I began making memory bears in 1995.  I didn’t go looking for them, they found me.  I began making bears out of used sweaters I bought at thrift stores and gave them away as gifts.  Over time those bears evolved from something rather pathetic into something worth marketing.  I especially like embossed or embroidered sweaters but living in the short winters of the south they are hard to find.  I got the idea to hand embroider my own and began with variegated yarn.  I also crocheted lacy and ‘vintage’ collars for the sweater bears.  The bears took a whole new direction when people began asking me to make bears for them out of their ‘stuff.’  Memory bears became the major focus of what I do and the sweater bears rarely occupy my time. I still have moments when I’d like to take the time to see how creative I can be with knit and yarn.