First off, Happy Leap Year! It only happens every four years, so I thought I better make note of this special day. Did you do anything fun to celebrate?

Meet Franklin.

He’s quite lazy and refuses to sit up most of the time. But how can anyone resist those sparkling, aquamarine eyes?

During this slow time of year for photography I’ve been getting back to my crafting roots. While collecting materials for a couple of baby blankets for baby shower gifts I spied quite a cute book. On its cover were crocheted bears. Years ago I had come across a website that made similar creatures, and I always wanted one. Without hesitation I grabbed the book, found a project I wanted to make, and gathered all the supplies I would need to do that project. Now, keep in mind that I had never crocheted before. Well, almost never if you count the time my mother attempted to teach me. I quickly gave up though because I was trying to learn left-handed from a right-handed person. However, this time I realized that I would just have learn right-handed and get over my lame right hand. I stupidly thought that I’d be able to teach myself via book diagrams. Ha! Fortunately, You Tube provides quite an adequate amount of instructional videos on crocheting. That was almost enough, but I was getting stuck on a couple of moves. So I finally headed over to the local yarn store to have someone help me finish my crocheting lessons. It took a bit of practice, but I’m now quite comfortable with the basic stiches (single, increase, and decrease) and was able to complete Franklin this afternoon.

As you can see, Mimi was immediately smitten.

Can’t you feel the love?

She was very reluctant to let Annie visit with Franklin, but did allow me this one picture. And, no, I didn’t dress the girls up to match Franklin.

Anatomy of a crocheted teddy bear.

Of course, I’ll have to make one for Annie, too. However, my plan is to just use the same yarns but switch up the colors–maybe a purple bear with orange pants and blue stripes. Hmm, any suggestions? If anyone is curious, this is the book I used to learn how to make Franklin: Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts!: Amigurumi. The technique is called amigurumi which is Japanese and supposedly translates to knitted stuff toy.

P.S. You don’t need to point out Franklin’s boo, boos. I’m well aware of his shortcomings (no pun intended since one of his legs is shorter than the other). Most of the mistakes were made on his head since that was the first part I started with. By the time I got to hiis trunk, I had gotten the hang of it. Sewing those limbs on though was not a pretty picture. Poor Franklin got thrown across the room several times. Do you think he’ll ever forgive me?

P.P.S. In case you’re wondering how those baby blankets turned out. I don’t actually have pictures yet because I’m still waiting to give it to the parents. But I did make one similar a couple weeks before, a girl themed woobie instead of boy themed. I’ll definitely post those pictures as soon as the parents receive them. I also made matching burp cloths. The back of the blanket is a very soft, ribbed fabric. So yummy!