Presenting Tweed-y Bear

So I attempted to duplicate stitch a "J" on Julian's raglan sweater while watching the election night results come in on Monday and it was a total disaster. I spent a few hours stitching it on and then another couple of hours ripping out each stitch. The yarn was too heavy and it really pulled on the sweater. Blah! But luckily the sweater now looks exactly as it did before I tried to embelish it. I think I'm going to keep it that way.

The silver lining though is that the "J" chart I was using was from Erika Knight's Simple Knits for Cherished Babies which had been shelved for quite a while. In flipping through it again, the pattern for this adorable bear caught my eye. Can you say stashbusting, anyone? I had a small ball of Classic Elite tweed left over from the Irish Hiking Scarf which was exactly enough to make tweedy here. Knitting him up was quick and easy (just like I like 'em!) but seaming up took almost as long as knitting him up! Once all seamed up, I realised that I should have perhaps stuffed him more. He does look a bit on the floppy side. I would unseam him a little to stuff him some more, except that I did such a terrific job seaming it that I can't actually tell stitches from seaming stitches! So I'm not going to mess up with him and instead call him done. Actually, I think I'll call him Tweed-y bear!

I was glad to use up another odd ball in the stash for this project. Actually, that wasn't my motivation for knitting him (I'm still trying to avoid my sister's second sock) but it's always nice! I also was very excited earlier in the week to get a comment from a friend and colleague (I didn't think anyone I knew actually read this!) with a great tip for what to do with all those bits of yarn that are really, really, too small to knit anything with: give them to a weaver! Apparantly, they can make lovely patterns with little bits of yarn. Thanks for the tip Marie-Michele! I'll definately keep those seperately from now on and call around to find someone who can weave them up. It's the ultimate reduce (my personal stash), reuse (in another crafty way), and recycle (must replenish the stash)!

Thanks also for everyone that left teething tips. We have to go face cloth shopping this weekend because all of the baby face cloths we currently own are either in the freezer, in Julian's mouth, or in the laundry waiting to be frozen again. Frozen face cloths: they're a good thing! Much better than tweedy who is cute...but no match for teeth!

Cheers!