt and jersey that I'm not sure what to do with. Eventually though, I crocheted some clouds that I liked, and while searching for raindrop patterns found a cute whale one. I thus decided to scrap my cloud-and-raindrop plans, crocheted the whale instead, and decided to add a bowl of petunias and turn it into a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy mobile. I reckon it goes pretty well with this banner that's also inspired by Douglas Adams and hangs on the opposite wall right by his changing table (as a bit of a reminder when we're changing the worst diapers, ha!).

To make the whale I used this pattern, and to make the clouds I used a variation of this pattern, as I wanted my clouds to not be completely uniform. The pattern for the bowl of petunias I just made up, and added a coin to the stuffing to weigh it down and balance with the whale (though you can see it's still not perfectly balanced). I then hung all the elements on an embroidery hoop, and covered the embroidery hoop with the same white yarn I used to crochet the clouds and hang the other elements with. And done!

"Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we do now."

- Douglas Adams, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy