Marlee's Teddy

Back when I took the sock knitting class that started it all (spring, 1999), one of the leaders brought in a teddy and pattern by Jean Greenhowe. I loved it, and she photocopied the pattern for several of us (I know...shame...). Knitting on the Internet was not too common then, and my local library, although great for its size, was lacking in many ways. The few bear patterns I had seen were way too basic and blah. I love the 'real' Teddy Bear look of this bear, although it means quite a bit of sewing up.
Since then, I have made numerous of these bears. The great thing is that you can use any yarn....I've used everything from fingering for a sweet tiny bear, to chunky for a chubby lovey bear. Just use needles a little smaller than normal, and be prepared to be shocked at how much stuffing it takes, regardless of the size! LOL.

According to my Ravelry page I started this July 2009, shortly before we moved. My intention was to give it to my cousin's baby for her first birthday, early October 2009. Well. The move, the tooth infection...losing the pattern, losing the stuffing, finding the pattern, finding the knitting, finding out there was still a leg missing....it went on and on and on. Finally, I got my act together, bought a new bag of stuffing, and got it sewed up. Something wonky happened though with the legs. I think I messed the second one up since there was a long time lag between when I did the first one and the second one. It's almost like halfway up, it switched from being a left leg to being a right leg. Oh well, each bear has it's own personality.This is one of the few faces I really liked! You're supposed to knit a nose and sew it on, but I stopped that nonsense after the first bear. This time, I thought if I used fine yarn I could sew more detail in the eyes...make them more round. But I found that since the yarn is chenille, I could only go between stitches, not through stitches and the thin yarn was too wimpy. So I found some thick black (always keep those small balls of odd yarns!), and it went quickly and smoothly!! This bear is soft and squishy and I hope she likes him/her!....a few months after she turned TWO! LOL.