Wednesday WiPs: Bearly there

I am knitting a bear out of some brushed acrylic. It's a nice texture for a bear, and a nice way to use up the yarn. The color is a little odd, but I've recently learned about cinnamon bears, so I'm going with it.

There are problems. I am following the pattern exactly, but it is a leap of faith at this point, since I seem to be making a duck. I'm a fan of the pattern, which cleverly avoids any seaming up, something I dislike doing with mohair or brushed acrylic. But no one who has seen this object so far believes it is a bear.

Then there are the increases. When I do M1L and M1R increases, I lift the side of the stitch in the row below, like this, which Twist Collective helpfully tells me are really called lifted increases. This pattern is pretty clear about making them by lifting the bar between the two stitches, and this site taught me a lovely mnemonic for which is left and which is right so I don't have to keep looking it up. But I absolutely don't believe they make any difference in the "lean" of the increase at all.

I shall persevere, and end up with a fuzzy orange softie which may or may not be a bear.

Gloom, Despair, and Agony...

I believe that would make a good name for a law firm. I am suffering from none of the above; in fact, I am pleased with myself for making another 3D object with nothing but a picture to guide me. I wouldn't want to knit that way all the time, but it's fun as an occasional palette cleanser. I know, that should be palate cleanser, but I think it works the other way, too.

Onward! Upon request, I knit the object in this picture as a gift for a friend. I am reliably informed that it is a despair bear. It is knit entirely out of worsted weight acrylic on US 5 (3.75 mm) needles.

It's a toe-up softie (knitting joke). I started with a closed tube, made it long enough, made another one, and joined them together with a few stitches in the middle. I inserted chenille sticks and stuffed the legs.

Then I knit first around one leg, increased every middle stitch, knit around the other leg, and divided the increased middle stitches front and back so that I was knitting in the round again. I knit the body, making some hip decreases - I wanted it to be able to stand by itself, if the oversized head cooperated.

I knit two more closed tubes for the arms, inserted chenille sticks and stuffed them, then attached them as I continued around the body, so that they would stay in an outstretched position. I duplicate-stitched the white chest, stuffed the body, and decreased for the neck.

Then I increased madly to make its giant head, using this as a guide. I made a muzzle in white, and embroidered a nose and mouth on it. I made two ears, taking notes on the first one to make sure they matched, used duplicate stitch again to make the inner ears white, and sewed them on. Sadly, they flopped horribly, and I had to retrofit them with chenille sticks to make them behave properly.

The entire time I knit, I thought about the eyes. By chance I came across an old glow-in-the-dark super-ball. I cut it in half, carefully. I sewed dark purple buttons to the bear's face before stuffing the head, then used super glue to attach the super-ball hemispheres. I believe there was a little fiddling with a strand of yarn between the eyes and the back of the head to keep them well-anchored, post-stuffing, but it's a bit of a blur at this point. It was hard to get a good shot of the glowing eyes, but I am reliably informed that they glow enough in the dark to get ones attention.

Matching Hat

I made a matching hat. I still want to add yellow eyes, but so far no luck finding the right yarn.

Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy Sport in Jalapeño, less than half a skein
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm)
Pattern:  Sara Amoroso’s Who?
Mods: I wanted it in a 9-12 mos size to match the vest. After measuring gauge and doing the math, I realized I could just knit the child’s size in the pattern, and my smaller yarn and needles would downsize it perfectly.

Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy Sport in Jalapeño, 1.5 skeins
Needles: US 4(3.5 mm) and US 5 (3.75 mm)
Pattern: Jodi Haraldson's Owl Baby Vest
Mods: Centered the neck over the middle owl

If this looks familiar, it's because I've made it before - I trust that one is long outgrown and recycled.

Wednesday WIPs: Little Owls

I made some little owls. If the yarn holds out, there will be a matching hat. I'd like to give them yellow eyes, but I'm not sure if I've got any yellow floating around.

I like this yarn. It's smooth, and has some heft, but is not overly warm. I think about knitting a blanket of small squares in all the colors it comes in. But I have too many other projects like that underway to start another one.