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An Army of Bears Helps Women in Armenia

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berd bearsI should say from the beginning that this is a story that has a little bit of a personal angle to me. John Hart, the Peace Corps volunteer who’s involved in the story, is a friend of mine from college. But that doesn’t make this story any less worth sharing.

In the village of Berd, Armenia, life is pretty hard all around. The village is near the border of Azerbaijan, and war has about halved the population, leaving few viable options for people who don’t want to join the army. There are even fewer options for women, and unemployment is high.

At least that was the case before Hart and Timothy Straight got together. Straight is the founder of Homeland Handicrafts, an organization that employs women making craft items that are sold overseas. When Straight visited Berd he was attracted to a knit bear one of the women brought, and about 30 women in the town have been knitting the bears since.

The bears were being sold through Kickstarter, and more than $17,000 was raised. Straight is looking fora a more stable way to get orders for the bears — perhaps by connecting with an upscale American toy store. There’s also a project in the works to make the bears the stars of an animated television show that will talk about environmental issues. How cool is that?

[Photo by Berd Bears, via Kickstarter.]

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Comments

  1. What a wonderful thing for these guys to do for these women. So they can have extra money.

  2. This story and the support for the village women is terrific. This money gives their families the abilities to live better and have some food. Good luck with the promotion of this project.

Have you read?

Practice Colorwork on a Cute Knit Bunny

Sometimes I feel like knitters get intimidated to try new things because they think they need to start with a big project. Your first time working in the round doesn’t need to be a sock, and your first colorwork doesn’t need to be a sweater, for example. You can find little projects that use the skills you want to learn to build your confidence before you move on to something that requires more time commitment.

This adorable knit bunny, for example.

The colorwork bunny from Knit Picks was designed by Amy Munson and is a kind of bowling pin shaped bunny complete with a knit hat, contrasting inner ears and a little stranded colorwork on its body. Note that the ears are attached the the hat not the bunny, but you could stitch them to the bunny if you’d rather.

It’s worked from the bottom up and also has a tiny pompom tail you can’t see in the picture but it’s a really cute touch. There are a variety of little fair isle patterns to choose from to make the best bunny for you.

The bunny comes out about 8 inches tall (or just over 20 cm) and use several colors to complete the colorwork, depending on the design you choose.

You can purchase the pattern by itself from Knit Picks, or make a kit that includes sport weight yarn in all the colors you need for your creation. There are gray and brown options for the main body of the bunny, but of course if you’re using your own yarn you can make it whatever color you like.

Once you’ve tried colorwork (maybe also working in the round and shaping if those are skills you haven’t used before) in a little project like this you’ll be ready to take on something bigger in no time.

Check out the pattern on Knit Picks.

[Photo: Knit Picks]