Bear With Me is a peerie teddy bear, wearing a Fair Isle yoke jumper patterned with hearts, and with a co-ordinating skirt, a lace shawl, a bear-et, and even knickers! She also has two other jumpers, a straight skirt, leggings, a lacy cowl, a hap and a lacy dress. She is approx 11” or 12” / 28cm or 30cm tall.

The little bear is worked in the round, first one leg, then the other, joined for her body, then one arm, and the second joined to her body just like a jumper yoke. Her head is shaped with increases, and her muzzle is shaped with increases, short rows and decreases. You can make her as shown here (Betty), wearing her jumper, or make a bare bear (Mirrie), all in one colour. Her facial features are embroidered on.

I used approx 20g of bear colour (Spindrift flax) and 2mm needles - it’s useful to have two sets of DPNs. You will need up to 50g of your chosen colour (Aister Oo blinnd moorie) for a bare bear.

Her skirt is knitted in the round, and top down, from the waist band through the Fair Isle heart motif to the hem. Her knickers are also worked in the round and top down.

Her lacy shawl is worked flat, and features bear’s paw lace (more usually known as cat’s paw) on a stocking stitch ground with a garter stitch and eyelet border. I used a 2.5mm 40cm circular for this, to open the lace out a little more. The hap is also worked flat.

Her bear-et (with thanks to my husband for the play on words!) is knitted in the round, as are the jumpers, skirt, leggings, dress and cowl.

Useful techniques to use include pinhole cast on, yarn over increases (though if you prefer another increase method, use that!), three-needle cast off, and knitted kitchener stitch. I recommend you search online for instructions and demo videos (or contact me, and I’ll direct you to those I found helpful). You’ll also use knit, purl, rib, yarn overs, k2tog and ssk and cdd, and short rows for shaping and patterns, besides working stranded colourwork and lace.

The colourwork is shown on charts, as are the lace patterns for the shawl, cowl and dress. Otherwise, the pattern has written instructions.

If you work with four colours in Spindrift, as I did for Betty, you’ll need one ball of bear colour (flax), one ball of jumper colour (seabright) which is also used for the skirt and the bear-et, one ball of light contrast colour (surf) also used for the shawl, and a small amount of dark contrast colour (peacock) also used for the knickers. You may have enough leftovers from other projects for the light and dark contrast colours. I love working with Shetland wool but you could use any 4 ply, and you may need to take into account easy laundering if your bear is going to be much played with…….

Mirrie, and her clothing, was knitted in Aister Oo. Quantities vary depending on your colour combinations, but I used up to 100g of blosta as a main colour for jumper, two skirts, bear-et, leggings and as contrasts in other garments.

I found it useful to have two sets of 2mm DPNs for knitting the bear, various sizes of DPNs for clothing; 40cm & 60cm circular needles for shawls and haps; and stitch markers. You’ll also need a tapestry needle and strong thread, and toy stuffing.

I think this is probably not really a beginner’s pattern, but there is plenty of scope for learning some new techniques and practising them, and also enough to keep the experienced knitter interested. (There are some occasional fiddly bits too……like ears…….)

I’ve loved designing and making this little bear and her clothing, and it would appear I may have been channelling my own childhood teddy bear as I worked……..but for more of that, you’ll need to look at my Facebook and Instagram pages………

I hope you enjoy making this bear, and that whoever you make her for loves her, and cuddles her lots!