Since about Friday or Saturday , I've been working on Mr Whiskers ( above , below and beyond
Mr Whiskers is one of my " slow bears" (meaning basically he's taking a low time due to the fact he is being heavily aged)
I've known his name was Mr Whiskers ever since he had eyes and not much else, and I knew his personality too, not much after ( which I will reveal when he is whole)
I've found out too he doesn't mind if you call him Whiskers, and he quite likes it when you really emphasise the KERS, so like whisKERS.

And while I've been making him , an unusual, surprising and lovely thing has been happening.

I've been feeling quite enamoured of Mr Whiskers! As you know I'm pretty critical of my own work,

so it feels sort of weird, but in a nice way. I find myself chatting to him at times, and well when I think of putting him up for adopting when he is whole, i get a bit of a gulp in my throat.

Who knows if the feeling will last but for now it's pretty nice feeling so I'm happy to go with it. 

For more creative spaces.

Drew the dark grey elephant

A while ago i bought this beautiful dark grey alpaca yarn feeling it would make beautiful elephant, and a bit of a variation on the usual light grey.

And for a while i had quite a few grey elephant orders, and every time I offered the ordered a choice of light or dark grey, they choose the former, while all the while I had been wishing they would say dark.

And then i needed a little elephant break- i prefer not to have to make a lot of one sort of animal in a row and find often I need to take little breaks if I've had to make a lot of one thing..

but then the dark grey wool began to call to me again, and I was once again needing to find a good tram travel project. So i thought ( no offence to you light grey peeps) "bugger them if no one is going to order a dark grey one, then I'll have to go ahead and make one so you can see how beautiful the yarn is"

and so Drew came about, the dark grey elephant. And the yarn has come out even better than I had imagined.

He is a quiet little elephant who enjoys chess and library visits, and collecting coins. He was going to be Elgenon but I generally try to avoid their name starting with the same thing as what animal there are.

But then I realised he reminded  me of a boy I went to high school with so he was Drew.

Scout- the unphotogenic bear

I'm sorry I've been such a bad blogger these past few weeks, not visiting much not posting much.
thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post and on this guy when he was still in process. And I really do hope to get back into the swing of things soon.

I never find photographing my bears easy. I'm not a very good photographer that is no secret, it's something that I need to work on, but often the issue is not just that. when I take a photograph of one my guys, I want it to be true to them how they look in the fur and true to their spirit and personality, that i work so hard to put into them.

And this isn't always easy, often I will get a good photo, but the colours, not right or it doesn't look like them even if its a good pic. Sometimes i find the iphone captures some best where as others are best portrayed with my good camera.

SOme bears I make are truly quite photogenic, like my fave the Red bear and Mork and Linus, where as others aren't so much. Like Scout here, who like his maker is very unphotogenic. It was the usual thing all the photos on both cameras either made his face look skinnnier and his nose longer, or got his looks all wrong, and made his eyes too skinny. Made him look harder than he is does , he a sweet little bear with a softness to him. without wanting to sound too vain , he's a lot cuter than the pictures have been able to capture.

And weirdly enough the photos here which are the closest to the way he truly looks and is, where taken not in natural light but at night time with lights on, a usual no no for capturing my bears accurately.

So anyway here he is and with a little knitted vest to boot.

for more creative spaces.

my creative space

due to the "stuff" I talked about yesterday, i've not been enormously productive in this last week or so except for this little bear i'm making right now. He has been causing me some issues and this is the 4th head/head pattern  i've had to make in order to be somewhat happy with him. As much as it drives me nuts how fussy  I am at times, i know at the end of the day i need to be happy with him
for more creative spaces 

stuff

thank you all for your lovely, comments and shared stories on my last post. It really meant a lot and helped me get through that yucky post confrontation " have I done the right thing" etc.
I had great plans for my little blog last week , but then life well had other plans. It's been a hard and emotionally draining and rollercoaster ride in my world.d
My grandmother did her thing again ( that sounds so awful. And then suddenly like last time rose from death in a bout of terrible violence. If it's possible it has been harder than last time, since last year her dementia and madness has taken over much more, leaving with us all those ambiguous feelings all over again.
so there has been little time or energy for blogging or very much else to be honest. I think i just needed a bit of time to rest and recover and hibernate for a while.
so that's me and us
i hope all has been well with you?

Today

today i did something I don't usually do , but then again, im not sure I've ever been put in a situation where I had to do it.
But today on the tram, there were two teenagers. Two teenage girls being very rude and making lots of Chinese people jokes, mimicking them, talking about ping pong you know it. They were in hysterics.
And opposite them to them was two people of asian decent.
they talked and joked this way all the from Brunswick to the city.  about 20 minutes of it
I was sitting behind them, I felt sick and upset and horrified by what was going on. Upset by their insensitivity and how offensive they were being and horrified and upset for the two Asian people sitting across the aisle from them. Horrified and upset no one else looked upset by this. I wasn't sure if the Asian people  knew what was going on, they had the appearance of Tourists and were speaking their native language for some of the trip, but it looked like they did.
the more the girls went on, the sicker I felt, the angrier and the more upset until. I just couldn't take it anymore.
I turned around and said
" Excuse me, but the way you are being is offensive. If you want to make these jokes and say these thing in the privacy of your own home that is your right. But in a public place filled with people of different nationalities it is inappropriate and rude. You should be ashamed of yourselves"
And then I felt sick. I don't like confrontation, i avoid it. And when there are things on the tram i don't like, Mothers being mean to their children, people being horrid to each other, i stay out of it, it's none of my business. But this felt different. It wasn't just about them, an enclosed group, it was about a bigger issue, and i didn't want the two Asian tourists to think that everyone thought it was ok. Because it wasn't.
It's NOT ok to put down, make fun of anyone of a different race, sexuality or religion. It's not ok to make fun of people because of their sex, age, whether or not they have a disability or are a bit different.
And I'm glad I did it, even though I feel sick thinking about it, and wanting to cry after I did it.
Because at least those ladies knew that not everyone was willing to stand by and watch this stuff,  and do nothing.
I think at times I live such a sheltered life, my friends and family, and work colleagues all have the same values as I do. So it's easy to forget. Not everyone feels the way you do. And bam you get a big shock when you do.
I'm glad I did what I did, though wish I hadn't been put in the situation where i had to do it.
do you think I did the right thing? or I should have minded my own business.

Linus and his overalls

 After making Otto and using up all those scraps, it felt so good, that I decided to do another one. Plus I was waiting on some mohair for two other bears I was really feeling i needed to make to arrive. Plus I had started knitting some overalls, intended for Otto but when Otto came into being, it was clear he wasn't an overall guy, he was more a scarf sort of bloke.

Plus the name Linus had come to me at some random point and a within a few days, Linus was born.

It's funny to make a bear to fit a pair of overalls rather than the other way around, but this time this was the case.

His overalls are a bit big and baggy for him, but I think bear clothes should tend to be on the baggy side, except for vintage one piece Edwardian knitted swimsuits ( more on that at a later date)

And his overalls are removable for those times when he feels the need to be free and in the nuddy . As we all do.

 happy Weekend. and thank god it's Friday :)