Monday, July 14, 2008

Bear Love

I'm not much of a toy knitter. It's not that I don't like knitting toys, but that the toys never make it to their intended recipients. Blame for this solely rests on bf, who, after watching limbs and heads and ears emerge from my needles, gets, ahem, somewhat attached and looks at me in wide-eyed terror when I try to tell him that they are supposed to be gifted....(haha, he hasn't been checking out my blog in a while, so let's just hope he's not reading this post ;-)
But, I love bears, polar bears especially and when I first saw Ysolda's Otto, I knew I had to make one for myself. I had a few balls of leftover yarn, and born was Bina
Bina
and since I still had yarn leftover, she got a younger, slightly larger brother, Rudi
Rudi
they are so adorable
Rudi&Bina
Pattern: Otto by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: 3 skeins total Louisa Harding Grace, Otto also has some Kidsilk Haze in his head and body until I ran out
Needles: US 3
Mods: I made the bear snout a little shorter by omitting the knit rounds at the end (I only knit the decreasing rounds). Also, I took me forever to figure out the disappearing loop cast-on. I think I’m still not doing it correctly, but fudging it worked.

22 comments:

yaiAnn said...

M gets a hot dog shirt AND two snuggly bears? It must be love! =)

Anonymous said...

OMG. I'm dying over these. They are WAY too cute!

Philigry said...

those are so darn cute! love them.

Elizabeth said...

Awwww your bears are super cute. Aren't Ysolda's patterns wonderful? I just made the elephant and love it.

Anonymous said...

Very, very cute! My brother loves polar bears, too--I will have to put this pattern in the queue.

Connie said...

Very cute, Steph! And it's so cute that your bf snatches your knitted toys for himself! :) I have yet to make a stuffed toy. I'd like to make the turtle from Knitty a few issues back, but these polar bears are adorable too.

spajonas said...

so very very cute! i love ysolda's knitted toys. great patterns.

as for the cast-on, check out this youtube video i found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gK7yn-M7Yg

it's the second cast-on she demonstrates :)

Linda said...

They are great, the facial expressions are so good!

twigletqueen said...

Aww, how sweet! I love the twirly decreases on the paws!

wiscjennyann said...

Super cute! I just knit Elijah (the Elephant). Good fun...

Carol said...

awww, such cuties! i was just dogsitting last week for a white lab who looks like a polar bear :)

Seanna Lea said...

Those are totally adorable! Is it hard to do the finishing for all those limbs?

Anonymous said...

So cute!! I love them.

Erin said...

Bina and Rudi are the cutest ever. Love them.

Cloudberry said...

So cute!

Ilix said...

Those are great Polar Bears! I may have to get that pattern... and btw great pics of the camping vacation, thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

I was inspired by your beautiful bear! So I bought the polar bear pattern over Elijah the Elephant! hehe. I use techknitting and pretty successful with the loop cast on. The first / odd stitches are like "yarn over" the second and even stitches are bought into the loop. At the end you'll have to move the stitches to the other end and tighten before your split onto other needles. I divide amongst 2 needles for easy knitting for the first round. Hope this helps!

Ally Jay said...

Those two are seriously cute. Great work on them. I love Sophie and Elijah but my Elijah turned out to be a tad demented. It's all in the eyes.

Kara said...

Awww. I love these guys! They are so darling. And it looks like they play very well together.

Anonymous said...

what a cute pair!!! I so love ysolda's patterns especially this one!! Great job!

Anonymous said...

Hi!! You don't know me but I have been lookin around for some great ideas for handmade crafts and one of them was knitting or crocheting.. but i do not know how so i was wondering if you would be able to give me any advice or anything that can help.. id appreciate it.. thanks

Nesa said...

OMG!! This is the cutest thing I've seen yet! I love these. I am going to learn to knit just to make these (and the mermaid fingerless glove, lol). I love your blog entries. I am still learning how to do the whole blogger/google site thing, so if you have pointers let me know. Nice work, beautiful pictures.