ballerina bear has a new home

I'm a little surprised at the thrill I'm feeling to get the good news! Ballerina Bear, our first Toy Society drop, has found a home. The Toy Society blog posted this message from her new family this morning:

We found the pretty bear @ the Welcome Center;
she now lives in Calvert County Maryland w/a 5yr little girl named Megan.

Hooray! I can't wait to do it again.

mission accomplished

Last weekend, VB, VG and I completed our first "mission" for the Toy Society -- we left a handknit Ballerina Teddy bear toy at a Welcome Center on I-75 near the Tennessee-Georgia border. It was all very covert and exciting, especially now that I see we are officially Drop #353, and as far as I know, the first in Georgia (either USA or the Republic of). I can't wait to see who found her. I hope they contact the site to let everyone know.

The teddy is knit from Bernat Cashmere (boo hoo, I think it's been discontinued). The pink was left over from a hat I knit for VG, and the brown was a ball of what my mom (not from Louisiana) likes to call lagniappe -- I bought a ball of pink from someone on eBay, but got the brown in a mailing mixup instead. The seller graciously let me keep the brown, and sent the pink too.

Ballerina Teddy is from the Mother Bear Project pattern, which you can buy from the website for $5. It's also included in a lovely little book called Knitting for Peace: Make the World a Better Place One Stitch at a Time. The book has information about many different organizations helping people around the world, and patterns for charity knitting projects helpful to the organization, such as prayer shawls, afghans, or warm sweaters for children. The Mother Bear Project gives donated handknit teddy bears to children in emerging countries whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS.

Thanks to Amy at badskirt, who linked me over to the Toy Society.

Have you ever done a charity craft project? What did you make and how was it used?

and the winner is . . .

Cristin!! I am sending an e-mail, but if you are checking, please send me your mailing info.

Here's how I got the winner -- since nobody entered who is in Central Asia right now, I gave one extra entry to Melissa, who is moving to an unspecified country in Central Asia in December. There were a total of 57 entries, and of all things, the random number generator came up with #2.

I have the very best intentions of putting the prize bib in the mail on June 3 (tomorrow) but I absolutely promise it'll be flying to Christin by the weekend.

Thanks so much to everyone who commented. This was fun, and I hope to hear from you again.

Prize-winning chicken photo by Kate Brown -
Creative Commons licensed photo from Flickr



Late Breaking News --

Christin says:

Awesome! The bib is gorgeous!! My little guy is 7 months old and he will certainly put this to good use:)

As for the something about me...I am a 27 year old SAHM to a 3 year old girl and her little brother and we live near Austin TX. I love blog hopping and attempting anything crafty in my "spare" time:) Thanks so much for hosting this giveaway!!

Thanks again to everyone who participated!

may giveaway!

Oh my! I feel far too young in my blogging life to offer a giveaway, but I like to participate and I love Sew, Mama, Sew, so here we go!

I honor of my one and only sale so far on my Etsy shop, I am offering the next edition of that handknit cotton baby bib. It's in a shadow denim cotton yarn, the version that my cousin raves over. Please comment on this blog post, including contact information, and on June 2nd I will do a random number thing (I attended MIT my junior year and love random anythings) to choose the winner. It's so exciting to be a part of this big contest, I'll ship anywhere. And a special clause to the random thing, anybody who comments from anywhere in Central Asia gets an automatic trip to the front of the line.

I confess that I don't have nearly enough chicken-themed choices at the shop, a failing that I plan to remedy over the summer. I've plenty of ideas, though, so by August all should be well on all fronts. Stay tuned!

√ auction bibs

I love this grouping of colors, don't you?


For the past few years I've donated a hand-knit baby cardigan to my school's Financial Aid auction, but this year decided to go for a change. These bibs are 100% cotton Peaches & Creme yarn in a basic garter stitch. The tangerine bib on top is from Ann Shayne & Kay Gardiner's wild and wonderful Mason-Dixon Knitting. I've made a ton of these since the book came out -- must be something in the water around here :-) Lately, though, I've been going off-road, creating my own rendition of a garter-stitched bib with touches I like better. The most fun is the all the great colors of Peaches & Creme (and the Canadian equivalent, Sugar'nCream) "warshrag" yarn.

I hope somebody at the auction likes them as much as my cousin does. She raves about the one I made for her son every time I see them!

blue bunny

Blue Bunny started off as a Christmas present for my niece, Miss A. Over Thanksgiving, she had a major meltdown over her cousin's Blue Bear, which went back to Virginia after the holidays. I have wanted to knit this bunny for some time, after seeing a lovely pink one at the fabulous Knitch in Atlanta's Virginia Highland neighborhood. Yay!



Blue Bunny didn't get started until a little too late to finish for Christmas, but fortunately Miss A.'s birthday is right after New Year's, so there was a second chance! Normally I pay close attention to both occasions (V-boy's birthday is also right after Christmas), but at four, the bundling of gifting days isn't as big a deal.

The pattern is from Knits, Knots, Buttons and Bows: Projects for Babies by Lynda Schar. See the pink bunny on the cover? The pattern calls for a soft wool; instead I used Bernat CottonTots in 'Little Boy Blue.' It's 100% cotton, soft and machine washable/dryable. Stuffing is plain ol' polyfil.

Gauge doesn't really matter in a project like this one, but I did check, and found that this yarn knitted smaller than the pattern. Since some of the directions are given in inches ('continue in stockinette for 6 inches'), and some in rows, I did my best to adjust the row counts so that Blue Bunny's arms and legs wouldn't be strangely out of proportion with his body.

The pattern is pretty straightforward. The feet have turned heels as for socks -- something about the directions didn't look right, so I did fall back on what I know about sock knitting to improvise. Otherwise this is a pretty simple toy to knit. And if you don't want to deal with turning the heel, you could make the legs the same as the arms.

It would be great if Blue Bunny becomes Miss A's favorite cuddly, but even if I end up loving Blue Bunny more than she does, it was worth it. Blue Bunny's a sweetie.