Blog. Immediately after publishing the post previous to this one, a WordPress notification informed me that I’d just made my 200th post, an anniversary I was completely unaware of, otherwise I’d have announced the fact on said previous post to much fanfare. Since I started blogging late 2014, this means I’ve averaged 28 posts a year, or roughly 2 posts a month. What have I learned during my blogging journey? Specifically about blogging that is. Not much, other than I like to write, and the blog gives me that much needed ‘push’ to write, if nothing else. No point in having a blog if you don’t fill it with ‘content’ as those in the know, blog-wise, call it. This is the same for all my hobbies. I need a reason to be doing them or they gradually fall by the wayside. So, make your blog public, thus forcing yourself to write stuff for public consumption (even if that public is mostly your mum) which will sort of keep you going. It’s the same with knitting. I’m always fully engaged with any knitting project if it’s for someone else, not so much for its own sake. Same with singing. Fully engaged when warbling to my singing teacher – not engaged at all in terms of singing homework, or even singing around the house. So what does that boil down to? A need for recognition? A need for feedback? (only applies to the knitting and singing, the blog is a feedback free zone, unless you count spam.) A need to connect? I don’t know. In life I value privacy, so why blog? It’s a conundrum never to be solved. But on with post number 201.

I knitted two bears for the granddaughter, who received them a month ago, so I can now post them on here without fear of spoiling the surprise. The pattern came from LovelyKnitCreation on Etsy, after I’d spent ages browsing Etsy for something that screamed ‘knit me.’ I originally made one bear but then thought two might be nice. More importantly I learned a new technique for attaching toy legs to toy bodies, which made the whole thing stress free. Only fellow knitters will empathise with the joy I felt at this discovery. Previously I’d spend ages holding legs in place whilst stitching around them, trying to make it all look neat and invisible whilst not pushing the body entirely out of shape. What an angst ridden FAFF it all was. Well, somebody on YouTube, who I now forget, showed me how to simply hold the legs in place, then push a long doll needle through the body, then into one leg, then back through that leg and the body again, then into the other leg and back and forth until they’re secured (not a very clear explanation at all) but it works wonders. Below is my first bear (who I though of as male) after he’d had his legs attached with happy ease.

And here he is sitting.

And here he is in the cute romper suit designed by LovelyKnitCreation

These photos were all on my iPad. Unfortunately the second bear (who I thought of as female) is on my phone which lacks the ability to transfer stuff to my blog, so the photo is an iPad photo of my phone. I put zero effort into photography on this blog, as is abundantly obvious. I really should try more. Bear no.2 is white. I think the designer refers to it as a polar bear, not sure. I used all the yarns recommended by the designer, except the white yarn for this bear (as the pattern yarn was unavailable) and the replacement yarn actually knitted up better and a lot firmer.

I’m told the granddaughter prefers the white bear. Methinks this may be because she loves Winnie the Pooh and the paler colour might more resemble Pooh bear.

As always, the faces were a trial of anguish and pain, to try and get some sort of cuteness ‘going’ so that the bears didn’t more resemble aliens. Unfortunately the eyes came out square shaped both times, but I really didn’t want to unpick them. I do find that embroidery yarn is brilliant for faces, much more aesthetically pleasing than wool and easier to handle too.