Not Beary Good

I've been playing with a pattern for a knit bear, but I just haven't got it right yet. Here are a couple prototypes. Actually, they're quite adorable, in an amateurish way that just screams, "Homemade!" Not quite the look I'm going for.



I've been using the stockinette (flat) stitch because I like that it looks needle knit, and I don't like how the twisted knit (e-wrap) stitch looks different when you knit back and forth vs. knitting in the round. These bears use both techniques. Of course, the stockinette stitch has a lot more shrinkage. The bigger bear had the arms and legs made on the KK orange flower loom, but I'm not happy with the leg attachments to the body. The smaller bear had the legs made as flat pieces on the blue loom, still using 12 pegs for each leg, then knitting in the round for the body. It's a smoother transition, but the legs are skinnier, and I don't like the weakness of the crotch. The head needs to be much bigger; the proportions all around need tweaking. I'm going to think on this some more, maybe use looms with more pegs?

Meanwhile, I'm working on some slipper and mittens patterns that also need tweaking.