During a visit to my grandmother's cousin, Clara Schultz-Sierrko, when I was a child, she let me play with a small teddy bear that she had crocheted.  I loved it so much that I hated to leave it and Clara gave in to my pleading and let me take it home with me.  Sometime after that, I crocheted my own bear using the original bear as a guide.  Both are made with variegated yarn; the second is stuffed with nylon stockings and I don't know what's in the original bear.  They both remind me of happy childhood times with family members who are no longer with us.

]]>