So Close, I Went and Bought More Yarn

I mentioned in the last post about how I sit and watch my daughter's figure skating lessons...here's what it looks like, LOL.

 The heads on the Teddy Bears needed to be stuffed as I go, since you start at the nose, increase for the head, and then decrease to make the back of the head sort of flat, and then pull the yarn through the last 6 stitches.  I was weighing all the unstuffed bear parts, and then the heads...and the heads were ranging from 140gr to 161gr.  It does appear in this picture that the brown one is biggest, but it wasn't.  I tried to pluck some stuffing to get them closer, and they ended up with blue:  151gr, rose:  140gr and brown 144gr (it was 151 gr to start LOL)

 Then comes all the other parts....

 I've got two finished, and waiting for faces.  Each time I make them, I learn new little tricks, and remember why somethings were supposed to have been done a certain way.  The pink marker on the brown bear is spread over the distance that the eyes will be, as opposed to the green marker, which is placed in the middle of the "eye" row, like the pattern says.  I should also remember to make the sides of the bear so I know where to put the top of the leg.  The patterns says you only need to do this if you're making a sitting bear.

I had a hard time placing the legs on the brown bear.  When I worked on the blue one, I stuffed the body, then sewed the head on, then the lower legs.  For the blue one, I just happened to have the unstuffed body on my lap, and folded in half, and noticed the shaping, so I marked where to put the legs.  Stuffed the body, then sewed the lower legs on.  Much easier.  Then the arms, then the head.  I found the ears to be a little wide, so I used the end of yarn to gather them in a bit.  Placed the same width apart as the eyes.

I also got out to Michaels' to get the yarn for the custom stockings I'm going to be working on soon.  I'm pretty certain it was made with either Astra, or a Mary Maxim DK yarn.  I found the original pattern (1952), but it's out of print.  Found a replica of the pattern, but there are a few differences, so I'm just going to work from the original stocking.  I couldn't find a green yarn, and my pink is a bit lighter, and the original "white" is not really white now, so I picked a different yarn in a close colour.  It seems many of the yarns come in bright white, and "aran" which is too beige.  I need "30 year old white" LOL!  I also picked up two balls of Fun Fur off the discount rack for Lucy.  There were so many other discounted yarns that I would have liked for myself, but I controlled myself!

Yarn In: 550gr + 1776gr
Yarn Out: 2572gr
Balance: 796gr more USED than bought
Costs:  $44.19 + $53.39 =$97.58 /108 days = $0.90/day