What comes first, the yarn or the crochet? What an interesting question and I have to say with me it’s definitely a bit of both. Mainly I would say I have an idea and then I find my yarn but there are certainly times when the yarn picks me. I end up buying some yarn just because it ‘speaks to me’ and although I don’t have a particular project in mind at the time I will add it to my (ever-growing) stash for the future.
There are some balls lingering in ‘The Stash’ (it deserves the capital letters!) that have been there for a fair while now but I still just haven’t found out what they were meant to be (their time will come), however I did find the perfect use for a 100g ball of James Brett ‘Flutterby’ Chunky, which is a chenille type of yarn, which I had picked up some time ago due to its super softness and squishability (that is a word!). What came out of the yarn was ‘Nanuk’ the Polar Bear lovey designed with the yarn in mind to create the most snuggly lovey ever…
I love how this little guy turned out! But I’m not going to lie to you, this yarn can be tricky to work with to ‘count’ stitches. That said all my testers agree; you can’t beat how cuddlesome this lovey is made with a yarn like this.
The Nanuk pattern is currently with my lovely tester group with a release date of 21st March 2014 when the pattern will be available on Craftsy and Ravelry – as always I will also do a pattern giveaway to celebrate the release over on my Facebook page.
Now I just need to pop this Nanuk in the post for a new baby girl (welcome to the world baby Edith).
And for anyone that has never heard of James Brett Flutterby or you are in the US/Canada/Australia and have trouble getting hold of that yarn, here are some alternatives that you could try:
If you make up the pattern with a different soft and chunky yarn I would love to hear so I can add it to the list above.