Pandas with panditude

Time to present my further crochet creations from February this year. Meet Pickles and Pandora - two cheeky pandas with a full-blown "panditude" :D

These two panda bears have been crocheted using a pattern from Kornflake Stew - a lovely and talented designer who has created many wonderful crochet characters. Check out her website. You will find yourself browsing her Etsy store sooner than you think!

I am a big fan of her "tall animals" series and these two are a part of it. I like to call them "hunchbacks" because of their slightly hunched postures. I just love the quirkiness of these characters.

Their square-ish heads are mounted in a slightly unusual way most crochet toys have, which gives them a characteristic part grumpy, part dreamy look. They are movable up and down and slightly to the sides so you can arrange them in different poses.

Add the droopy eyelids to that... :) (I love these sleepy eyelids! One of my favourite details!)

Doesn't that "panditude" show now, huh? 

Both pandas were made using Scheepjes Stone Washed yarns (Moonstone, Ruby and Amethyst shades) and a 2.5 mm crochet hook producing a 35 cm tall toy. I decided for non-standard Panda colourways 'cause I was curious what they would look like in pinks and purples :)

The stripy socks, wooden belly buttons and little bob tails (pandas do have tails, you know!) are my own modifications. I like to make things a little mine :D

Really enjoyed making them. They were easy and fun to make and they turned out quite cute. 

A group photo with my another Kornflake stew character I will blog about later. 

More Kornflakestew crochet to come in the future. I promise :)

Have a nice week!

Oleg, the bear

Hello world. Wow, it's been ages since I came here to post and so much has changed since. I must admit I feel a bit guilty about neglecting this blog. But... It's a new year, new beginning. Let's see if I can keep this blog going for the next months! Wish me luck! 

Well, I am into crochet now. Very much into crochet. The past two years I've been honing my crocheting, learning new techniques, pushing my skills forward and trying new things. And I am so loving it! It is truly amazing what you can make with just yarn and a crochet hook. And it is so rewarding too!

2020 may have been a c**p year for many of us but for me, weirdly, it was also one of the most intense productive years, devoted entirely to crocheting. Many new crochet pieces have come about and I'm intending to show them here in a form of "a blast from the past" blog posts with a little story behind them. I will be blogging about my current work to keep it up to date. 

Here we go, my first crochet piece of 2021 - Oleg, the Polar bear.

There is always the first time for everything and this is my first crocheted polar bear :) I named him Oleg because of his Russian "ushatka" hat, which makes me think of frosty winters in Siberia.

Originally this bear is called Girolle and the pattern for it comes from Kornflake Stew designer from Etsy. As far as I know, it was published as a limited edition in a form of a Crochet Box a while ago and it was also published as a pattern in Crochet Now magazine, issue 51, available only digitally now.

The original pattern recommends using some Bergere de France yarn but there was no chance of me finding it online or spending a fortune on it. I decided to find my own replacements and it worked out well. I used Drops Safran cotton yarn in exactly the same colours. Voila! 

I loved working with this cream coloured cotton yarn and combining it with the oh-so-trendy mustard and teal. As it is fine in yarn weight, the bear turned out small and cute. About 15-16 cm in height.

For some reason the pattern for this bear doesn't tell you to give him ears! That cannot be! A polar bear with no ears! I decided to give him a pair of small ones even though he hides them under his hat.

Quite pleased with the final result :)

As this is such a sweet design, I'll probably be back to this pattern sometime as I already have a certain idea for it. Oleg the bear will be back, but in a slightly altered form :)

If you wish to find out more about this bear and other beautiful Kornflake Stew designs, join us in this Facebook group for the fans of K.S. patterns! :)