I was browsing projects on Ravelry the other day and I came across the cutest little teddy bear. If you didn’t know already I have an obsession with knitting soft toys and it is what got me in to knitting when I was a child. When I saw the Lillebrors Teddy I was in love and all it takes is one hank of Pickles Teddy.

Pickles Teddy is an all natural bouclé yarn created from a combination of a bouncy alpaca spun around a sturdy Highland wool core. It is a squishy chunky weight yarn that comes in a range of neutral shades. Depending on the fabric you want you can knit it on anything from a 7mm up to a 12mm to create a dense warm jumper or a light floaty accessory. It’s super soft so it’s great for accessories you wear next to the skin like hats and scarves and knit at a tighter gauge gives you an almost sheep skin like look.

The Lillebrors Teddy (link to designers website) pattern is knit on 6mm needle so quite tight for the yarn but this is important because it gives you a dense fabric that can stand up to being stuffed. I chose the colour Bamse a warm sort of almond colour. I found the pattern pretty straight forward to follow but I’m used to knitting lots of toys. A bit of experience in knitting in small rounds is handy but if you can knit a sock or a hat you will be fine.

It is worked from the head down and in the round. I used the magic loop technique which is my preferred method for doing small circumferences. There are a couple of skills needed like basic increases and decreases and also the edges are finished with grafting. I would say to take your time with the grafting as it’s tricky to see the stitches with such a textured yarn. That being said the textured yarn is very forgiving. As it is knit quite tightly I did notice a couple of times that I put my needle through a bouclé loop rather than the stitch so keep an eye on that. I found a crochet hook quite helpful when that happened so I could rearrange the stitches a bit easier. I would also say that it is near impossible to count rows from looking at the fabric so a row counter is super helpful, especially if you want to get his arms and legs the same length.

I really enjoyed making him especially as you add the features and stuff as you go, he really comes to life. I used 1cm safety back eyes and just a bit of thread for the nose. I love the minimal face, it adds to his quizzical look, I’ve named him Toby. I also had to knit him a little scarf to keep him warm! I’m already thinking of knitting another one!