Grad Bear

This is a Grad Bear. Well, it's really a bear with a cap, hence it's a grad bear. I didn't have time to make a diploma for it, so he's empty- handed.

But on the lip side, he's stuffed with lavender. As I got this 1lb bag of lavender, I'm just trying to get rid of as much of it as possible. I know 1lb doesn't sound alot, but if you see how small lavender buds are, you'll understand why I'm trying to stuff everything with it. Aside from the fact that it smells good, I need to get rid of it. Haha.

Anyway, this is for my friend Maria who had left work to go to an one-year intensive program in Copenhagen, Denmark. She's from there originally, so it's almost like going home for her. Plus she's near family. On top of a hectic study schedule she also been thru alot of stuff, so I have a great deal of admiration for her and her strength to go thru with everything despite of all the things that were happening in her life.

Well, she came back this week to touch base, so we got to catch up. It was way fun for 2 hrs just talk and catch up. And I had tons of fun making this bear. I like these patterns where you don't have to attach too many parts to make something. While the only thing I don't have to attach was the head and the body, I still have to do the arms, ear, and the cap; I do enjoy these one-shot type patterns.

Speaking of patterns, I got it from Lion Brand. If you haven't heard, all of their patterns are now free. So take advantage all you want.

Wool-Eater

So, I stumbled upon this cool pattern and even though it's in UK lingo, there were a bunch of kind folks on LJ that helped. I also found Crochet Dad and he called it wheel block; and Teresa also have a Catherine's Wheel that has awesome instructions.

Then it's onto my project:

This is the front:

Unfortunately, I didn't use acrylic yarns to make the weaved in color to pop up. The yarn I used was for baby garment, so it's soft and the shape is harder to make them hold, but will make a wonderful soft blanket.

The close up:

You can sorta see the different color weaved into the previous row.

The back:

Actually, the back is kinda cool. It looked messy but soft, like carpet-ish.

The closeup of the back:



So, the point of this project for alot of people is to get rid of yarn. Unfortunately for me, I am getting rid of the yarn, but it will also amount to just a square bigger than my placemat. So, for it to grow up to be, say, a blanket, that means I'll have to go buy more yarn, which defeats the whole purpose. Hmm...

Well, I'll just have to keep working on it. *shrug*