Crochet for Bears to Wear: More Than 20 Perfect Projects for Your Favorite Teddies and Friends

by Amy O'Neill Houck

What’s cuter than a teddy bear in a sweater?

… A teddy bear wearing a custom-crocheted sweater made just for him! With Amy O’Neill Houck’s simple instructions and lovable, huggable patterns, crocheters of all
skill levels can create fashions for their teddies and friends, including Build-A-Bear
Workshop bears, Vermont Teddy Bear Company bears, and American Girl dolls. In
Crochet for Bears to Wear, you’ll find more than twenty quick-to-crochet garments
and accessories—from sweaters and swimsuits to pajamas, sundresses, and even a
baseball uniform just perfect for spring training.

The patterns provide a fun introduction to a range of techniques and garment
constructions such as seamless top-down crochet, crocheted ribbing, unusual starts
and finishes to garments, lace, colorwork, Aran crochet, and so much more. With
instructions on how to customize each pattern to fi t your own collection of soft toys,
Crochet for Bears to Wear provides everything a crocheter needs to know to keep her
favorite friends covered from tip-top to toe.

Genres: Crochet, Crafts

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Amy O’Neill Houck is a writer and crochet and knitwear designer. She learned to crochet at the age of eight from her grandmother, Helen Markos Buschmann, and never stopped. Amy’s pattern line, AOH Designs is known for it’s patterns that beautifully balance fit, style and creative, fun construction. Amy is the former editor of Inside Crochet magazine. She writes about crochet technique, history and fashion for publications including Interweave Crochet, and Crochet Today magazines. Amy has appeared as a guest on Knitty Gritty.

Amy lives in Cordova, Alaska with her family where she's be able to make the most of her wooly stash. She's currently enrolled in the MFA program in creative nonfiction at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Amy blogs about fiber, food and life in the far north at The Hook and I.

Reviews

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love teddy bears. My bed at university contains about... let me see, Clanger x 2, Pablo the Polar Bear, Hyperbole the Hippo, Helen Hippo, Edwin Bear, Benji the Pillow Hippo, Archimedes the Owl, Georgina the Hot Water Bottle Giraffe, Tracey the Dinosaur, Holly Hippo, Big Moomin, Little Moomin, Lil 'ippo, Prattle 'ippo, Trouble 'ippo, Mischief 'ippo, Cwtch 'ippo, Olwen the Bear, Hattie Hippo, Jezebel Giraffe, Omnom the Alien... I don't think I'm missing anyone out there, but I might be. And there's more on my shelves (Angry Birds, a turtle, Graduation Owl, a stripy elephant, Totoro, Goggles the Monkey, and more) and many, many more (I can't begin to list) in my bed at home. Likewise, my mother, sister and even father have beloved bears. My dad's bear, Fred, even wears pajamas and a bathrobe just like my dad's (although the tie has been replaced, in Fred's case, with my old karate belt).

In conclusion, this book was ideal for me. I've already improvised some clothes for teddies, but this includes such delights as a complicated formal dress, a Fair Isle sweater, book bags, fishing vests... I'm going to be busy for a long time.

Considering the price, I was a bit disappointed by the range of clothes in here. The Knits for Bears to Wear book has a crocheted hoody on the cover, which could easily enough have been adapted for crochet -- I should know, I've done it! Some of the clothes are more or less the same. Still, there's a good spread of stuff in different skill levels, and a lot of helpful tips on how to adjust the patterns to fit bears of any size, which will be useful for me. (I don't think they quite go up to Fred's size, somehow.)

I haven't tried any of the patterns yet, but I can foresee myself turning out quite a few chunky sweaters and baseball caps...