Bears for Catie (on left-its name is Hannahlynn) and Sarah (on right-named Sam)

These two teddy bears were made from special requests from Catie and Sarah. They were so specific in what they wanted. Sarah told me she wanted a brown bear with a white circle on his belly. Like the colors I used in a ski cap for her brother. Just recently Catie asked me for a teddy with lots of colors. I found some of her favorites in a boucle yarn that I found at Target for a dollar a skein; I got the pattern from a book called Knitted Toys by Fiona McTague. I used about half of each color (yellow, pink, multi). With Sarah's, I used Lion Brand WoolEase that was leftover and I got the pattern from a link on About.com in the knitted toys section.

Well, I've been asked by a friend to make five pairs of socks for her female relatives for Christmas. I'm using Lion Brand WoolEase for the body of the sock and several different brands of coordinated fun fur-type yarns for the top borders. I'm trying to get a little creative with all of these so it's not so repetitive. In between I'm making a multi-colored teddy bear, a lace wrap from a pattern off of Knitty.com and trying to start a few more baby blankets and teddys for some other friends who are pregnant. I'll post more pictures next time but check out the links I've added.

A new blanket for my friend Ami. I made the entire layette out of 100% cotton yarn on size 6 circular needles. I am learning the value and efficiency of circular needles and if anyone wants to get me the Boye circular needle system I will be happy to accept it.


The blanket is about 20 inches square and the booties and hat will, I hope, fit in at least a few months. Just in time for winter winds. I used a slip stitch over purl pattern from a book published in 1952 and just varied the idea into a basic bootie pattern. The yarn is soft and quite cozy and it took me about 4 days to make the whole set. I had it over my lap when I was knitting and actually had to put it down because I was getting hot.

I like this yarn (Caron baby yarn) because it is washable in cold water and won't shrink or bleed on the first wash and comes in such lovely coordinating colors.

I knit the body and the top and bottom borders of the blanket first and then picked up stitches for the other two sides after casting off. I used Elizabeth Zimmerman's method of joining yarn to eliminate waste and knots in the blanket. Knitting without tears is one of the greatest little resource books any knitter could ask for.

I have been procrastinating in starting this blog and now it's finally here. I hope that I can keep this updated so my friends and family members can see what knitting work I've been doing. I occured to me that since I give most of my projects away, I don't get a chance to show off my work.

This blanket was knit in one piece (border and body together) on circular needles with varigated yarn from corner to corner. I'm not sure of the dimensions but it was almost square of about 25x30 inches. It was for Leia's new baby boy. Congrats Jason and Leia! I wove ribbon through the yarn overs that separated the border from the body. I think that it spiced it up a bit. Hope you like it Leia.