Lotus Bear: The Story of the Competition Wish-Bear

Hello Everyone!

It's Thursday evening and four days ago I announced the winner of our Wish-Bear Giveaway.  I thought that I would write a blog, chronicling the creative process.

First of all, I had the pleasure of contacting Lotus Girl to give her the good news.  She was delighted to have won, and we started the process together.

Cuddles or Serenity?

Our Wish-Bears come in two different yarn-styles:  King Cole Cuddles, and Wendy Serenity Chunky. They knit bears of a similar size, but very different appearance.  Cuddles yarn is acrylic and fluffy and if you didn't know they were knitted bears, you wouldn't be able to guess.  Serenity, on the other hand, is a much smoother yarn: it's a blend with wool, alpaca (so soft!) and acrylic.  The bears are smooth and clearly knitted, but still super soft and snuggly.



Lotus Girl has chosen Cuddles yarn, so the next step is to select the colour.  As this bear is for her, rather than a baby, we looked at the full range of colours offered by King Cole.  She was instantly drawn to the bright colours of fuchsia, red, and violet, and I was excited to work with something new.  After much deliberation, she selected violet.  As this colour is out of stock at Nursery Knits UK, I have ordered it and when it arrives, stage two can begin.

3rd February 2017

It's been a long while since I started this post but technical problems with a laptop (or lack of one!) has held me up a bit.  However, lots has been happening with Lotus Bear, who now has a new name and a new home.  So, let's continue our story.

The yarn arrived within a week and I was able to start work.

This yarn is tricky to work with as it's so fluffy.  That's partly the beauty of it: you can't see the stitches.  It's also the problem!  This particular bear took a few attempts to create as I dropped the odd stitch, or thought I had!  Eventually though, Lotus Bear was ready to have its face stitched on.

The eyes, nose and mouth of the Wish-bears are hand-stitched, using black yarn.  This means there are no catchy bits for little fingers to snag on, or small components for little mouths to choke on.  It also means that each bear has their own unique personality as, being hand-made and hand-stitched, no two bears are ever the same.  Lotus Bear's mission was to bring comfort to Lotus Girl and, as her face took shape, I could see that Lotus Bear would be up for the job.  The eyes held a look of understanding and the smile was encouraging.  Now she was ready for her finishing touches.

As with all of my made-to-order bears, Lotus Girl was given a choice of fabrics for the paw-pads and a choice of ribbon colours.  She chose a beautiful lavender polk-a-dot material, which complemented the bright purple of the bear itself, and selected a vibrant ribbon to match.  While Lotus Girl was in hospital, Lotus Bear received the finishing touches and was ready for her new home.

As I was going to deliver this bear to Lotus Girl personally, Lotus Bear spent Christmas with us at Nursery Knits UK Headquarters and became the star of our Christmas profile-picture and photo-bear for our thank you card.

After Lotus Bear moved in with Lotus Girl, we received a Facebook message thanking us for creating Lotus Bear, who was now named Portley as he's the colour of port.

You see, Wish-bears have a bit of magic inside, and to whoever needs them, they can be exactly what that person needs.

xxx