Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Meet Harald Bairhair

Last fall I bought a DK weight cashmere sweater at Value Village. It had a hole in it, and wasn't the most attractive thing I'd ever seen, but it was extremely soft and a nice clean white color, so I bought it. I brought it home and washed it, and then it sat in a box for months.

This weekend I finally pulled it out, dissected it, and frogged it onto my ball winder. This is what it yielded:

















Also this weekend, at the yarn shop, a customer showed off the adorable bear she had just finished. I asked her about it, and learned that the pattern was Peabey the Polar Bear by Snowden Becker. I immediately queued it, and favorited her project, then went on about my day. On Monday I realized that I could make him out of a bit of the cashmere, and off I went. Two evenings later I was finished.

















Isn't he cute? The pattern is thorough and clear, with lots of great photos of the construction. I ended up using 7 dpns at once and wasn't even annoyed about it, it was that clever. Plus, 50% of the pattern sales proceeds are being donated to polar bear research and conservation. Everyone wins!













Tyler, tasked with naming our new friend, came up with Harald (after Harald Fairhair, first king of Norway). Bears are pleased.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

CUTE. And holy crap, that's a lot of cashmere. DK weight is a rare and gorgeous find in cashmere.

TT820 said...

Hey, thanks for the shout-out for the Peabey pattern--I'm all about supporting the bear research, and this will help a lot. Your pics are awesome, too. And ditto what Rainy Daisy said about DK cashmere being a major find...all my recycled cashmere has been great colors, but laceweight, or fingering at best. Score!!