"Love cannot remain by itself ~ it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service." ~ Mother Teresa
you know how it goes, when you finish a knitting project you have leftover yarn, then after finishing several knitting projects you have even more leftover yarn... so what can you do with all this leftover yarn?
i found the perfect project for some leftover yarn... the Mother Bear Project Teddy Bear. the
Mother Bear Project was started by Amy Berman & these hand-knit bears give comfort & hope to needy children in Africa & Haiti. more information can be found in the Knitting for Peace book or at the
website. i was very touched by these stories (this quote can be found
here):
"Berman has received hundreds of calls and letters saying how much the bears mean to the children. One young boy in South Africa rushed into his home to save his teddy bear just before the house was washed away by a flood. Another story was told by one of Berman’s distributors about a 7-year-old girl in Zambia who had AIDS. Her classmates refused to play with her, and soon she became too sick to attend school at all. Before she died, she asked to be buried with her teddy bear because, she said, it was her only friend. Her family honored her wish."
i was thinking how silly it was having this extra yarn just sitting around doing nothing when it could be used to knit up a simple bear which would give a needy child such comfort... so here are the 5 Mother Bear Project Teddy Bears i've knit so far...
Mother Bear 1 was knit flat using the
Mother Bear Project Teddy Bear pattern found in the Knitting for Peace book, be prepared to spend a bit of time sewing up all the seams. i really like how the 3 colored stripped scarf turned out
Mother Bear 2 was
knit in the round ~ for me this is the way to go, knitting in the round... oh, how i love seamless knitting ! no time spent sewing up seams :) also for all the ones that i knit in the round i grafted all 4 paws closed
Mother Bear 3 (
knit in the round) was knit using the remaining yarn (dyed with blue Kool-Aid) from the
Tiny Tea Leaves cardi that i made for my daughter
Mother Bear 4 (
knit in the round) i was really pleased with how this one turned out, this guy got black shoes
Mother Bear 5 (
knit in the round) i ran out of brown yarn, so this teddy bear is gray & black shoes for this one, too
one last big hug to all the bears before they go off to Africa or Haiti to give a needy child a hug :)
