Knitting book and yeti

Look what came in the mail on Saturday:

I'd looked at it in paperback a few times, but couldn't quite talk myself into spending $20 for it.  But I found a hardback copy on Ebay for half of that.  Woo-hoo!  That was an easy buying decision to make!

(Aside:  does anyone else buy pattern books by looking at the patterns, deciding which ones they might actually make, and then dividing the total price of the book by that number?  Example:  Pattern book A has 20 designs.   Total cost of book is 25.00.  I might actually knit 4 of the patterns.  So the cost per pattern would be $25/4=6.25.  Hmm, kinda high.  I'm not sure I'd buy a single pattern for $6.25, so I won't buy the book.  But then I find the same book on sale for $10.00.  $10/4=$2.50.  Ok, I could see spending $2.50 for the patterns if I found them for sale separately.  So this time, I buy the book.)

Anyway, one of the things I've been working on actually turned out to be in the book.  Here's a picture:

It's supposed to be a teddy bear.  Since it doesn't have a face yet, I think it looks more like a yeti.  It's knitted in a double-knit technique (tubes knitted flat on 2 needles), and I think it's a great use for those fuzzy scarf yarns.  The Yarn Garden's Knitting for Others group is making teddy bears this month. 

I am now officially fascinated by teddy bears.  I Just had to buy The Knitted Teddy Bear.  Sandra Polley has some absolutely adorable bears and bear clothes in the book.  But she takes kind of a dressmaker/fabric worker approach to the bears.  You knit them in lots of little pieces and sew them together.  Ick.  If there's anything I hate worse than sewing big seams, it's sewing lots of little seams together.  I've experimented with making the body in one piece for one bear, and that seems to work.  So that would help.  And then last night in my old pattern stash I found a pattern for a teddy bear knitted more or less in one piece, with head shaping.  I'm missing part of the pattern info (I cut the pattern out of the magazine), I think I have enough to work the pattern.

Watch for more teddy bear action to come.

Random Australian Shepherd-related fact:  one of the dogs handled by the dog walker in Moonstruck is a blue merle Aussie.  Somehow I didn't notice this the other times I saw the film.

Comments

[General Ginger]

I'm right with ya there on the whole sewing lots of tiny things together nonsense. Can't wait to see that cute teddy with a face!

[Anita]

After months of restraint, I finally got my hands on The Knitted Teddy Bear. I am working my way through Robert (the bear on the cover). I am not looking forward to all the sewing, but I am also excited about my first bear. The other plus side about the little pieces is that the project is portable (I can knit a piece here and there).

Yes, I do count patterns in whatever I am going to buy. Heck, I have to like at least 3 songs on a CD (sometimes more if I am in a cheap mood) to consider buying the CD. I also count patterns in magazines.

[Beth]

Isn't the Constant Companion in that one? That bag is on my "to be knitted" list. I should use your system for buying books. I don't go overboard buying them, but there also doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to my decisions either.

[carrie]

I think it looks like an ewok! (sp?)