Men Who Knit Promoting and inspiring the art of knitting amongst men.

So, as many of you know, I knit up my little bears based on distinctive moments or thoughts that happen in my life. Of those moments, one of the most recent had me working up a bear quickly. I got to meet my great nephew a few weeks ago, a little thing just shy of 7 weeks old with grey eyes and a quiet smile.

He’s an adorable little guy named Carson Barefoot. His father is native American, so the big joke was that my niece was now Barefoot….and pregnant. Hysterical.

Anyway, the more I looked at little Carson, the more I was reminded of a family tree, of a branching, twisting, deep rooted cling towards the past and future, a little seed of life that blooms and retracts and grabs hold, but yearns for higher accomplishments. It brought me back to my knitting, my bears.

I want to leave something phenomenal to little Carson. I want him to to walk into a business one day that his great uncle started, want him to feel the empowerment of a life protected and fulfilled by a man with a scruffy beard who pulled himself out of homelessness by knitting teddy bears. I want Carson to wake up one day and look at a bear and say, “Thank you.”

This yarn was donated to me by Liz Ferguson, to whom I can’t thank enough. Its a cashmere, silk, wool blend that feels like the tenderness of a newborn. I’ll never have this yarn again, so this is the only one of these bears I’ll ever make. But, then again, there is only one Carson, so there should only be one of these bears. Done up in this particular skein not only because of its softness, but because of Carson’s amazing little gray eyes…..always exploratory, always inquisitive, and always mindful.

I love you, little guy….I hope these bears one day offer you a future. That’s want I’m working hard for. This little bear is in honor of you: Carson BEAR Foot :)