Floof...

I made a small floofy bear cub...he's already spoken for and off to the USA.  There will be more of these.
 

It's Finished!

 This has taken months and months of knitting, swearing and tearing of hair, but so worth it!  Can't wait to wear it, although the weather is not cold enough yet.

The Holiday Let...

As soon as we found this rusty shack while exploring the countryside on the Isle of Wight, I knew I had to paint it.  So that is how I have spent the past couple of weeks, taking a break from bears and thoroughly enjoying the challenge of getting this right.  It is painted in watercolour, which can be a bit unforgiving if you make a mistake.  There was one area where I had been a little heavy handed with the masking fluid (I'm not telling you where!) and when it was removed I thought I had maybe ruined the whole picture.  But with a little work and a few touches of acrylic paint, you wouldn't know.

Apart from the building, I also enjoyed painting the little 'doorway' through the undergrowth into the next field, with the sun shining to illuminate it.  It makes you wonder what you would find if you followed the path...

This will be in my Etsy shop shortly once I have taken some decent photos of it in daylight.

Next up - back to bears...

Watch The Birdie...

 When I saw this pattern (Birdsong by Manja Vogelsang) I had to buy it and have a go.  My first colour choice was a no-go - the yarn arrived and was not as it looked on the website.  Other colour combinations were scotched because they were out of stock, so I ended up with pale grey and a soft crimson.  I like it!

However, as the yarn needed for this pattern is baby yarn, it has taken a very long time indeed.  The bird pattern was a nightmare to do - the whole jumper is knitted in the round in one continuous piece, so the number of stitches had to be exact and the pattern repeated four times - I had to painstakingly count and mark the number of stitches in each row on the pattern in order not to lose my place.

Once the birds were done, it was plain sailing but has taken weeks and weeks of knitting.  I'm on to the second sleeve but have reached the point where the knitting is so boring that I fall asleep after only a few rows which is not helpful!  I did joke that this would be ready to wear in time for Christmas - not sure that is too far from the truth now!