My creative space

this week's been about  new bear in the making that I call Mega Wonk but will either be named Noggin or Noodle.
He's another one of my longer terms one, even though he is quite little, due to many layer of staining and painting and fussing.

and of course i had to somehow include stripes in the process even if not knitting them this time.
He may be my wonkiest bear yet ( hence Mega Wonk.)
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My creative space

Last week my dad asked me why some of my bears get clothes and others.
And it's funny I guess I had really thought about it.
My answer " some bears I feel need a bit of something to bring the bear out while others would look silly in clothes." For example a recent bear of mine George would just look silly in clothes. Whereas I felt the singlet really set Ringo off.
This week has been all about another clothless bear. Bert.


He is another of my based off one of my old steiff bears ( Mr Rusty in this case)



and part of his whole character is his slumpiness. Clothes just don't look right.
I wonder if I'm making sense.
He is has been one of my uber ageing efforts, the only mohair kind of the right colour ( which I had to dye anyway) was super long.


But you know i love all that stuff.
I actually finished him yesterday, but was quite down about him and didn't feel like posting him.
Lots of kind comments on IG and a day later I'm feeling a bit better ( and I'm very prone to not liking them the day I finish.)
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Stripitous

I have a problem.
A stripey problem.
I love stripes. I think stripes make everything better. I want to make things that are striped.
But I don't love to so much the ends that stripes creates and the extra sewing in stripes create in knitting.
And everytime I swear I will stripe no more, i dive back in for more striped madness.
I'm truly into some sort of weird self punishment thing going on.
This week ( or last two) have been particularly stripey.
If those bathers hadn't been enough stripes for now, the cooler autumn weather made me feel the need to knit socks, and fulfil l my life long dream of owning/knitting a pair of Sydney swans footy socks.
( for those not in the know- they are candy striped red and white knit highs)


And on the bear side of things. I made this guy Ringo ( a bit of stargazer

perhaps) another of my using up bears while waiting for some mohair to arrive.

 
He's a bit different from a lot of the bears, I've made. Well not hugely so but he is inpsired by a steiff bear from the 1920's, hence the different eyes. But i think the eyes  are one of the main players in making a bear, so what sort you choose, and size/distance apart can really change a bear and his character.


Who i felt really needed a not only a singlet but a stripey singlet at that.

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CREATIVE STUFF

It feels like ages since I've touched base on creative space and since a lot has been going on with me and the making I thought it was about time.
Plus I started to feel guilty about how much I was neglecting you guys.

Anyway as usual when I go away, I always take lots of yarn to crochet little bodies up for the plan trip and small times in between things.
ANd as usual this mean I amass a large number of empty bodies ( in this case 7-8)waiting for life , stuffing and well life.
So my first week back after coming back from my us jaunt, was taken up with the turning these empty bodies into creatures and souls. I hate having too many empty bodies lies around, and always feel I can't do anything else until at least most of them were attended too. ANd I felt a bit under the pump too as they are part of a secret project of mine which I needed them for.
But as usual by the end of that week. I'm completely over amigurumi and ready for something different and more on the mohair on the scale of things.  Don't get me wrong I love making the ami but I like going between my two mediums more and not all one thing and not the other.

SO much so the idea of knitting those darn stripey bathers seemed welcome relief.


Which takes me on to this week where it's all been about this guy ( and his bathers)

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Home and OOOPS!!

Remember in my last post how i said I was a bad blogger?
Well true to form, I sort of went Overseas and came back without letting you know.
OOPSS.
San Francisco to be exact for a big family palooza and catch up. Most of my american family ( my mum's family ) lives there and my sister came across too from the UK.
and one the biggest highlights and points for me making the trip was meeting gorgeous niece Grace for the first time.

Another was spending some time at my cousins new in the making organic farm in Petaluma just
outside San Francisco.

Stella the jersey and Jack my step nephew

doing some tomato seeding

It was a crazy busy full on lovely time. There was lots of socialising, babysitting, sight seeing and running around.

Though I did manage to sneak an all important trip to Japan Town ( and Kinokuniya ) 

and a spot of op and vintage shopping ( 5 cardigans/jumpers for $25 !)

 I'm sorry I sort of left out the blue and didn't tell you i was going. But I just felt it was a bit "hi and Bye" considering how regular my posts have been as late .
As lovely it was, it's wonderful to be back to my dear of melbs.

Sorry...

I've been a bad blogger.
But I'm taken up with this particular gentleman ( or gentlebear) George.

I got the idea for George when I saw a old steiff bear I just loved and felt compelled to make my own version. He was quite different to my usual steiff style guys, much chunkier/ bulkier , broader and less
fine.
So 5 heads later (!- I admit 3 of those were just using up scraps stabs in the dark- but the following 2 were real reject heads) I felt we have had some progress. It's always difficult trying something really different and stepping out of your comfort zone, but you know me i was obsessed. And a while after George was born.

I was even more driven than usual ( ?) as I had not been that happy with my last two bears and was determined to break that .
And he is one chunky bear!! But hopefully a nice chunky. And his chunkiness does give him a bit of earthiness and is nice to hold.

George  is a very late addition to my creative space....

Better late than ever

Hopefully. I'm not really sure MCS is still open but here's trying.
I must admit the heatwave is affecting me, i'm sorry I've been so out of it. Still doing my thing, making a mess and making bears, but just not feeling my brains been working well in terms of writing something readible or that makes sense ( which I know at the best of times I don't often)
My creative space has been until recently ( and i'm not willing to show what i'm doing right now)
has been about this guy finishing him off.

He was a special order for lovely friend as an  13th anniversary present for her partner. I not only was so touched to be asked , I always feel pretty touched someone trusts me to make something for someone they love, but I loved it too as she was being all old fashioned about it and looked up what mediums were traditionally given at the 13th years.
They were lace, fur and something else, and she had choosen fur, as she thought her partner would love one of my bears and something in the old steiffy style ones.

Will with my old steiff bear Gus who he is inspired by

And so Will has worked on ( he was the one I was working on last week, due to his size and level of ageing he takes a while to make)

 and Will was born.


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