I love crochet; it’s such a fun, easy hobby. I particularly love small, quick projects that give swift gratification of a handmade item. In addition to blogging, volunteering, and authoring teaching resources, I also design crochet patterns.

Lilac the Unibear. Needless to say, the kids named her. They also named her brother, Coco.
It’s been a while since I picked up a hook; life got in the way, and background circumstances haven’t been ideal. (In fact, the change in circumstances is partly behind my logo rebrand. The Chinese character 3 represents me and the kids – it’s also reminiscent of a road, as we are moving on as best we can. There are many forms of slow but the legalities are certainly moving like treacle.)

New logo. 🙂
Anyway, putting that sort of news to one side, I recently started to do some crochet. As I said, it’s super fun and a great mood boost to whip up something you made yourself. In the middle of my tenuous freeform project, the kids offered their input. It went something like: “What are you making? Is that crochet? Are you making a bear? You should make a unicorn. It’s a unibear!”
Well, how could I say no?! I duly designed the Unibear, and the pattern is available in my Ravelry store. I also made two unibears because sometimes it’s not worth the squabbling!

Lilac the Unibear on the left, and Coco the Unibear on the right. We love shaking their manes and tails!
Truth be told… I was actually going to make a regular bear. So, my Unibear pattern also includes instructions to adapt it into a panda bear. I was going to work up a sample in the normal black and white colours but, this time, I distracted myself with Google and Wikipedia and plumped for the brown Qinling panda colours.

Qinling panda bear, with bamboo shoots. As he isn’t a unicorn, the kids haven’t named him yet!
You know how people talk about going from A to Z? I’m not sure if it’s the creative process, or maybe the audience, but I reckon we go through every letter of the alphabet! Our path is a tangle of curious sidetracks and twisting meanders. Still, whatever path we take, I guess the main thing is we will get there in the end. I hope that, whatever paths my readers are on, you are also getting to wherever you need to be! 🙂
August 7, 2017 at 9:02 pm
Aww these are so sweet. My Daughter loves unicorns 🙂 #MMBC
August 7, 2017 at 9:26 pm
Thank you! 🙂 My kids love unicorns too. #MMBC
August 7, 2017 at 9:35 pm
I think your unibear is a success. Making something like this is the reason my children encouraged me to learn to crochet. So far I’ve only made blankets and cushion overs. Really should try something 3d instead. #MMBC
August 13, 2017 at 11:44 am
They look fab. I reckon the unibear could be the new trend! I have just started to have a go at crocheting, I have a long way to go yet mind.
Thanks so much for sharing with #MMBC. Hope to see you Monday x
August 17, 2017 at 5:44 pm
Hi, I like your new logo and the idea behind it. It’s nice and simple, which is often best remembered. I love the unibear idea! Very different. I can imagine a whole series of them in all colours (My Little Pony is sooooo yesterday!). You are clever designing your own patterns, I wouldn’t know where to start.
Thank you for linking up with the #MMBC.
xx