Mini Teddy Bear

I have a whole pile of "wannado's". It's a collection of patterns that have caught my eye as something I might like to make someday. Occasionally, I go into the collection and weed out the patterns that no longer say to me, "make me", "make me" and periodically I actually get around to making something!

When I wanted another project for the Ravelympics (an event held during the Beijing Olympics over at the knitting and crocheting social network of Ravelry) I dug into the "wannado's" pile and pulled out this Mini Thread Bear. The bear is know as Monique and was designed by Edith Molina. The free pattern can be found here.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my mini teddy bear! She's as cute in real life as she was on the pattern page. I needed help from my daughter with placing the facial features (my usual face phobia) and there is one pattern correction I made, but other than that --- LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.

Pattern correction: The bottom of the legs were off until I made the following adjustment to the beginning of the leg -- Ch 6, sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc in next 3 st, 2 sc in next st, TURN AND CONTINUE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CHAIN, 2 sc in next st, sc in next 3 st. ..... continue with pattern ....... The items in red are my additions/corrections. Once I made this change I had no problem with how the foot came out and all other instructions worked perfect.

I used Aunt Lydia's Classic Crochet Thread (size 10) in Wood Violet and DMC Cébélia Cotton size 30 for the muzzle. I didn't have a size 11 hook for working the muzzle so I used an 10 with no problem.

I did not follow the directions for jointing the bear. Instead, I placed the legs, arms and head where I wanted and stitched them down. She's securely sewn together.

I'll be making more!

My Ravelry project page for Mini Teddy Bear.

Victory Junction Afghan #3

Over at the knitting and crocheting social network Ravelry I needed to find a couple of projects for the "Ravelympics". The idea of the Ravelympics was to challenge yourself with projects during the Beijing Olympics. I picked two projects - The first one was to work another afghan for the Victory Junction Gang and to use the square "Fox's Heart of a Child" which I had previously pattern tested.
Project Notes:

I used Red Heart Super Saver colors Cherry Red, Paddy Green, Bright Yellow, Royal and Aran.

Adjusted/rewrote rounds 4 & 5 of the original pattern to get symmetry.

Made 5 squares each of the red, green, blue and yellow for a total of 20 squares.

Using the last three rounds of the square pattern I designed a border using red, blue and yellow.

The afghan is bright and cheery and somebody at Victory Junction is going to love it. The results, for me, are satisfactory -- BUT -- I am not completely happy. The final round of each square looks fine on their own but when it was time to join the squares the corners became thin looking and pulled in and I do not like it. The pattern calls for a ch-2 in the corners for the final round that must, at the very least, be changed to a ch-3. If I use this square again I would think about something different for the corner and test the join.

My Ravelry project page for Victory Junction Afghan #3.

Why this stuff needs to be written down!

I love this bear. I made it a long time ago with some yarn that I picked up on clearance for $1 a skien. I still have a lot of the yarn left and I'd like to make more bears but I can't find the pattern! I could have sworn it was from Toy Knits by Debbie Bliss because I definitely remember making a pig for Sarah and a rabbit for Laura using this book. However, there isn't a matching pattern for this bear in that book and I have no memory of another knitted teddy bear pattern. I've searched my collection with no results and now I'll just have to be patient and wait for it to turn up. This illustrates the importance of writing this stuff down for future reference. Memory is like a hard drive .... back it up.

Anyway, while searching for the teddy bear pattern. I remembered a few toys I had knit or crocheted through the years and figured I had better heed my own advice to "back it up"!

"Girl Rabbit" from Toy Knits by Debbie Bliss	"Piglet" from Toy Knits by Debbie Bliss
"Little Pink Piggy" from In Love with Crochet published by Leisure Arts

The crocheted pig was done with Red Heart Super Saver yarn and I'm not positive about the knit rabbit and pig but it looks like Wool-ease.