Let me introduce you to Helen the Bear, named after my grandma.  

I made my grandma this bear when COVID was at (one of) its heights, and lockdowns were going on.  No one could see her, so I made her a little bear that she could hold and hug and let her know that so many people loved her.   

My aunt sent me this photo, little bear butt on her chair! 

Making this bear was important to me, because my grandma taught me to knit!  And knitting this bear was a way that I could connect to her.  With each stitch, all the wonderful memories of being with her flooded my mind.  One of the bright memories is when she taught me to knit.  

The picture below is around the time she taught me to knit. I know, I know, it is dated… look at that payphone!

This is a very, vivid memory.  (Cue music and fading into a living room with a young girl and her grandma).

I was in fourth grade, and it was around Thanksgiving.  My grandmother would come every year at Thanksgiving to visit us.  We did not live near extended family, but she would always come to see us around the holidays.  I remember sitting on a footstool next to her chair.   

We had variegated yarn: blue, green, red and white.  As she was teaching me to knit, I would knit a row and she would purl a row.  Every time she got the scarf to purl, she would say, “Erin!  Don’t knit so tight!” and she would grunt trying to get the needle in.  

Every. Time.   

I tried to not be so tight, but I didn’t want to needles to slip out!  We knit this scarf with gold, size 8 needles.  She gave me these needles, along with some red ones.   (This is a picture of one of the needles… the other one is holding up some work in progress, which I clearly need to find and get finished!)

Her size 8 gold needles were colored gold all the way, end to tip.  I have used them so much the color on the tips has faded and turned to silver.  Everything that I knit in elementary school (and probably all the way through most of college) was with these needles.  Truth be told I do not know if I even knew other “size” needles existed.   

The scarf was beautiful and I wanted to make something else, I was hooked!   (My next project was a blanket for my Barbie! After I finished this I realized just how tight I was knitting… the small, 4 inch wide blanket ended up being twice that width, at least!)

My grandma has since passed.  And now I knit this bear for others to hold and hug and know that someone loves them.  Helen the Bear is soft and smaller than the other bears that I make, and is very special to me!  

If you have purchased the bear, and found this website because of it, I hope that whoever ends up getting your Helen the Bear enjoys its warm embrace.  And can feel all the love I have put into knitting it, and you giving it as a gift! 

All my love, Erin  

If you are interested in knitting, here are some other links to more baby items, Honeybee, Bunny, Honeycomb Blanket.