Wooden Spool Toy

With the arrival of cooler weather, I have started wearing one of my favourite winter sweaters again.  Steven quickly discovered that my sweater has drawstrings with wooden beads on them.  He proceeded to hold onto the bead, and wouldn't let go, even though it meant that he couldn't move more than a foot away from me.

That reminded me that I had a bag of wooden thread spools from Jesse's grandma, that I could use to make Steven a toy!  Since he loved my wooden beads so much, I was sure he would like it.

I decided that I wanted to paint the spools and thread them on a cord to make a chain.  I used food colouring, since Steven will probably end up chewing on it a lot.

One way I coloured some of the spools was by soaking them in a mixture of food colouring and water.  I found that it took a long time to dye the wood that way, so I tried a different approach.

I tried using the food colouring like paint and applying it directly with a paint brush.  That worked more quickly, but did have a greater risk of messiness.

I also put the food colouring directly on the spools in a bag, which worked quite well.  After the spools had all dried I used a damp paper towel to take off the excess dye.

I painted designs on a few of the spools too.  (With acrylic paint.)

I found a short cord in my box of craft supplies, knotted one end, and strung the spools on like beads.

And that's it!  Steven enjoys chewing on it, making noise by banging it on the ground, and dragging it around as if he has a pet on a leash.  When he is a little older it will be great for recognizing colours and learning to count.  I love how the simplest toys are often the best toys!