I forgot how fun these bears are!
They’re quick and easy, with just enough challenge to keep me interested. (Perfect for marathoning intense TV shows. This one was mostly knit while catching up on The Night Of, which is very good, but not a “fun” watch.)
I tried something a little different on this bear. The official knit-in-the-round pattern has you leave arm holes in the body by working the chest/back back and forth. Then, when the body is done, you go back and pick up stitches around the armholes to make thearms. That way, the bear ends up being a single piece of knitting.
But sometimes you don’t want to bother with picking up and knitting. (Or at least I don’t.) So I didn’t. I knit the body straight through, from the top of the head to the bottom of the toes, not an arm hole to be seen. Then I cast on for the arms and worked those separately.
Then, I stuffed the body, formed the ears and the neck. I stuffed the arms and sewed them in place. And wouldn’t you know it- it looks super cute, and felt much simpler (at least to me) to knit up.
I’m very pleased with this little dude. I’ll probably wait to get out my felt and embroidery floss to add the face to a bunch of bears at once, assembly-line style.
I’ll definitely be making more of these guys! Maybe I’ll try to send in another big box o’ bears this Christmas.
Anyone want to join me?
On the Needles 