22nd Jun 2008
mother bear
Last month I decided it was about time I knit something for charity. A great yarn shop in Hampden called Lovelyarns collects and ships off bears for the Mother Bear Project. Each bear goes to a child with HIV/AIDS in Africa and I finally finished mine this evening! It was an easy project and a great way to get rid of some of my extra acrylic yarn. (No matter how many times I use the cheapo yarn in my stash it never seems to go away…)
I used Grad School Knitter’s version of the pattern which eliminated most of the seams by double knitting and knitting in the round. Double knitting is magical… by slipping every other stitch you end up with a seamless tube… brilliant. Just don’t forget to knit/slip the correct stitches or you’re in trouble. I also got some more practice at embroidery with the face. I tried out the spider web stitch and french knot for the eyes, both of which seemed to work out okay.
Really nice job on the bear! I’m planning to make one for the Mother Bear project and a matching one for my nephew. The circular version definitely appeals to me. But why the double-knitting? Isn’t the bear just a modified (and bizarre) glove, which you can do all on dpn’s? I just ask because double-knitting is one of those things I don’t know how to do yet and am thus wary of.
Thank you ktrion! With her pattern you start the bear from the feet up, so double knitting allows you to not have a seam at the foot to sew and you only need two needles (I did it all on dpn’s). It’s a cool trick and pretty easy - you just have to be careful or you’ll knit the two sides together. In short, you cast on the amount of stitches needed (for both sides) then k1, s1 until the end of the row on each row. The slipped stitches end up being the other side of the “tube” so they don’t connect except on the sides. It will make sense if you try it!