Bears!
My current obsession is with knitting. Not specifically with knitting bears. It just happens that today's updates are all about bears.
First, there's Dunkin, my most ambitious and successful knitting project to date.
I posted about him before Christmas, but he's found a home and a name since then, and gained a basketball.
It took me a few weeks, off and on, to knit the teddy bear. It was a minor challenge, a lot more sewing than I like to do, but not a huge deal. Just follow the pattern, step by step. The uniform, though, was a creation from scratch, and it was a major pain. I love problem solving, and it was fun to improvise - The jersey from a baby's tank top pattern, the shorts from a pattern for baby jeans, freehand improvisation on all the colors on the uniform, the number, deciding how to embroider the team name, etc. But it was also tedious and long, and I finally had to put it aside to get the rest of my Christmas gift projects finished so I wouldn't show up at home with a lovely handmade gift for my mom and a bunch of gift cards for everybody else. So I ended up knitting the basketball at my parents' house, much of it in front of my mom. I was convinced she would guess what the entire project was if she saw the color of the yarn, but that was the result of being too close to the project, and too obsessive about it for too long. Because I was in a rush and a little bit tired of it by that point, the basketball is a little messy, and I'm not fully satisfied with it. But it's done. I made my mom open my gift the night before Christmas Eve. I'd been working on the thing for months, and because I had to make so much of it up, thinking about it for that whole time. I had to tell her all about it once she opened it, so having her open it early allowed me to focus on being part of the group, enjoying the rest of the family instead of needing to tell her all about my project.
She loved him as much as I hoped. She named him "Dunkin", which, much as I don't love strange spellings, is all about basketball. She says the crowd will cheer, "Dunk! Dunk! Dunk!" when he's on the basketball court. He's been watching all the games with her, and she's giving me updates on how he thinks the team is doing.
That is not the only bear on my knitting portfolio this winter, though. Oh, no! There is also my sister's new bear hat.
Last year, my sister requested a teddy bear hat, and I made her an ivory one. She was appropriately grateful, but she also requested I make her a brown one, if I ever got in the mood to make another teddy bear hat. I don't love making the same things over and over, but I do love my sister and I find it hard to say no to her, so she got this for her birthday, 12/27.
My brother-in-law is a smartass (which is what allowed him to seamlessly join our family), and he said he wanted a bear hat, too, but he only wanted the bear butt. So I made him one for Christmas.
Don't they make a dignified couple?
My b-i-l is a grown man, a responsible adult professional and all that, and he doesn't have much in the way of winter-wear, having recently moved from Portland to a place that actually has enough winter to require snow tires. So I figured I'd make his hat respectable, with the added bonus of the gag. I put a couple of yarn-over holes in the back of the hat, about 3 inches from the bottom. I made the pom-pom out of the yarn I used as an accent on the bear hat, and I attached a long piece of yarn to it. I then threaded the tie through the holes and tied on the tail. And presto! Bear butt! Just untie to become a respectable adult. Except he says he will never wear the hat without the tail, no matter where he goes or who he might see. So the removable tail was for nothing, but it was kinda fun to do.
There has been other knitting, but these were the most dramatic of my gifts so far this season. I'm currently knitting a garish but soft wrap/poncho in alpaca yarn for L in her favorite colors. It's a bit frightening, but she'll love it. Will post photos once it's finished.
Later this week: my new knitting cupboard! I cleared out an armoire, bought a bunch of bins to organize, tidied away my stash, and I suddenly feel like I've gained an entire room in my apartment!
First, there's Dunkin, my most ambitious and successful knitting project to date.
I posted about him before Christmas, but he's found a home and a name since then, and gained a basketball.
It took me a few weeks, off and on, to knit the teddy bear. It was a minor challenge, a lot more sewing than I like to do, but not a huge deal. Just follow the pattern, step by step. The uniform, though, was a creation from scratch, and it was a major pain. I love problem solving, and it was fun to improvise - The jersey from a baby's tank top pattern, the shorts from a pattern for baby jeans, freehand improvisation on all the colors on the uniform, the number, deciding how to embroider the team name, etc. But it was also tedious and long, and I finally had to put it aside to get the rest of my Christmas gift projects finished so I wouldn't show up at home with a lovely handmade gift for my mom and a bunch of gift cards for everybody else. So I ended up knitting the basketball at my parents' house, much of it in front of my mom. I was convinced she would guess what the entire project was if she saw the color of the yarn, but that was the result of being too close to the project, and too obsessive about it for too long. Because I was in a rush and a little bit tired of it by that point, the basketball is a little messy, and I'm not fully satisfied with it. But it's done. I made my mom open my gift the night before Christmas Eve. I'd been working on the thing for months, and because I had to make so much of it up, thinking about it for that whole time. I had to tell her all about it once she opened it, so having her open it early allowed me to focus on being part of the group, enjoying the rest of the family instead of needing to tell her all about my project.
She loved him as much as I hoped. She named him "Dunkin", which, much as I don't love strange spellings, is all about basketball. She says the crowd will cheer, "Dunk! Dunk! Dunk!" when he's on the basketball court. He's been watching all the games with her, and she's giving me updates on how he thinks the team is doing.
That is not the only bear on my knitting portfolio this winter, though. Oh, no! There is also my sister's new bear hat.
Last year, my sister requested a teddy bear hat, and I made her an ivory one. She was appropriately grateful, but she also requested I make her a brown one, if I ever got in the mood to make another teddy bear hat. I don't love making the same things over and over, but I do love my sister and I find it hard to say no to her, so she got this for her birthday, 12/27.
My brother-in-law is a smartass (which is what allowed him to seamlessly join our family), and he said he wanted a bear hat, too, but he only wanted the bear butt. So I made him one for Christmas.
Don't they make a dignified couple?
My b-i-l is a grown man, a responsible adult professional and all that, and he doesn't have much in the way of winter-wear, having recently moved from Portland to a place that actually has enough winter to require snow tires. So I figured I'd make his hat respectable, with the added bonus of the gag. I put a couple of yarn-over holes in the back of the hat, about 3 inches from the bottom. I made the pom-pom out of the yarn I used as an accent on the bear hat, and I attached a long piece of yarn to it. I then threaded the tie through the holes and tied on the tail. And presto! Bear butt! Just untie to become a respectable adult. Except he says he will never wear the hat without the tail, no matter where he goes or who he might see. So the removable tail was for nothing, but it was kinda fun to do.
There has been other knitting, but these were the most dramatic of my gifts so far this season. I'm currently knitting a garish but soft wrap/poncho in alpaca yarn for L in her favorite colors. It's a bit frightening, but she'll love it. Will post photos once it's finished.
Later this week: my new knitting cupboard! I cleared out an armoire, bought a bunch of bins to organize, tidied away my stash, and I suddenly feel like I've gained an entire room in my apartment!