Tag Archives: Vera

Teddies

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I’ve been on a major knitted toys kick lately. Seriously. I’m in the process of setting up a new knitting room for myself. And I’ve decided to indulge my inner child. My new room is going to have gobs (that’s a knitting term of art) gobs of knitted toys lolling about. Over the years, I’ve knit more toys than I can count. Lots of children have loved receiving them. But the current crop I’m knitting for me. It’s turning out to be great selfish fun.

So, meet Teddy Bear Vera. She’s another Annita Wilschut’s design. Such a cutie! At the risk of repeating myself–such a silly expression (apparently I want to repeat myself and what’s the risk)–one of the great things about Wilschut’s toys is that when you finish knitting there’s no sewing up. Well, except to close up the end bits that you stuff through. Seriously wonderful.

I knit this Vera in Adriafil’s Knitcol in the Fall Jacquard colorway. It’s a DK weight. I was planning on knitting Vera a hat or jacket, but this yarn worked out so well that I didn’t want to cover it up. She’s pre-dressed in an all-over jumpsuit.

I’d no sooner knit one Vera when I decided to cast on for another. Maybe there’s no greater compliment a knitter can extend to a pattern.

I knit my next Vera in Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride worsted. The larger safety eyes I used give Vera a possibly over-concentrated stare. But one fun part of knitting toys is that even some of the goofs end up creating endearing qualities.

My second Vera merited a raincoat. It’s also a Wilschut pattern. Again I used Lamb’s Pride Worsted.

When I completed my second Vera, I decided the dark blue was a tad more somber than I wanted. So I chose the most outrageous color I had in my Lamb’s Pride stash for her jacket.

Brace yourself for more knitted toys in upcoming posts. I’m having a blast knitting them!

Every little bit counts

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My 2019 resolution was to try hard to knit all usable quantities of a colorway before I proceed to a new yarn for a new project. Kind of “finish your peas before you eat dessert” thing. Well, except that Schoppel-Woole Zauberball and Cascade Yarns Superwash Sport are hardly the peas of the yarn world. Apologies, to you pea lovers, but peas taste terrible and I bet somewhere deep down you know that too.

So, first I used a smidge of the Daffodil colorway to knit my Annita Wilschut Vera bear a rain hat.

Perfect. That was in the summer of 2014.

My Daffodil languished. Next, in the fall of 2018 I knit Wolkig in my black/gray/white Zauberball.

I broke into the  Daffodil for the cuffs of my adult moc-o-socs.

Such a great pattern by Rebekah Berkompas.

Then, with most of the leftover Zauberball and a dainty amount of the Cascade 220 sport Daffodil, I knit Justyna Losorska’s freebie beanie, Fasolka. I followed her instructions exactly, except that I went my own way on the color combination.

I see this sportweight hat as a great success. It even has an excellent crown, with no hint of the dreaded pointy beanie syndrome.

The Zauberball colorway worked out so excellently, I will be indulgent and give you another view.

What next to knit. I’d been eager to give Cecelia Compochiaro’s “sequence” knitting a try. My first attempt was her Swirl Hat, using her spiral sequence method.

If case you haven’t heard about or tried sequence knitting yet, let me intrigue you. All the patterning on this hat repeats the same 10-stitch sequence. Yep, the diagonal slices, separated by a few rows of stockinette, are several rounds of the same sequence worked over and over again, ignoring the end-of-round marker. The shift in the direction of the slice happens magically (or so it seems to me) by a minor adjustment to the number of stitches in the round that happens in the stockinette section.

There was even enough Zauberball left for a right-sized pompom.

My Cascade 220 superwash sport hadn’t run out yet, so I couldn’t quit on it. This next hat is Susan Villas Lewis’s Vitruvian Man.

The Vitruvian Man, at least the one who isn’t a hat, is DaVinci’s drawing of a man stretched out in a circle, with his arms stuffed into the top of a square and his legs stuffed in the bottom of a circle. You know, this guy:

It’s a fun motif to knit. The entire hat is very cleverly designed.

Check out the great crown.

I have a big gumball sized ball of Zauberball left. And what’s left of my Cascade 220 sport isn’t quite a golf-ball sized ball. Every useful bit is used up.

Rainbow Vera in her raingear

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vera_dressed

Recently I’ve been on an Annita Wilschut knitting frenzy. I’ve knit Joris, Karel, Jacobus and Saar, and Vera. Mostly I’ve knit in Quaere Fibre Self-Striping Sportweight Superwash–a wonderful yarn, including for stuffed buddy projects.

Here’s my entire Wilschut gang, including Rainbow Vera decked out in her raingear.annita_gang

Vera’s clothes, a separate Wilschut pattern, are very detailed. Apparently Vera is a bit fussy about how her clothes fit. You knit linings, pockets, and even some short row shaping.

vera_hat2

vera's_raincoat

That teeny raincoat even needed blocking to assure that its seams laid properly and that the garter stitch band didn’t curl. There are three small yarn over buttonholes knit into the band. But Vera is headed to a little one and so right now buttons are not a good idea.

Vera is especially pleased with her hat.

vera_hat

She thinks the color shows off her stripes quite nicely and even tones down her red nose a tad.

vera_sidedressed

She isn’t sure why she’s got both a hood on her raincoat and a hat, but she’s not complaining. I told her that the hood could come in handy in a major downpour.

Vera pleaded with me not to show her naked, but I told her knitters and readers would want to see her pretty rainbow skin. I did agree that I’d not put her butt on display, though.

Rainbow_vera

 

Vera

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vera3

This is Vera, another Annita Wilschut pattern, available on her website and in her Ravelry Shop. Like Joris, it is a wonder of a pattern. No errors. Clearly written. Lots of photos to help out if a knitter gets confused.

One of the features I much appreciate is that, when you finish a Wilschut knit, you don’t have to spend an equal number of hours sewing tons of little parts together. There is no sewing. That bears repeating. There is no sewing. Well, you do have a stuffing hole to sew closed, but that can’t be helped and is an easy stitching job. I’ve made lots of stuffies in my more than fifty years of knitting. Completing the knitting and finding yourself with a giant pile of small parts to sew together can be daunting.

My Vera is knit in Stonehedge Fiber’s Crazy, a DK weight wool/llama/alpaca mix. It’s always a good idea to use needles a few sizes smaller than what’s recommended on the ballband when knitting toys. You want a close knit so that the stuffing doesn’t show through.

vera4I don’t know where Vera got that bow. I told her that it clashes with her skin tone. I told here that it’s not her color. But she insists she will wear it even in the bathtub. I told her if she’ll give up the bow, I’ll try again on her eyes and mouth to see if she can look a little less odd in the facial feature department. She’s a stubborn little bear. She says she likes the way her face looks and she wants to keep the bow.