Teddy Bear Knitter Works to Take Business to the Next Level

Two years ago, Gregory Patrick was homeless and jobless, living in the woods of south Georgia. He turned his life around, remarkably enough, by knitting teddy bears, and now he wants to go from being a man who can just survive by knitting teddy bears to an inspiring entrepreneur who can help others who have big dreams but no resources.

He set up a campaign on indiegogo to allow him to buy supplies to keep his business going and to give him time to figure out how to make his business bigger than it is right now. With eight days to go as of this writing, he’d raised $3,346 when his goal had been $1,000. That’s such a great testament to the knitting community and how we pull together to help each other (and, I imagine, how we’re all a little touched by the novelty of a redneck who knits bears for a living).

If you’re interested in helping you can click the ling above; donors get thank you gifts including a PDF copy of his book, knitting patterns and recognition on his site. Or visit his blog to learn more and check out the adorable bears.

[Photo via Mad Man Knitting.]

Looking for more Knitting patterns for Teddy Bears? Check it out here.

Generally I like knitting patterns where I feel like you can use whatever yarn you have (because my stash is big enough and I want to use it, thanks) and make a successful project. This is one of those times when a special yarn makes the process that much easier.

The Floral Bouquet Shawl from Xandy Peters uses a specific extended color pooling yarn from Feisty Fibers, which allows you to place the bobble flowers with increasing frequency as you knit the project.

It starts with a solid color yarn, then the two color yarn is added in, and you make a bobble whenever you encounter the color pops. This would be hard to replicate with other yarn that doesn’t have the extended color pooling built in.

The background of the shawl is ribbed, making the project reversible.

The shawl uses fingering/sock yarn and comes out to be an asymmetrical triangle that’s 54 inches/137 cm long and 36 inches/ 90 cm deep and 60 inches/150 cm across the top edge.

Xandy says the pattern is for intermediate to advanced knitters. Knowing how to work traditional bobbles would probably help, but there’s a great video tutorial for how to work the floral bobbles so you can practice on other yarn or even incorporate the bobbles into other projects.

The bobbles are five-petaled flowers but they also kind of look like starfish to me, which could be fun on a child’s cardigan or other pattern. They’d also be fun on the leg of a sock or around the brim of a hat for extra whimsy.

The pattern includes photo and video tutorials, and written and charted instructions. It also includes tips on what to look for if you choose to use different yarn for the project, and instructions on how to dye your own yarn to use in the project.

If you want to give it a try, you can find the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Xandy Peters]

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