Un-Bearable

My latest project is a bear from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I think the book has a lot of patterns that are much more complicated than necessary. For example, my bear is knit in the round on two circular needles. Why is that necessary when dpns are just fine???? I can see if we were knitting a tube top for an elephant that would require more room on a needle, but a toy bear??? It seems like the pattern designer is trying to impress with a more technical approach when a simple and more common method is fine. Why do knitters feel the need to make everything so much more difficult? The fear of being called simple and their patterns easy? Kris Percival is also guilty of creating patterns that are more complex than necessary. Her baby booties comes to mind.

My bear wasn't knit to the pattern's instructions--knitting with two strands of yarn. I used one strand of 100% alpaca that I bought at last year's Sheep and Wool Festival. I also used smaller needles. As such, my bear is much smaller, and cuter imo. It's the perfect size to be a teddy bear to a doll. :)