Papa Bear

I bought some luxury faux fur, gosh that stuff is pricey.  But oh my goodness it's so soft and cuddly!!  I spent way too much time stroking it...hahahaa

On a more serious note, you do not want to drop a stitch when knitting with this stuff.  I can vouch that this is a nightmare if it happens.   Now I've wanted to knit a teddy bear for ages..... really I have.  I started one in primary school and never finished it, of course that is well over 3 decades ago now, but still I want to say I knitted a bear and a nice one too.

May I present Papa Bear!  So he's a bit lopsided looking, but oh you could hug him forever, he's so soft.  I used safety eyes, toy stuffing and made a cute bow tie which has little pandas on it.  so he's a little dapper guy.  The nose is from spare DK yarn I had in my stash.

I've put him up in my Etsy store for now, not sure anyone will buy him as he was quite expensive to make.

I was going to make a purple one too, but changed my mind and am keeping it.  I may use it with Harris Tweed as I have 2 shades of purple fabric to use up.  Maybe some fur trimmed bags?

Sock it to me.

I'm having a crazy sock knitting run at the moment.  Yes I should have done this before the winter, because that's when most people need to keep the feet toastie.  Well my feet get cold easily all year around.

I picked up yarn in Lidl, it's a cotton blend 4 ply yarn. Perfect to start with and I've a sensitivity to pure wool.  I also wanted to do them toe up and with a short row heel, so two new things to practice, as I have always knit top down and done a flap heel.

So here is my first attempt, not too bad at all.  Although the tops could have been cast off looser.  So in the second pair I increased a couple of stitches in the rib and cast of looser and they fit perfectly.  I should add, they didn't change after the first wash like the other pair.

I should add though that with my sensitive feet, I found them a little rough on the soles, like I could feel the stitches.  Odd I know.  But after washing they softened, fluffed up and sort of felted a little (most likely from the tumble dryer) - I know there is a term for that, I'm just not familiar with it.  I also knitted up a second pair that didn't shrink in the wash and fit perfectly, the first pair shrank again even though they were washed in the same way.

As you can see they shrunk to fit perfectly and are so soft and warm too.  I just wanted to make more and more and more....... so I ordered some Stylecraft in Ben Nevis and King Cole Zigzag in Strata.

These are the Ben Nevis socks, my new total favourites. The yarn seems quite thin and was 75% superwash wool and didn't irritate my skin...... woohoo!

I'm onto the Zig Zag and it's like a whacky fair isle as it knits up.  Also very bright and retro looking.

I have to say it's whacky yarn and knits up crazy bright.  Gives me a bit of the retro feels too.  There was a join in the yarn on the second sock - not impressed.  Just glad that I was able to figure out where to join the colour, so that they matched in the colour strips at least.  I've finished them up and added them to my Etsy store for now. (I'm having a rethink over it, due to postal hikes here).