I Want You Shawl by Loredana Gianferri

I'm so happy with this project. Lovely yarn, lovely pattern and it's all done. It's soft and warm around my neck on these chilly mornings and the colour is vibrant and lifts whatever I am wearing.  I added an extra lace section to use all the skein of yarn. I think it looks so pretty with the lacy border.

 

One of the big boys headed off on a fishing trip to Fiji yesterday. He said he wasn't interested in going overseas as there was so much of Australia he wanted to see but in the last two years he has holidayed in  all the states of Australia and the thought of catching that BIG fish was too much and won him over!

The reason I mention his trip to Fiji is that I have a little 6 inch yoyo bear that is my "I've been everywhere bear. " Her name is just Yoyo bear because she is made from yoyos. I made her years and years ago and she became a favourite toy of my girls over the years. She proudly sits with her other small bear friends in a bowl on a wooden cabinet in the dining room. This bear began her big adventures when  Shannon was 3 years old and I grabbed the bear as a comfort for Shannon as she was rushed to hospital by ambulance. She went with Shannon to all her medical tests, doctors' appointments and even into the theatre for major brain surgery. It happened that Shannon would take the bear everywhere.  Yoyo's first trip overseas was when my hubby went to America and I packed her in his luggage and over the years she has visited several states in America. She's been to New Zealand twice, Hong Kong and all over Australia staying in expensive hotels and also on camping trips. So when the trip to Fiji came up Yoyo wanted to go. Alas, here she is waiting to be packed in the luggage for another big adventure and my big boy left without her :(

 
On purpose? maybe or maybe not but like any good bear does she will be waiting for her next big adventure! Do you know the storybook 'The Velveteen Rabbit' by Margery Williams? If you do then you will know that this little bear became real.

Here's an excerpt from the book (one of my favourite kid's books btw)

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive.

But the Skin Horse only smiled. 

Cheers,
Lynda