Tag Archives: Sunrise Side Bear

More creatures

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Seen here in profile, I call this creature my Ginormous Gnose Gnome. Designer Sarah Schira calls it The More You Gnome. And there is no one in the knitting universe these days who gnows gnomes as much as Schira does. She has 25 gnome and gnome-themed patterns in her Ravelry store. Go big or go gnome I guess. Gnome pun intended.

The very feature I loved the best, that gnifty big gnose, looked a tad odd to me face-forward when I completed the knit. I decided I gneeded to make a major modification. So I (tried) to give gnome some whiskers.

At first I knit the layer of strands just under his gnose. I showed him to a few people. Steve’s comment just about summed it up. “Why did you decide to give him gnose hairs?” “Oh gno, gnot what I intended.” Back to my gneedles. I knit a longer set of strands beneath the gnose hairs and my gnome passed inspection. “Yes, now I see a beard.”

If you’re looking to reproduce my gnome’s beard, which unfortunately I fear makes my gnome look a bit like he’s sniffing a jellyfish, here’s what I did. I used a size 1 (US) needle and cast on 4 stitches and knit one row. For the gnose-hair section, I cast on 6 stitches at the start of the next row. I used the cable caston, which is a knit-on caston. On the next row I bound off the 6 stitches I’d just cast on and completed the row (4 more stitches). Next, turn and knit the 4 stitches. Cast on 6 more stitches and do the same bind-off “thing.” I repeated this process, casting on 8, casting on 8 again, casting on 6, and casting on 6 again. On the last row I bound off all 10 stitches. Finally, I sewed the piece just under the bulbous gnose.

To complete the whiskers, I repeated the above process and knit a second piece by casting on 8, then 8, then 8, 10, 10, and finally 8, 8, 8. I handled the sequential bindoffs the same as in the first piece. I sewed the second bunch of whiskers under the gnose hair section.

I was so taken with the designer’s gnome that I used exactly the recommended yarn in exactly the recommended colorways: Emma’s Yarns Practically Perfect Smalls (a fingering weight) in Whisper, Volume, and Tealicious. A fun knit. Great yarn!

Now, something more familiar–to me and to anyone who regularly reads my blog.

Not so long ago I had weeks and weeks when my brains were frazzled by fretting. If you think back to the last time you moved house methinks you can appreciate that. My mind and my fingers wanted an easy repetitious knit. My Sunrise Side Bear pattern is as familiar to me as my 15-year old Land’s End T-Shirts. My hands just started knitting these guys and I didn’t stop until my stash of Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride worsted was almost exhausted.

Here’s the free pattern for download. And here’s another look at my sleuth of bears all snug and cozy.

Pairings

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Sometimes one thing fits so nicely with another thing that a knitter just can’t resist. This was a gift for a newborn and a gift for his sib. Levi got the Milo vest, by Georgie Nicolson. It’s knit in HiKoo Simplicity Solid, an easy-care DK weight spun in 55% merino, 28% acrylic, and 17% nylon. And for the sib? My Sunrise Side Bear, a Ravelry freebie, dressed in Nicholson’s Dolly Milo.

This is one time that matchy-matchy is no shame. I kind of think it’s baby-present perfect.

Here’s a closer look at this iteration of Sunrise Side Bear, knit in Berroco Comfort Print. Comfort is a very soft yarn so I knit this fellow at a very tight gauge, on US size 3 needles. That’s because it wouldn’t do to have stuffing showing through because Bear would be very emBEARassed.

I decided to knit Judith Durant’s freebie Watch Cap with the rest of the Comfort skein. I was surprised and pleased by how precisely the striping worked out.

And just look at the sweet bullseye-patterned crown decrease.

This Watch Cap is a classic unisex pattern. Easy peasy is sometimes just what a knitter needs and just what a wearer wants. Pair it with a cute stuffy for a great holiday present. Knit it in playful striped yarn to brighten up a dreary wintry day. Or knit it in somber tones for all your dearly beloved stick-in-the-muds who wouldn’t be caught dead in a hat as cheerful as this one.

Sunrise Side Bear

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I live on what Michiganders (don’t laugh, that’s what we are) call the “Sunrise Side.” That’s the northeastern section of Michigan’s lower peninsula. Almost all the sections of the Sunrise Side are less affluent, more rural, just a wee bit less scenic (being honest now) than the western side of the northern lower peninsula. We have our share of big homes, beautiful homes, interesting shops, and jaw-dropping natural views. But we also have a lot of children taking backpacks of food home for the weekend. And my town has more vacant storefronts than occupied ones.

After I worked out the pattern for this little guy, Sunrise Side Bear seemed the best name for it. The pattern is free on Ravelry.

My pair of fraternal twin bears is knit in Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted. In this beefy worsted, knit at a tight gauge on size 5 needles, they turn out to be about 9 inches tall and 6 inches across the arms.

Sunrise Side Bear is knit flat. Totally flat. In one piece. His face, head, tummy, and butt are formed by short rows. In case you’ve not yet learned how to work short rows, all the instructions are included.

These little guys just keep leaping off my needles. Even with sewing up and stuffing I complete one in about 4 hours.

Here’s another one I recently knit for newborn Sophia. Again I used Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride.

I like to gift them wearing duds of some sort. For a newborn, a scarf seemed like a bad idea. Instead, I knit Georgie Nicholson’s Dolly Milo. Dolly Milo, knit in DK weight, is actually designed as a vest. But Sunny wears hers as a dress. 

Sophia also received her own Milo vest. Hers is knit identically to the doll’s version, but I chose a different cable panel.

I knit the vests in Debbie Bliss Rialto DK. The set made for quite a sweet newborn gift.

I recently knit a fingering weight hat out of some very special light fingering weight yarn: Fiber-Isle’s Buff. It’s 25% cashmere goat, 25% rayon, 25% bamboo and 25% “other animal.”  According to Fiber Isle, Buff is “made once a month from fibers left over from our blends. Never the same but always nice.” They spin bison yarns, so maybe some of the other is bison? Anyway, I had a smidge left after completing my hat (47 yards, actually) and thought I’d have enough for a tiny wee Sunrise Side Bear. “Close but no cigar…”

Running out of yarn created a patchwork bear. And once my bear already had a green front leg and a green front foot, it seemed to need some clothes to blend in the mish-mash.

I am inordinately fond of this little guy.

Read more about the Sunrise Side Bear’s construction here.

Stay safe, everyone. Knit on!

Frogging your knitting

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This beautiful yarn is Karen Bradley’s hand-dyed Kaloula Yarn in her Grand Merino worsted weight. I found it once, late in 2012, at Knit Michigan. That’s a cancer benefit smallish yarn meet-up in the Detroit area. My eyeballs were dazzled by this yarn. But later it was hard for me to find a pattern that would suit. Even though these three skeins are all one colorway, the colors aren’t evenly disbursed or even all represented in each skein.

I searched Ravelry’s database and decided I’d knit a rustic shawl with an unusual construction: the Portuguese Fisherwomans shawl. It’s a Vermont Designs by Shelagh pattern. At that point, Shelagh Smith’s pattern was still downloadable from vtyarnco.com. (The pattern isn’t available anymore and, of course, I have no permission to share it or copy it and since I want to keep it in my library I can’t give it to anyone either.)

It’s a pretty thing, hanging there on the hanger. And I feel as if I did the yarn justice with my pattern choice.

The lengths of color worked out nicely.

Knitting that long garter stitch band and sewing it on wasn’t easy for me. I wore the shawl, a bit. Around the house. Where no one could see me in it. Knowing where all the mirrors in my house are located, I could easily avoid them. Steve knew his job was to answer the doorbell while I scampered out of my fisherwoman’s costume. Taking nothing away from Portuguese fisherwomen, they must go for warmth rather than style. Or else their body type isn’t portly (being charitable to myself) or buxom.

In 2018, I decided the shawl needed to be frogged. (“Rip it…rip it.) The yarn was just too special to see light of day so seldom. I ended up with about 1100 yards of yarn. Just for the fun of it, I wound it up all in one ball. It was so big it wouldn’t fit in my yarn bowl. It was as big as a small watermelon.

Then I went shawl/wrap pattern shopping and came up with a new Susan Mills pattern: Licola. You might want to click away to Ravelry now and take a look at Licola as Mills envisioned it. It’s supposed to be knit in 4 colorways of worsted and to end up in alternating striped rows. That would have been lovely. But, well…I had my Kaloula Yarn.

I just couldn’t be happier with how this turned out! Without any planning at all on my part, the bobble bind off even turned out to be mostly in shades that stand out from the rest of the shawl. Some who’ve knit Licola don’t care for the rustic knitted fringe. It’s created by casting on stitches at the start of a row and immediately binding them off. It’s one of my favorite features of this wrap.

Here’s another look at Licola.

I know I will wear this wrap. It used up a bit under 900 yards.

I had enough left to knit a new Sunrise Side Bear. This bear is my freebie donation to the knitting universe. So far ten knitters have posted their projects on Ravelry and about 1200 people have downloaded the pattern. I’m pretty geeked about that. You can read more about my one-seam, knit flat bear pattern here.

This guy is my Kaloula Sunrise Side Bear.

My Ex-Portuguese Fisherwoman’s Shawl was the gift that kept on giving. I even had enough left to complete my 5th pair of Fetching mitts, by Cheryl Niamath.

Ok. So you doubt my decision to frog the Portuguese Fisherwoman’s Shawl? Here’s me wearing it. And since then I’ve gained weight–which wasn’t enhancing the look. The ends of that long garter stitch band criss-cross your back and then pull forward to tie at belly button height. I hid the knot under the top flap.

Licolo works so much better for me. Here’s another view of it

New yarn and leftovers

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This is a Lux Adorna free pattern, Hillary Cowl, knit in 100% Lux Adorna cashmere goat. Lux Adorna takes care to say “cashmere goat” and since I don’t know much about cashmere, I’ll not edit that out. Some cashmere maybe isn’t from a goat? Ah, wrong. Wikipedia says that cashmere, the fabric, comes from “the neck region of cashmere goats and other goats.” So, some cashmere is from those kind of goats that you meet at petting zoos or my brother’s barn?

Well, Lux Adorna cashmere must have come from the very soft neck fibers of goats who never lived in petting zoos or my brother’s barns. Because this stuff is soft.

And the Hillary cowl is so super cozy and special that I decided I will be selfish. It will stay with me. Just to be sure I’m not tempted to be generous, I’ve already worn it and it is luxurious.

This is what my yarn string of Lux Adorna looked like before I unpacked it.

It’s not possible for a knitter, especially one on a knitting retreat in Door County Wisconsin, to pass up a string of yarn that looks this special.

Now, for leftovers. Every bit of this special stuff needed to be knit. So Evelyn’s dolls now have a new sweater, modeled here by my mother’s Tracey Gallup pottery lamb. (My mom loved that lamb when I gave it to her one mother’s day long ago.)

Lambie is modeling Julie Williams’s free Ballerina Wrap Cardigan. In the original, the cardigan is all pink and all ballerina. My version is more a ballerina who shops at Good Will. But I like it. And so does Evelyn. Her stuffed toys and dolls are doing a lot of “ahhh….” since they’ve not experienced cashmere before. Actually, so am I in my Hillary Cowl because I’ve never worn 100% cashmere either.

While we’re talking about irresistible yarn presentation, this one from ATHC Wools is right up there with my cashmere string,

I found AJHC at a booth at the 2018 Northern Michigan Lamb and Wool festival. I walked away. I came back. I walked away again. Then I walked back, gave in, and bought this sweet bundle. It was displayed knit into Caitlin Hunter’s Cardamom Coffee hat. That looked pretty good to me so I hightailed it home, bought the pattern on Ravelry, and cast on.

Wow.

Glass Head doesn’t want to take it off. It’s a 75% merino, 25% nylon fingering weight. This isn’t going to be a warm hat, but it will be warm enough. You don’t necessarily knit a hat like this for warmth. The pattern works up into a nicely behaved crown.

Here’s one more look and then we’ll get to the leftovers. Because Lambie is very excited to be modeling Evelyn’s new AJHC doll dress.

Here’s another freebie, this time from Debbie Minner: Stripey Doll Dress.

Ok. Evelyn’s version isn’t stripey. But it is everything else: cute, easyon-easyoff, pretty, stylish. Perfect. I had to speak sharply to Lambie to get her out of it. She was pretending to be stiff as a board when I know full well that her front legs bend at the shoulder.

This has been the fall of yarn bundles calling to me. This one is a Classic Elite hat bundle (Ashley) kitted up in Yuri, another 75% merino 25% nylon fingering weight. Here’s the kit unpacked from its stylish net bag.

Ashley, the pattern, is supposed to be knit in distinct stripes and is billed as a rainbow hat. Being kitted with six colors rather than the seven colors of the rainbow bothered me a tad. Plus I’ve been enjoying some fade knitting lately, where one color fades slowly into the next. I decided to do a fade Ashley and I’m very pleased with the result.

Soon my fingering weight Sunrise Side bear was moaning about having a chilly head so one thing led to another.

Evelyn, chapped lips and all, loves her new hat. She immediately rescued Strelka the Valiant from her bed. He was already wearing a pink handknit sweater and it turns out his Ashley hat is a perfect fit too.

Sometimes, just as with Thanksgiving dinners, the leftovers are definitely as good or better than the originals.