My bestie is finally finishing her PhD. Having previously made for her whale friends, including a scaled down keychain, and a lobster, I decided on a panda for her next furry knit friend. Also, her name is Amanda, so Amanda deserves a PhD Panda!

The pattern calls for eyelash yarn to be held double with worsted weight. Neither my LYS nor Michael’s had eyelash yarn, so I ordered it in larger quantities than I truly desired from a sketchy-looking Turkish website, and it seems to have worked out. I’m using Rowan Super Fine Merino DK instead of worsted—it’s a thicker DK, and I went down a needle size. Seems to be working so far!