Thursday, April 19, 2012

Finbar: An Original Classic Bear

I have always loved classic teddy bears.   I wanted a pattern for an artful, detailed, full-size crocheted classic bear and I couldn’t find one, so I set about coming up with my own. I spent over a year working out the subtle shapes in this bear.  The whole bear is done in single crochet, with increases and decreases.

This pattern is more detailed than any of the bear patterns out there.  The head, at its largest, is 68 single crochet stitches around, compared with about half that number in even the most detailed thread-crochet bear patterns I have seen.  This is not a very fast project, for sure.  It is a labor of love, and the quality of the bear will reflect the hours you put into creating it.  You can make a whole family of bears with this one pattern. If you use different yarns, they’ll all look different.

I thought about writing a book about classic bear crochet, complete with a section on natural fibers and handspun yarns, with detailed photographs of many different bears at various stages of completion (the head alone would make an excellent paperweight).  I spoke (through e-mail) with a publisher at Interweave Press, and she told me that, though she really liked the bear, they wouldn’t be interested in a book with only one pattern in it, no matter how detailed the process.  So, here is Finbar, ready for you to crochet and love.  I am excited to share my very special bear with you.

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