Cosy evenings for a young teddy
The bear blanket is finally finished, and the bear is now snuggling up in it every evening at bedtime. And is found, like so many young ones, without the blanket in the morning, happily sleeping. Or this is what I’m told by the bear’s young friend.
When I first got the Mason-Dixon knitting book I fell in love with the modern log cabin blanket. I like the colours it’s made up in, and the only reason I didn’t start it straight away was that the suggested yarn, Silky Wool by Elsebeth Lavold, is not that easy to find, and pretty expensive too. I was way too busy to start searching for a substitute yarn, and simply pushed the project to the back of my thoughts. And now I’m pretty happy I did so, since I seriously suspect it would have been one of those never ending projects.
This bear version is knitted on 2 mm needles, but the pattern is also shrunk by starting with 10 stitches instead of 76, and by knitting 10, 20 or 30 ridges when the pattern called for 33, 66 or 99 ridges in garter stitch. I think I would have gone crazy with the bigger version; I’m not that a huge fan of garter stitch. I made one small miss with the edge. This pattern instructed you to pick up all stitches on the right side, but using the edge instructions of another pattern. Those instructions directed you to pick up the stitches on the wrong side for the edge, and I, blind fool, followed those directions instead of the instructions for the modern log cabin. I realized this when all the ends were woven in, and I didn’t find it worth ripping up all the edges just because that. On a big one I would have done it, but not on this bear version.
Project details:
Pattern: Modern log cabin blanket by Mason-Dixon knitting.
Yarn: Sandnes sisu, 80% wool, 20% polyamid.
Needles: 2mm Addi circular.
Talking about bear clothing, this is how far I have advanced on the bear coat: there are just miles of interfacing to sew to the inside, and then blocking and thinking about whether or not a bear needs some kind of fastening for the coat, or would a belt be sufficient. And another big question: should I add an opening for the tail or not.
The pictures of bear clothes I have made are up in the Bear Gallery. There is a link in the side bar to the pictures!
Comments
Lucky bears to live in your house!
Posted by: Susan Wallace | March 6, 2007 02:42 PM
Tail opening or not, this bear coat is going to be awesome. I can't wait to see it on the bear. :)
Posted by: Francesca | March 6, 2007 11:43 PM
What a sweet bear. No wonder you make such marvelous items for him. His blanket will ensure sweet dreams and the jacket will accompany him on exciting adventures!!
Posted by: gail | March 8, 2007 05:55 PM
what a fantastic bear coat! I would love to see a human-sized version... just beautiful.
Posted by: anna | March 9, 2007 11:21 AM
Lucky, lucky bear. A beautiful coat and a cozy blanket.
I say let his tail be as warm and snuggly as the rest of him.
Posted by: Dorothy B | March 9, 2007 09:48 PM