I'm also in the process of making a teddy bear and blanket for my grandbaby that's due in February. My daughter-in-law's sisters are hosting the shower this Sunday and I'm working furiously to finish them. I was hoping they would wait on the shower until after the holiday, so that I could take my time on them, but no such luck! And true to form, I had issues with the bear. I had bought this great yarn at a store in Guthrie which is about 45 minutes away from my home. It is 100% washable wool and is the softest wool yarn I have ever felt! AND I thought that I'd bought enough. Alas, I got to the last paw and ran out. There are a couple local stores that carried the brand, but neither carried the line I was using. SO....instead of driving all the way out to SWAK in hopes that they would have one more skein of the yarn, I just bought new yarn from one of the local stores and started over. The yarn I bought there was a wool blend. I spent all my free time one weekend and got it all knitted, now I'm in assembly mode. So far so good on that. I was able to find the joints at Hobby Lobby in the doll section and hopefully I can get them installed without issue.
I'm also in the process of painting jewelry boxes for my three closest friends. I've got them sanded and base coated and now I just have to paint the designs on and varnish them.
AND of course I was hit with inspiration while in the midst of doing all this. A couple years ago, I bought three skeins of Moda Dea Ticker Tape on clearance but wasn't sure what I wanted to use them on. A couple weeks ago I was Christmas shopping and saw this sweater that screamed "Make Me!!" So of course I had to comply!! And I had the perfect yarn for it. You guessed it! The Moda Dea! The sweater has a wide neck and a 5" fold over 'collar' with a split that was fastened with leather straps and buckles. Immediately I thought about using the Moda Dea yarn for the 'collar' and a solid black for the body. I prefer to make top-down sweaters (I hate seams!!), so I referenced my books of patterns to see if I could find something similar that I could reference to keep me from having to do all those calculations. I did find a pattern that with a few minor modifications fit the bill. I've got the collar knitted and have started on the body of the sweater. I don't have it with me or I'd post pictures. I'll do that when I get home.
I promise to post all stores, yarns, patterns and pics when I get home. Right now though, it's time for me to get back to work.
Have a great week!
