3/10/10 - Body and head knit. Holy smokes, is this bear going to be small! I should have been able to figure that out from the measurements in the pattern, but I guess I just couldn’t picture it. But that’s ok--it’ll be small enough for a little baby to hold but not too small to be dangerous. Perfect.

I added the blue Plymouth Encore DK, to the project, figuring I’d use it for the paws and feet--from what I was reading on the pattern, it looked like I might not have enough. Based on what I’ve used so far, though, now I’m not sure…I just might. But I think I’m going to add the blue as an accent anyway.

3/11/10 - Holy smokes, were those ears a bear! (Pun intended.) I really struggled with the best way to pick up the 4 stitches, and then they weren’t the easiest to knit. So I’m sure you can imagine how thrilled I was to realize that I’d forgotten to double the yarn, since the only dark blue I had was DK, not worsted. I could have left the ears, but I wasn’t thrilled with the look of them--they were awfully thin and stumpy. Doubling the yarn made a world of difference. I did go down one needle size; the ears were knit with the US6.

(later) - Struggling a bit with the arms, I’m reknitting the first one. The problem is largely self-inflicted--I am knitting the paws and feet with the blue because I love how it looks on the ears, but trying to K2tog around on the arm with tight stitches of doubled yarn has proved to be a disaster. So I’m leaving out the K2tog and just knitting that row instead. It’ll give a different look to the end of the paws, but I don’t mind that.

3/12/10 - Took a bit to figure out how to sew the arms on; eventually I figured out that I needed to flatten the top where it meets the shoulder and sew on that way. The legs went much more smoothly, although it left like I was knitting the feet so they bent the wrong way (I wasn’t, so I’m glad I just kept going and trusted the pattern.

With the little bit of yarn I used on the paws, feet, and ears, I probably could have done it all with the brown yarn, but I like the touches of blue. In the end, I have an adorable little teddy bear that’ll be the perfect size for a baby to snuggle with.