Enough Ends to Drive You Crazy

I finished spinning up the second batch of roving last night and am dying to ply tonight, but I've been cheating on my knitting lately, and one project in particular requires some serious attention.


I realize it's still in pieces and, yes, there are a horrifying number of ends to weave in (or at least hide well), but perhaps you might be able to deduce that this is a teddy bear. In fact, it's the Bear in Lamb Sleep Suit, from Debbie Bliss's The Baby Knits Book. If you do a Ravelry search for this cutie, you'll notice that there are very few finished projects, and with good reason. There are a ton of ends (many of them unnecessary, if you ask me), lots of little pieces to sew together, and no schematic to help you assemble the bear. Fortunately the lamb suit is a lot easier to figure out, and the general consensus seems to be that it hides all manner of mistakes in sewing the bear up.

Why, you may ask, am I putting myself through all this, knowing as you all do how much I hate seaming? The answer is simple: Aidan is turning 1 next week! Now that he's old enough to at least have some appreciation for his gifts, I thought it appropriate to make him something he can play with, rather than wear. And, because his birthday party is next weekend, I'm going to try to get it ready to mail out this weekend so it'll be there in time for him to open.

I will be the first to admit that my sewing up thus far is not wonderful, but I'm going to attempt to disguise it further by gently fulling the bear before dressing him in his sleep suit. And you can bet I'm going to be giving the lamb suit my very best finishing job. Worst case? I just have to hope Aidan isn't interested in undressing his bear!