127 Bears Handed Out - Just in Time for Christmas

The past week has been a successful one for the Bear Necessities Project - we've managed to hand out 127 bears to foundation phase children in the wider Chintsa area, just in time for Christmas.

Children at Mzwini with their new friends

The first bear drop took place at Mzwini Daycare Centre in Mooiplaas where 60 knitted animals were delivered. The drop included some special creatures including stunning knitted elephants, mice and hippo's from supporter Julie Hoolie in the US, and 13 fun festive toys made by the grandmother of volunteer Nicole who recently passed away. Nicole was a part of the bear drop at Gwegwesha Pre-school in 2014 and wanted to ensure that her grandmothers stunning toys went to loving homes.

The second bear drop saw the African Angels foundation phase classes each getting bears at the end of the school term. 67 bears were delivered there in total - photos to follow!

I want to say a huge thank you to all of the Bear Necessities knitters - it's amazing to receive support from so many corners of the world - plus the team who facilitated the drop off and Mzwini. Thank you for supporting the Bear Necessities project :)

The Big Bear Hand-Out

After several months of knitting, lots of wool shopping, lots of stuffing and sewing with creative and patient knitters - the day has finally come to hand over the Bear Necessities bears to the kids of Chintsa East Pre-school!

The Plan

Excitement from the children as they ran
to the sports field for the picnic :)

Thursday 20th Feb was marked as the day for the Bear Necessities first hand-out - with a little planning and some inspired ideas from Friends of Chintsa administrator Kate and VA32 volunteer Charlotte we were good to go; a short walk from school and sing-along to the Chintsa sports field where our knitters and support crew would be waiting with picnic blankets, bears, sandwiches and juice. Teddy Bears picnic! :)

The Hand-Out

The morning went swimmingly well with lots of support from the Bear Necessities crew, local businesses, Friends of Chintsa and Volunteer Africa all involved.

The walk to the field from school with teacher Phumla,
volunteers Charlotte, Deyse and Nadine 

Preschool teacher and local hero Phumla
explaining the day to the children

Check out some of these great photos of the morning and the pre-schoolers with their new bears:

The kids really loved their new friends and had a great time feeding them sandwiches and playing football with bears in hand. Phumla's preschoolers showed their appreciation with song, dancing and two BIG cards to say thank you for their bears.

A HUGE thank you to everyone involved in the project: to all knitters (both local and international); to local businesses Tea in the Trees, Prana Lodge, the Chintsa Village Bistro, Buccaneers Backpackers, Volunteer Africa 32 Degrees South and Tracy Norris Photography; a special thanks to Kate for organizing blankets for the picnic, Sarah for baking cakes, setting up with Kate and making picnic sandwiches, to Nadine for taking time off to take pictures and share them with us; to Friends of Chintsa for being so supportive of the initiative and giving so much help and support in organizing both the initiative and the hand-out event.

What Happens Now?

Our total bear count was 76 completed bears before the hand-out with a few more bears in progress! We handed out 43 bears and so have 33 left to give. The next step is to work with Friends of Chintsa to choose another preschool, work out how many bears they need and organize another hand out.

Keep posted for more updates and the next Big Bear Hand-Out!

Printing Labels for the Bears

Having spoken to Friends of Chintsa chair Lou, we decided that it would be nice to print labels for the bears so that the children's names could be written on them. We also decided to print the Friends logo on the tags.

Local businesses Tea in the Trees and Prana Lodge were both kind enough to sponsor the fabric and printing as well as needles and thread to sew the labels on to the bears.

The printing process was quite exciting and the labels are ready to be attached to bears as they are made up!

The labels coming out of the printing press

Labels completed with thread and needles!

Thanks for your support guys :)

The Knitting Revolution in Chintsa

At a recent family braai Kate & I brought along our bears to try and finish knitting them. It was a great occasion! Kerry also began a bear, even granny and the kids joined in on odd rows - proving that a simple bear is a great family project...

Fancy joining in? Grab the pattern from our previous blog "A Simple Charity Bear Pattern", along with some wool and needles...and join the knitting revolution. Don't forget to send any finished bears to:

Friends of Chintsa
PO Box 19
Chintsa East
5275
South Africa

Or drop them into the African Heartland Journeys office in Chintsa East.

Successful First Charity Knit-Off

 The first Bear Necessities knit off was a great success! The knit-off was hosted at the Chintsa Village Bistro with fresh tea and coffee for every knitter (kindly donated by Lynne Crawford - owner of the Bistro). There was tons of local support with knitters of all ages and abilities taking part - many of them bringing pre-knitted bears along!

The morning was super warm and relaxed with knitters coming and going as and when was suitable for them, and nattering as we knitted!

Lou, Kate and Kathy knitting up a storm!

Tracy working on the pattern 

Kathy and Kathi working on their creations

Lynne making up the pile of bears!

A huge thank you goes out to Kathy, Wendy, Lynne, Gail and Tracy who all brought several pre-knitted bears with them to be put together at the knit-off; to Lynne for putting the bears together on the day and to all the other knitters: Kate, Stacey, Megan, Lou and Kathi. An extra special well done to Kiki who came along to knit for the first time ever - can't wait to see your first bear :)

Kiki working on her first EVER knitting project
(with help from Wendy and Megan)

By the end of the knit-off the bear count is up to 25 completed bears with 5 in need of faces sewing onto them and several bears that were started and taken home to be completed. That's half of our original aim of 60 bears already!

A whole host of completed bears!

I was totally overwhelmed by the amount of support from the community with local knitters sending bears along to the cafe, tons of stuffing donations (including a huge donation of old pillows from Sal at Buccaneers Backpackers) and generally a great encouragement from both our local community and the international Friends of Chintsa community. Thank you!

The next knit-off will be held on Thurday 28th November at the Village Bistro at 10am. If you would like to get involved please bring along wool and needles. We will be knitting up a storm!

One last HUGE THANK YOU to all the Bear Necessities knitters for their wool, needles and time and energy to get this project off the ground :)

The First Bear Necessities Knit-Off!

Calling all knitters local to Chintsa/ East Coast Resorts and East London! 

The Bear Necessities Project is having their first knitting get-together (aka "Knit-Off!"):

Thursday 14th November 2013
10am at the Chintsa Village Bistro

Bring:

- Knitting needles
- Wool

- Darning needles & cotton

- Any ideas and enthusiasm!

I will bring copies of the basic bear pattern. We will get together for an hour or so, check that everyone is happy with pattern reading, casting on and off and answer any questions that you have about the project. There are bears knitted that need to be put together and finished, anyone who would like to volunteer to help with this is welcome.

Please post any questions in the comments box below!

The Clark family in bears! Thanks guys!

A quick thank you for the latest bear donations from Robyn and Rose Clark who knitted a whole family of bears for Bear Necessities! Thank you for your support, can't wait to give the bear family new homes in the village :)

Simple Charity Bear Knitting Pattern

As promised - a simple bear knitting pattern. This really is a simple pattern - even beginner knitters will find it easy to follow. The pattern is a culmination of several which I found on charity knitting sites and should only be used to knit bears which are going to charity - not to be sold for profit.

The Bear Recipe

The first bear I knitted with this pattern - I doubled up the
wool (double knitting) which made the "knit" nice and thick and probably
more durable...

The bear is knitted in one piece from foot to foot and then folded and joined with one seam along the side of the head, around the arms and sides of the body and along the bottom of the toes. 

Experiment with needle and wool sizes to get the perfect sized bear. I used double knit wool and 4.5mm needles on the first bear that I made to this pattern which came out at approximately 20cm from head to toe. The second bear I used bigger needles (6mm) and fatter wool and the bear once finished will be around 30cm I think.

The second bear in making!

Use any colours, and and knitting stitches that you like (garter, stocking stitch, ribbing...or a combination - all work well!).

1. Start with the legs: Cast on 8 stitches, knit 16 rows
2. Store these stitches either on one end of your knitting needle or on a stitch holder/ safety pin
3. Cast on another 8 stitches, knit 16 rows
4. Join the legs & knit the body: Don't break/ cut the wool at the end of the second leg. Knit the next row across all 16 stitches, knit another 11 rows (12 in total)
5. Knit the arms & body: Cast on 10 stitches at the start of the next 2 rows (making the arms). By the end of the second row there will be 10 (arm) + 16 (body) + 10 (arm) = 36 stitches. Knit 6 rows
6. Cast off 10 stitches at the beginning of the next 2 rows
7. Knit the head: Knit 32 rows (front and back of head)
8. Knit arms & back: Cast on 10 stitches at the start of the next 2 rows (making the arms). By the end of the second row there will be 10 (arm) + 16 (body) + 10 (arm) = 36 stitches. Knit 6 row.
9. Cast off 10 stitches at the beginning of the next 2 rows
10. Knit body: Knit 12 rows
11. Knit legs: Knit the first 8 stitches on the needles, place the remaining 8 on a stitch holder/ safety pin. Knit another 15 rows (16 in total) and cast off
12. Put the stitches from the holder back on to the needles and knit 16 rows, cast off

Knitting done! Time to put the bear together:

Fold the bear in half lining up the legs and arms. Using the same wool as you knitted the bear with sew from the top of one of the ears, all the way around the shape of the bear until you reach the bottom of the head at the other side to your starting point.

Stuff the bear with suitable stuffing making sure you get stuffing right into the ends of the arms and legs.

Complete stitching the seams together up the side of the head to complete to prevent the stuffing popping out!

If you're feeling creative you can use the same yarn to accentuate the shape of the head and ears: weave the yarn into the bears neck and pull tightly to draw in the shape of the neck. Tie off/ work in the end of the wool. For the ears: push the needle through the corner of the bears head and back again, pull the yarn tight to pull in the shape of the head and create ears. Work in the ends.

A close up of the embroidery on the face

Use a dark embroidery thread or wool to create the face of the bear - sew loops to create the nose, a mouth and eyes. Although it's lovely to use buttons and beads for eyes and features, these bears are going to small children and should have nothing on them that can fall off and cause a choking hazard. Please do not use buttons or beads. 

Easy! :)

If you have any questions about the pattern or if anything is unclear please comment below and I will do my best to help. 

Bears (either stuffed and finished or un-stuffed "flat" bears) can be posted to:
Friends of Chintsa
PO Box 19,
Chintsa East,

5275
South Africa

Thanks for your support and happy knitting!