So, according to Ravelry, I finished making the bear on the left in 2018! I can’t believe it was so long ago. Especially as I only finished her dungarees on Sunday.

I made her when I was trying to decide if I should leave my job, as I’d been offered another one elsewhere. She was my stress knit. She’s a regular sized bear, but just in thinner yarn, on smaller needles.

I made her some dungarees at the time, but I didn’t really like them:

This was some ‘denim’ yarn I had in my stash, so I gave it a go. But I didn’t love it. It’s a bit too patchy and a bit too washed out. (This photo is actually quite good. It’s not this good in real life). Also, I’ve noticed, I didn’t do a very good job on the knitting. Having made a few pairs since, I’ve noticed there’s a nice line that’s supposed to come up from the pocket to the inside edge of the top section. On the photo above you can see it’s a stitch out.

So when the pattern for the small rabbit and the small dungarees came out, I treated myself to some ‘Schachenmayr Catania Denim Originals‘. There’s 2 colours that look denim-y, numbers 0052 (lighter) and 0050 (darker). I got them both as I wasn’t quite sure which one would be right, and they’re not expensive. Turned out the rabbit looked good in the lighter one – and I tried the dress on the bear, and it looked like almost the right size, but the darker blue looked better. (This is a girl bear, she just doesn’t like dresses.)

So I added a couple of extra rows to the legs of the small dungarees, and there we have it. New dungarees for the bear. She looks so much better! It’s nice yarn. Previously I had (still have, actually, I’m trying to use it up) some thinner cotton yarn from Rowan. I hate it. Every colour is a bit milky looking and it’s a bit thin. It makes everything I knit look rubbish, if I’m honest. But this is a nice thickness and holds the stitches well. Suddenly I’m a pro knitter. Go me!

Just kidding. I was 16 rows into knitting the dungarees before I spotted I was using one 2.75mm needle and one 3mm. And once I’d spotted it I grabbed the right needle, got chatting and forgot to use it for the next row. But it all worked out in the end.

As for the bunny, more in the next post. I’m using a laptop and it’s so hot in the UK it’s hard to tell if the laptop is about to burst into flames, or I am.

I hope you’re keeping safe out there. Please wear a mask. It’s the kindest thing to do, and it’s not even hard.