Teddy Bears

My love of teddy bears started with Teddle-eddle-eddle (on the right). He was made for my first Christmas by a colleague of my Mother's (before her marriage), Dr Bachelor.

 He was knitted at quite a fine guage but grew fragile over the years and ended up mostly covered in patches taken from my Father's old vests.

 I also made him his clothes, knitting them to fit basically because, as a child, that seemed the obvious way to do it, and I had no access to any suitable pattern. His jacket is wool left over from the cardigan I had knitted for my father. I can't remember what the trouser wool was left over from. His shirt was sewn from left over dress material. In those days no one would have thought of buying new fabric or yarn for such a purpose. The rag-bag was quite good enough for that!

The bear on the left, Pistachio, was one I made myself. I expect I made him from a pattern or from instructions in a book as he was one of the first bears I made, but I can no longer remember where I got the design.

I really enjoyed making teddy bears, though sadly these days they are too hard on my arthritis and I have had to give up.

These two are my own designs, in fact, two variations on the same design. The one on the right is in a mohair that I dyed myself.