I have always liked silly things. There is absolutely nothing wrong with liking “childish” stuff as an adult, in my opinion. That being said, I do not tend to seek out cartoons and the like to watch, I often stick with standard sitcoms and the like. My boyfriend, on the other hand, is a connoisseur of animation and is introducing me to a plethora of new media of the animated sort. This, of course, has provided a wealth of ideas for crocheted toys.
I did attempt to crochet an Appa (from Avatar: The Last Airbender) but I found the undulations of his body too difficult to improvise freehand and never got around to seriously working on a design. There are six unstuffed legs floating around my craft room somewhere along with half an awkward torso.
Later, I attempted a Steven Universe doll. The result was not a little creepy, partially due to the too-lean shape and partially to the terrible face I embroidered for it. I may try again someday and apply the lessons that I learned this time around but for now, I want to keep making new and different things.
We Bare Bears is an adorable show that makes me want to cuddle the characters; brothers Grizz, Panda (a.k.a. Pan-Pan), and Ice Bear. The show is currently on Hulu and Netflix although for some reason the one season that Netflix has is the third one. The continuity is incredibly loose though, so it can be started anywhere along the run, really. Obviously, cartoon bears make good fodder for stuffed toys, so crocheting them seemed like a no-brainer. Also, they do this thing where they stack up and walk around, so I thought that putting Velcro on the bottoms of their feet could be really cool, assuming it catches on the cotton yarn because I do not want to put Velcro patches on their backs, that would look super weird, I think. The paws are more easily hidden. After finishing the brothers and putting them in a stack, however, I realized that the legs do not go straight down (and they won’t unless I make one side of each leg higher to fit with the curvature of the body so if I was to put Velcro anywhere, only the belly would make sense. They seem to stay together fairly well though so I don’t think they need any help.
I was fairly sure that I have some brown cotton yarn somewhere, so I decided to buy black and white. Well, I do have white cotton but it is Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Yarn (which I actually do like better than Lily Sugar ‘n’ Cream but I cannot buy it anymore because I refuse to go to Hobby Lobby for political reasons and I wanted all the yarn to match) but not the other colors and the brown I think I have is Sugar ‘n’ Cream. Anyway, I bought a skein each of the colors I needed at Jo-Ann along with a package of noses. I have a ton of black eyes thanks to a good deal on Amazon already, so I have my pick of sizes there. Jo-Ann only had two sizes of noses, so I grabbed the smaller ones and set to work. I decided to start with Panda because he is the only one with two colors and after him, the others would require just following the pattern I had written. After finishing Ice Bear, I realized that I had very little brown yarn left so I had to pick up another ball. I used the Super Size balls of yarn (4 oz) although I am pretty sure that the regular size would have been fine for black and brown. I did use most of the white ball.
Obviously, the main part of the toy would be a cylinder so I started by making increasing concentric circles. I first tried to build in the tail by doing some double crochets on a few rows then crocheting through the back of a lower stitch to make a bulge but it did not right. I also considered learning to do a popcorn stich (which I have actually never done) but in the end, I decided to just sew a tail on after the fact.
All of the parts I made started with a six-stitch circle. The ears were folded in half to give more of a 3-D effect. The muzzle was the hardest part to get right, and I have to admit that I don’t think I quite managed it. I also think that I overdid the neck shaping. I will probably try this whole project again at some point, but for now, I think what I achieved is adequate.
As a note, it is important to keep track of the first stitch of the round, especially when you are neither increasing nor decreasing so no stitches look different. Split ring stitch markers are one way to do this but I like to use a little scrap piece of contrasting yarn and weave it back and forth each row before the first stitch. I find it convenient and harder to lose. Additionally, I always leave plenty of tail when done with a piece to sew it to the main body, there is no point, in my opinion, to weaving in ends then using other yarn to construct the product. Most people probably do that as well, I just wanted to mention it anyway.
Legs and ears can be sewn to the body as you go or at the end, even after the body is stuffed but I think it is easier to do it before the body is closed up to allow for tail burying. I tend to be pretty paranoid about things coming unraveled, so I probably overdo that. I put Panda’s legs and tail on as I went which meant that I had to sort of adjust where I made the face decreases in order to have him be not terribly crooked. I think it is better to wait until the face shaping has begun in order to easily tell where the top and bottom should be, that is what I did for the two solid color bears.
Panda Bear Pattern
- Yarn: Lily Sugar ‘n’ Cream 1 skein each Black & White
- Notions: small black safety eyes, black plastic nose, stuffing such as Polyfill
- Tools: size H crochet hook, yarn needle
Legs (make 4)
With black yarn:
- Ch 2
- SC 6 in 2nd chain from hook, PM for beginning of round (6)
- *2 SC in next ST, repeat from * to end of round (12)
- SC around (12) for 6 rounds
- Fasten off
Ears (make 2)
With black yarn:
- Ch 2
- SC 6 in 2nd chain from hook, PM for beginning of round (6)
- *2 SC in next ST, repeat from * to end of round (12)
- Fasten off
- Fold in half and sew together along half circle
Eyes (make 2)
With black yarn:
- Ch 2
- SC 6 in 2nd chain from hook (6)
- Fasten off
Tail (make 1)
With black yarn:
- Ch 2
- SC 6 in 2nd chain from hook, PM for beginning of round (6)
- *2 SC in next ST, repeat from * to end of round (12)
- *SC2Tog, repeat from * to end of round (6)
- Fasten off
Body
With black yarn:
- Ch 2
- SC 6 in 2nd chain from hook, PM for beginning of round (6)
- *2 SC in next ST, repeat from * to end of round (12)
- *2 SC in next ST, SC in next ST, repeat from * to end of round (18)
- *2 SC in next ST, SC in next 2 STs, repeat from * to end of round (24)
- *2 SC in next ST, SC in next 3 STs, repeat from * to end of round (30)
- *2 SC in next ST, SC in next 4 STs, repeat from * to end of round (36)
- *2 SC in next ST, SC in next 5 STs, repeat from * to end of round (42)
- SC around (42) for 8 rounds
- Switch to white yarn
- SC around (42) for 8 rounds
- Switch to black yarn
- SC around (42) for 6 rounds
- *SC2Tog, SC in next 5 STs, repeat from * to end of round (36)
- SC 12, *SC2Tog, SC in next 4 STs, repeat from * 2x more, SC 6 (33)
- Switch to white yarn
- SC 12 *SC2Tog, SC in next 3 STs, repeat from * 2x more, SC 6 (30)
- SC around (30)
- SC 12, *2 SC in next ST, SC in next 4 STs, repeat from * 2x more, SC 6 (33)
- SC 12, *2 SC in next ST, SC in next 5 STs, repeat from * 2x more, SC 6 (36)
- *SC2Tog, SC in next 4 STs, repeat from * 1x more, **2 SC in next ST, SC in next 5 STs, repeat from ** 2x more, SC2Tog, SC 4 (36)
- Repeat last row 1x
- SC around (36)
- SC 10, *SC2Tog, SC in next 5 STs, repeat from * 2x more, SC 5 (33)
- SC 10, *SC2Tog, SC in next 4 STs, repeat from * 2x more, SC 5 (30)
- *SC2Tog, SC in next 3 STs, repeat from * 5x more (24)
- SC 8, * SC2Tog, SC in next 2 STs, repeat from * 2x more, SC 4 (21)
- The stuffing should mostly go in at this point (or before) because otherwise it is really hard to poke it in there.
- SC 8, * SC2Tog, SC in next ST, repeat from * 2x more, SC 4 (18)
- SC around (18)
Sew eyes to appropriate locations on face- Attach safety eyes, tightening to ensure they do not come out
- *SC2Tog, SC in next ST, repeat from * to end of round (12)
- *SC2Tog, repeat from * to end of round (6)
- Fasten off
- Attach nose, tightening to ensure it does not come out
- Add stuffing as required to fill out face
- Sew opening closed
Finishing
If not already done:
- Sew four legs in place along the belly
- Sew tail in place at the top of the rear
- Sew ears in place at the top of the head
- Weave in any loose tails
Ice Bear Pattern
- Yarn: Lily Sugar ‘n’ Cream 1 skein White
- Notions: small black safety eyes, black plastic nose, stuffing such as Polyfill
- Tools: size H crochet hook, yarn needle
Grizz Pattern
- Yarn: Lily Sugar ‘n’ Cream 1 skein Brown
- Notions: small black safety eyes, black plastic nose, stuffing such as Polyfill
- Tools: size H crochet hook, yarn needle
Stack bears for maximum cuteness!
My Ravelry project is here. I should have a PDF pattern available on Ravelry soon.
Hoặc