Next project, destination unknown

Now that I have finally finished the walnut baby bear I can move onto something else.  I've not got a specific project in mind, so I am just going with the flow.  I am struggling to find the time to spend on crochet right now, there always seems to be so many things to do when I get home from work in the evening & the weekends are just tooooo short!

Right now I am kind of doodling.  I am doing some lacy crochet using some cotton yarn I have lying around (Sirdar luxury soft) - I really need to get my yarns organised, another job to add to the list!

At the moment nothing is presenting itself as an end result for this effort, but I will keep going and see where my imagination takes me.

I think that these lacy strips often make nice jewellery pieces, but this one is too substantial for that.  I will keep working using this same pattern for a bit more and have another think.

Woo (and indeed) Hoo, Walnut Baby bear is complete

OK, so I'm not sure how happy I am with the finished result ... but here he is anyway.

I don't generally use toy eyes, because I like my toys to be safe for even the smallest of hands, the result is ... he looks a little stoned !!!

I always find the finishing touches the most difficult ...

I think I'll have to write up the pattern as a next step - as the face is embroidered I guess that anyone else who makes him can use their own artistic license.

Walnut Baby Bear .... Nearly there

So the saga continues ... but the end is in sight.

I managed to get the motivation to finish the ears & put in a nose last night.  I'm thinking about how to do the eyes & mouth and if I need to add a "tip" to the nose ... maybe something embroidered or something else.  I need to add the eyes and then think what it needs to be finally complete.

Drop spindle spinning

As you know from my previous blog entries I took a notion to learn how to drop spindle spin.  So my kit arrived

And I started spinning, its not as easy as the YouTube videos make it look !!  So I saught advice from the spinners on Etsy & they reassured me that "it takes time", "don't worry if its lumpy" ... So I gave it a proper try

As you can see, they were right about the lumpy!!  Its so hard to keep consistency,

As you can see, I had a few nice thin bits ... but plenty of chunky fat bits & a few over twisty bits.  But you know what, I was happy enough with this as a first try.

So I thought, lets go again.  So with my new found confidence I decided to give it another go.

Here we go with try #2, I think I am gettin the consistency better - hardly perfect yet, but better.  At least there are fewer chunky lumps :)

I am still struggling a bit with joining in a new piece of roving, I'll still get a chunkier bit there - but I think there's been progress.

Its really good fun, and you know what?  I am starting to think that, maybe, one day, I'll actually spin something I can crochet with ... You never know!!

If you fancy giving it a go yourself, there are some good videos from YouTube

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPUORvO-GZE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UOZoYJCQ2Q
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlpacaDirect#p/u/7/-IoF6OtjY2E

Walnut Baby Bear ..... looking differently scary

Ta-da ... one Walnut Baby Bear with head & jumper :)

Now I need to make some ears, eyes & a nose - I've not decided on the nose yet, classic round bear nose or something different.  The ears will be semi-circles - unless some other inspiration hits me between now and when I make them :)

Walnut baby bear ... progresses

So progress continues, I have stuffed the body & attached the arms.  Its now looking alarmingly like a headless chicken !!  I hope that it transforms when the head is attached & the little finishing touches are done.

I've also done the front of the jumper with the WB initials.  What do you think?

Walnut baby bear progress report

I've got to the stage where I can start putting my bear together.  So the legs were the first bit that got attached.

The arms are next then I need to figure out if the jumper needs to be added before the head or not - my thinking right now is that jumper first then head it should make the sewing together much easier.

Right now it looks a little scary, my headless bear!