Sweet Little Teddy Bear!

I will be seeing a friend of the family soon and wanted to make something special for their 1 year old little girl. At first I thought, maybe a knitted bottle cover for baby bottles. But it didn't seem like just the right idea. Then I thought about a baby hat and blanket. But again, that didn't seem to fit the bill. The little girl was already over a year old and surely would have blankets and hats by now. So I thought, "Well, how about a stuffed toy?" That seemed like just the thing!

I have not made stuffed toys in a long time. The last time was when I was a child in grammar school and I got into my mom's fabric and cut out some little bear shapes on some brown fabric, and sewed them together. I stuffed them with yarn (they were tiny bears that could fit in the palm of my hand). Then I drew little faces on them. Back then, my sister had made one already so that's what gave me the idea to make some of my own. They were fun to play with, and special to me, since I had made them. Don't ask me if I still have them. If I do, they are buried deep within a box somewhere.

Anyhow, I decided to look through my copy of the book, Loom Crafts with Knifty Knitter, designs by Shannon Erling, published in 2007 by Provo Craft and Novelty. I had bought this book from Walmart when I first bought the looms a few years back, but hadn't really made any projects using it. So on page 31-32 there are instructions on how to loom knit a bear. I decided to give it a try.

I decided I would use Bernat Baby Coordinates White and Pink yarn, and Red Heart soft pink. The directions were easy to follow, but I decided to modify them. Instead of using buttons for the eyes (surely a choling hazard for a one year old), I just sewed the eyes and mouth on. Instead of adding a snout and shaping ears, I decided to leave the bear without a snout. I just thought about it and I could have used the Bernat white to make a snout, but I didn't.

For the ears, I just made them separately and sewed them on. Using the flower loom, I cast on 8 pegs, then e-wrapped and knitted off 4 rows.

For the tail, I made a drawstring cast on, on the 8 peg end of the spool loom and knit off a few rows. Then, after stuffing the tail, I cinched it shut and sewed it onto the bear's backside. Then I completed steps 8-10.

As for the ribbon, I just picked it up from the local craft store where it was on sale. Aww, isn't that bear so CUTE?

Naturally, once I had sewed on the face and gotten to step 7 of the instructions, I noticed that I wasn't paying attention and had accidentally put one leg on the front of the bear and one on the back! I had to snip and carefully take off each leg and reposition it back onto the teddy bear.