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.