Knitting project: teddy bear!

For Chanukah this year, in the spirit of frugality and global economic collapse, my sister and I are celebrating Homemade Holidays--trying to give as many homemade presents as possible.

For my mother, who loves teddy bears, I made the "bear necessity" pattern from the Family Circle Easy Toys book. The end result is not at all perfect--I'm still a beginner at seaming and stuffing. (Although my seaming has improved a ton, and my new enormous bag of polyfill fibers makes stuffing much easier!) So the bear is a little... misshapen and stupid-looking. But at the very least, he's a big improvement over my previous attempts.

(I'm still debating whether or not to make him the tiny sweater included in the pattern in the book. What do you think? Does this little guy need a sweater?)

And a bonus--I'm a Secret Santa for someone in my orchestra, and one of my gifts is going to be this slightly freaky little frog. He's meant to sit on your bookshelf with his little legs dangling off!

WienerCat

My previous knitted stuffed toy may have been an enormous, floppy disaster, but I am not discouraged!  Meet--WienerCat.

WienerCat is thus named because he is an adorable cat who kind of resembles a wiener dog.  I am quite pleased with him and his cuteness!

To no Chujo

As some of you may know, one of my hobbies is knitting.  I pursue this hobby with vigorous enthusiasm and ineptitude.  Inspired by overpriced knitted stuffed animals at Black Ink and a gift of orange yarn from Nancy, I decided to make a stuffed animal myself.

I really wish I had an excuse for this.

I really didn't expect it to turn out quite this... horrifying.

I promise I am a better knitter than this.

No, really.

AAAAAAAUGH

Nancy has named him To no Chujo, after Genji's youthful best friend (and lover, seriously guys, it's obvious) and adult rival.  He's never quite as successful politically or romantically as Genji.  Poor To no Chujo.

I think perhaps I'll stick to scarves after this.