Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Adventures With Lollo Bear

Last week, I found two different pins on pinterest about the same bear. It instantly caught my attention and I fell in love with the look of it. It just looks like a beautiful heirloom bear. I ended up buying my very first pattern - all 200 pages of pictures and descriptions. I must say, it's quite a journey and labor of love!

This is this week's and possibly next week's Pinterest challenge and I'm really enjoying it. I'm going to be making two - one for Katie in soft pink, mossy green and white, and the second bear will be a modified version for Elizabeth. That one will be white, purple and pale blue and will also have big white angel wings (hoping to find white glittery yarn but not sure where to find it) as well as some roses in her praying hands and a hand beaded rosary I'll be making for around her next, comprised of rubies and a big cross. Since this one won't be played with, I'll be going all out to decorate it beautifully. Katie's will have to be a little plainer, as I'm hoping she'll enjoy dragging it about and will need to have no choking hazards on it.

Here's some examples of different Lollo bears:

(Original Lollo)

 

 
 




Since I had quite a few requests to detail how Lollo goes, I'll be writing down my daily Lollo do's:

I've been working on Katie's Lollo for five days now (today is day five). Four days it took me to make the large body. It's a bit larger than the pattern calls for, as I decided to use thicker yarn with larger hooks. The pattern calls for 5-6 hooks, most all in the 1.75 and below sizes. I decided to use 3.75, 3.50, 3.25 and 2.25 with 4 ply WW yarn.


Day 1 started late at night. I used this time to learn how to make african flowers in hexagon and pentagon shapes.






Day 2 I made my first round, the butt part of the bear.



Day 3: I began hating the way the pattern asks to attach the bears. I believe next time I'll do it differently. I saw multiple reviewers say that they didn't follow the pattern here, but I was trying to be as accurate as possible. I now agree with them, it'll be much easier to just sew the shapes together fully made instead of attaching them half done. This day was very frustrating, as the second round had to be done and redone in order to get it right.

 Day 4's Dragon egg shape body and the beginning of day's five hexagons.

Day 4 I finished the body. Rounds 3-5 went quicker than the rest of the body, but the attaching got worse I think. The body is quite large but SO cuddly! I stuffed him well then added the last hexagon to close him up.

Day 5: I've begun working on the head today. So far I did 5 hexagons and now working on the pentagons. 6 pentagons, 5 hexagons, and odd shapes are needed for the head. A bit worried about the size since I'm using modified sized hooks and hoping it comes out accurate, but we'll see. A bit worried I'll have to do it all over again!

Since the body was the biggest part, I'm hoping the rest of Lollo will go quickly now.

9 comments:

  1. I also bought this pattern to make for Aimee! I'm ha ing such a hard time deciding what colors to use, so I haven't started yet. I think I want to do cream, rose, and lilac, but I'm still not crazy about the combo. What brand yarn are you using? Oh and I'm pretty sure there's glittery yarn at ac Moore, though I'm not sure of the brand.

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  2. Lol shame I didnt know that before - such an expensive pattern but it is very thorough. I spent a good two days looking up different colors others used and deciding what I want. Wasnt too hard for me though as I knew I wanted white and both the girls have their own colors, just had to decide the third. Still not sure on Elizabeth's, I flip back and forth between a lilac and midpurple or a midpurple and a sky or baby blue.

    They really need to make a craft store up here! I dont really mind the brand as long as its white and glittery. Hamburg Walmart has such a small, pathetic amount of yarn. Which is why I ended up with just Red Heart yarn for this bear. Down the road ( I plan to make a lot of these bears!) Id love to do a baby yarn bear or a Homespun yarn bear, something super soft.

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  3. Also just realized I forgot to include my pictures of the bear im making with the days recaps. Oops! Will have to add them.

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  4. Unfortunately yarns r us is so expensive, even for red heart! But omg are her selections to die for! I got this gorgeous chunky baby yarn I'm making a cocoon with and you'd never believe it's acrylic with how soft and beautiful it works up. :) You know she moved, right? She's down by the dollar store now instead of 4th st.

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  5. Yeah, I've been there a few times, but not only is she really expensive but I usually go there for a specific yarn that she usually doesn't have or have the right colors in. My problem is because I'm allergic to yarn, roughly half of her store I can't even look through! I love the look of her wool blend yarns but can't even go near them anymore. I love the back wall and baby aisle but usually she doesn't have the colors I need. So I'm stuck with Walmart, which also doesn't usually carry the colors I want. lol

    A hobby lobby, Joanns or AC Moores needs to make it's way up here ASAP. Though I would go broke so fast...lol

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  6. I know that it's been a year since you made this post, so I hope you still check it. I was happy to see someone else use this pattern with larger yarn and hooks. I was just wondering how it had turned out and what the final size of your bear had turned out to be?

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  7. Hello, I just saw this now! To answer your qustions, the bears I made with this pattern turned out great. I used much bigger hooks than what the pattern called for though because I wanted the bears to be big. My first one is the size of my two year old, I'd say about 32-34 inches tall. The second one I made with smaller hooks was about 16-18 inches tall.

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  8. I have detailed updated posts about the finished bears as well.

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  9. Hola, me podrias decir como tejerlo? gracias!!

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