Tag Archives: bear

Mama Bear Update: Faces

Bears! Bears! Bears! They’re everywhere!

And, now, they’re looking at me!

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Look at them with their little noses, and their little beady eyes. Watching.

Although, I suppose I’m really the only one to blame. I did add the faces after all.

Want to see how these little faces came to be? I thought you’d never ask.

I’m usually a big fan of safety eyes, which, ironically are not safe for kids under 3 years old. Since I don’t know who the dolls are going to (and the instructions specifically asked for no safety eyes, and I follow rules), I made these faces with embroidery floss and little bits of felt. I think they turned out pretty cute!

I started by gathering my materials: 1 un-stuffed bear, 2 eyes (cut out of felt), 1 triangular nose (also felt), a big rectangle of felt, about the size of the bear’s face (something happened with the photos, but the green felt and the green yarn are much closer in color than these pictures would have you believe), a needle and coordinating embroidery floss.

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I used the same technique from when I made those teeny-tiny bears from Little Cotton Rabbits. I slipped the face backing into the bear’s head, and arranged the eyes and nose on the front. Then, I carefully sewed through the backing and the knitted face to attach the features. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA I used a back stitch to sew down the eyes and nose quite firmly. I want to be sure that the faces don’t fall off while the bear is being played with!

Then, I made two long stitches slanting away from the bottom of the nose to create the mouth. I like to give my dolls/stuffed animals as neutral expressions as possible, that way the kid playing with them will be able use their imaginations more freely.

Unfortunately, this bear ended up looking a little judgy.

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Oh well. He’s still cute.

Then, to give the bear a little life, I added a couple tiny stitches in white to add a ‘shine’ to the eyes. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Weird how something so little can make such a big change!

How are your bears coming along? Do yours have faces yet?

Wait- what’s that? You haven’t knit any yet! Get the pattern here!

Teddy Bear Picnic

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Or at least a Teddy Bear Coffee Date.

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One of my good friends, Kate, has started knitting a bear, too! (Hi Kate!) And so has my mom- it’s super cute! (Hi Mom!)

Mom lives in the Great White Tundra that is the Midwest, so I can’t meet up with her, but Kate lives just a couple miles down from my place. That means we can meet up, visit different coffee shops in the area every week or so and get our knit on!

Kate’s a new mom, so I’m pretty sure she’s excited to get out of the house and dust off her needles, and I’m loving having a knitting buddy! There’s something lovely about having someone to chat with while your needles click away. (And, if you’re awkward like me, it’s nice having a friend with you so you’re not that weirdo knitting alone in public. Double win!)

So, grab your friends! See if they want to pull their needles out of storage, or lend them a set of your own and get knitting! It’s possibly the best way to spend an afternoon!

What’s that?! You still haven’t picked up your Mother Bear pattern? What are you doing! Get it here!

How are you doing on your bears? I’ve just started knitting Bear number 7!

Totally Bare Bears!

Mama Bear Check-In #2

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I’m back and my bear pack (have we decided on what a group of bears is called? Pack doesn’t seem right) has grown bigger!

My newest bear is an adorable little blue teddy with a little black dress on!To be honest, I decided on this color scheme when I looked in the bottom of my bag and found that I had nearly-full skeins of both blue and black, and thought “How can I use up these colors quickly?” But, in the end, I kind of like her goth-chick vibe. She just needs a red scarf and an anarchy symbol embroidered on her chest. But that might be slightly inappropriate for this kind of project.

Have any of you made skirts or dresses for your bears yet? This is my first beskirtted bear (beskirtted is a word because I say it is), and I’m not sure how much I liked making the skirt part.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the finished product- the little, slightly ruffly skirt is adorable. But, the skirt felt like it took forever to knit up, and used up quite a bit of yarn, and if you’re using up odd bits and bobs of leftover yarn, I could see a skirt being fairly impractical.

Of course, we knitters aren’t known for being 100% practical. I’ll probably do more beskirtted bears, maybe just not right away.

If you haven’t started making Mother Bears, take a minute to look at the project website, and consider giving it a go!

Have you done any skirts on your bears? How did they go? What’s your bear total so far?

Mother Bears On the Needles!

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I can’t get the Mother Bear Project out of my head. The stories of little kids with next to nothing positive in their lives just break my heart, and I can’t stop thinking about them.So, I took the plunge and ordered my pattern! The patterns are available for $5 (proceeds go to running the charity and helping with shipping and handling), and is mailed to your house via snail mail.

I’m itching to pull out my scrap yarn and get to work on a whole army of bears!

But here’s the thing- I’m only one person, so even if I do nothing but knit teddy bears from now until the end of time, I won’t be able to make that much of a difference.

You guys, however, are more than one person!

So, I propose that this year for the holidays, everyone who reads On the Needles knits a teddy bear or two! We can make it into a big On the Needles knitalong! I’ll post updates about my bears, and whoever wants to play along at home can send in pictures of their bears, and we can all share our projects!

What do you say? Want to join in? How many bears do you think we can make before New Year’s? 20? 50? 100?!

Mama Bear

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I don’t know about you, but I’ve already got Christmas on the brain. I’ve been cranking through lots of projects… that I can’t talk about here because family members read my blog (lame! Not really, but it does throw a cramp in my blogging this time of year).

But when I do a lot of targeted, purpose-driven, knitting sometimes I get a little burnt out. I can start to feel like I’m “manufacturing” projects, not actually knitting. Sometimes I want to just make something fun- like a stuffed animal.

And, you know, if it’s a stuffed animal for a good cause, that’s even better!

So, imagine my excitement when I found this amazing teddy bear-making project (or rather, re-found… I had read about it before, but totally forgot about it).The Mother Bear Project makes adorable, one-of-a-kind, hand-made teddy bears and then distributes them across Africa to children whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS. Could you ask for a better cause?I went over to their website, and saw that they have patterns for the same bear, both knitted and crocheted, worked flat and in the round. The best part (other than that whole helping-children-in-need thing) is that the pattern is so simple, it just begs to be embellished. Take a look on Ravelry to see everyone’s take on the basic Mother Bear. There are bows and dresses, overalls and striped shirts, and teddies of every color of the rainbow!This project is just inspiring!