The Teddy Bear Saga

I had some Burly spun that was given to me, which I dyed in the yarn in reds, oranges and browns….perfect colors for a teddy bear for Rowan.

I knit it up using the bear pattern in Knitters Summer 2003. It came out quite large and lovely. I started to think that felting it would be nice…..it would become soft and cuddly for little Rowan.

I duly stuffed it with polyfill, of which I have a lot which I probably got for some silly project, and then never used. A pound of polyfill takes a lot of room, for those of you who are unaware….and yet you can’t get any less than that. I lovingly sewed it shut, all my seams were beautifully done, invisible even.

Dear Son and I put it into the washing machine, actually I started the washer, DS put teddy in. We let the washer do it’s magic. We opened the washer at the end, and pulled out…..

STIMPY. My beautiful teddy bear looked like a mockery of a cartoon character…..the arms and legs had stretched to epic proportions, and his stuffing was well….coming unstuffed.

Alas poor Stimpy, it is the landfill for you.

California Wool and Fiber Festival

This weekend, the family and I packed up the car and drove off to Boonville Ca, home of the Mendocino County Fair cum Apple Fair cum California Wool and Fiber Festival.

The actual Fiber Festival was actually very small, along the lines of Lambtown USA. There was one small hall devoted to the fiber with the usual back wall dedicated to the wool portion. Not a lot of fleeces, and they were not laid out to sell well let alone well-labeled. But then I am used to the Black Sheep method, where there is a big sheet providing the name of the sheep, shepherd, breed, weight, class and price per pound. These fleeces were not even labeled with the breed unless the class was the breed. Talk about signt unseen!

What did I get? about 6 ounces of 150’s merino, 3+ ounces of cormo batts, KnitCards, Bryspun circular needles and a Majacraft spindle. Not much to be sure, but where it counts!

Green sweater is complete!

So the green sweater is complete…..finally. I wound up doing a treble mesh for sleeves, that actually bell out a bit which is really pretty.

The cardi for Rowan is ruffled and decreased….now that the sweater is done, I can work on this some more.

And the fun fur cuffs and collar are also done and now just need a sweater to attach to!

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Well,

the green machine knit sweater is seamed together at the side seams, the neckline has picots, and I am now working on the shell edging on the bottom hem. The fabric is beautiful though, and I am happy with the project so far. I can’t wait to finish this and put another sweater onto the machine….I may try making a vest for DS with some WoolEase that I have, to get it out of the stash!

The baby’s cardi has been decreased to create the flounce and when I have a chance, I need to find the correct set of needles to use going forward.

I also started a couple of projects with some Fun Fur in my stash, one a scarf using two balls which I gave to a girl at work, and a collar with some cuffs….collar complete, cuffs are only conceptualized!

Operation stash reduction is well underway and I am starting to really enjoy shopping the stash…..