And your little bear, t o o o o o o o o !

I made this to go with my cousin's baby's sweater set. I knit for 2 evenings, then felted. Pretty quick for me. It turned out pretty well I think despite my usual sort of trials and tribulations. It was a small hit at the party, anyway.

Before:

I was worried I had made too thin a fabric. But I reasoned that the looser the knit, the better it felts. Well, "reasoned" isn't exactly the word. "Hoped," is the better word for what I call my thought process there. I even duplicate stitched and otherwise added more yarn to areas that I didn't want pull in too much, like the nose.

During:

Oh, oh! The polyfill is both coming out and getting felted into the fabric, not allowing it to close. Furthermore, it's expanded and the arms and legs are turning into clubs and the head isn't shrinking as much as the body. I made it large to start with as I wanted it to look like a baby, but this is ridiculous. I think it's because I stuffed it harder in order to keep the nose sticking out.

Time for drastic action: You may want to stop reading if you don't want to know where teddy bears come from.

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Modesty forbids me from showing you even more. It looks like it would unravel here but it didn't because it actually was felted together with the polyfill. The loose yarn you see is actually an end that I had left on the inside. And here's some advice for you: Do what you can to avoid hauling out wet poly from inside a wet bear. I debated about whether to sew up the back. In the end (in the end, ha ha) I left it open. I was unable to unstuff the arms because they were stuffed and sewn on separately.
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So I threw it back in the wash with the deep navy thriftstore sweater (in the before pics) that I was also felting and the several of my clothes that I thought could take being vigorously agitated though X cycles in hot water, namely, some of my white things--or should I say some of my blueish things? Are you impressed with my common sense? Moving right along . . .
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Here is young Mr. Bear upon removal the next morning from the dryer: Apparently somebody played Gotchyer Nose with him during the night and made off with said nose. Doesn't look very promising does it? And that's his ARM, he's not happy to see us! You people. Despite misgivings about being able to embroider an acceptable bear face, especially in deference to the concept of matching eyes, it turned out ok.

After:

Felted Bear

Details:

Pattern: Now there's an idear.

Yarn: Vintage Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride worsted from Elizabeth (thank you, young lady), light heathery gray, most of one skein.

Needles: 6mm/US 10.

Scarf: random Opal stash yarn

He can't quite sit up by himself because of the gigantic big head and the gigantic big arms.

Such a face! Do you see how his eyes almost match? Pretty good.