Meet the Bear: Candy Bear Pattern Review

I’ve been working on something a little bit different this week—a knit bear! I’ve done my fair share of crochet amigurumi, but this is my first time ever knitting a stuffed animal. There have been times where I’ve made a sweater for myself with special yarn and I’m left with small scraps that are not enough to make anything for myself, but feel too nice to toss. So I thought, why not make a little guy to dress up in matching clothes? I actually considered just buying a Build-a-Bear to make a wardrobe for it, but decided it would be more rewarding to make the whole thing myself.

I started looking for a pattern, and really was looking for someone cute to catch my eye first. My second priority was size—something close to that Build-a-Bear or American Girl doll size (around 16”), something I could really dress up and accessorize. I ended up finding Mary Jane’s Tearoom Shop, and while all the stuffed animals on there are adorable, the Candy Bear fit the bill for size.

My first attempt at making this, I followed the suggested yarn weight and needle size. The pattern suggests DK weight yarn so I used Riti Light held together with a strand of Berroco Aerial mohair and the recommended 3.25mm needles. There’s not an exact tension gauge that the pattern gave; it just stated that if you know you knit looser, size down and if you know you knit tight, you’ll just get a slightly smaller Candy Bear. So I was expecting a slightly smaller Candy Bear, since I know I knit tight. 

I got pretty far making this first attempt before I realized it was going to come out a lot smaller than intended, like less than a foot tall. I felt like it defeated the whole purpose if it was going to be too small to make little accessories for. So while I still had about half of my skein of mohair and motivation to finish this project left, I decided to start over with a weight 4 yarn and bigger needles. I ended up getting Loops & Threads Brushed Rainbow in shade Baby Breath for the new base color and the same Berroco Aerial mohair in shade Birch. I did end up having to carefully frog some of the mohair from the first version but it was so worth it because the new color combo ended up being even better.

With the weight 4 yarn and 4mm needles, it was looking like it was going to end up being just slightly bigger than what the pattern intended—perfect since the Candy Bear is meant to be 15”. I made some other adjustments to the pattern to help personalize it into exactly what I wanted. The original Candy Bear is adorable, but its long limbs gave it a more grown-up, lanky look. I was picturing something a little cuddlier and rounder, more like a baby. I shortened both the arms and legs by a few rows to help shift the proportions, and then added that length back into the torso to balance it out and give it more of that chubby, cuddly shape I was imagining. I also made the ears slightly narrower, to further add to that baby bear vibe.

It took me about 2 days to knit up all the body parts, and then after that, I had to activate its soul just like they do at the Build-a-Bear workshop. So I crocheted it a tiny heart with crochet thread and a 1.5mm hook. I already had this heart granny square pattern, so I just followed it for the first 2 rows and the size was perfect. 

After its heart ceremony, I started assembling the body and realized it would be wise to make the shoes before fully attaching the legs, so I could make sure the legs and feet were stuffed a good amount. The shoes are a perfect example of why I wanted to make this project. I had just a little bit left of this Pearly Haze yarn from Hobbii—it’s a blown yarn made up of 73% viscose, 27% extrafine merino wool, and made in Italy. It’s a little fuzzy, a little metallic, and made for a very luxurious pair of gunmetal flats. 

Once those were made up and tried on, I sewed the legs to the body and then came time for the part I was dreading the most: embroidering the face. I’m a little bit of a perfectionist so embroidering the face felt similar to what I imagine diffusing a bomb feels like. Immediately after finishing the face, honestly, it looked ugly to me. I had to step away for a minute to avoid feeling discouraged. But when I came back to it, finished sewing it all together, and weaving in all the ends, my motherly instincts kicked in and I realized she wasn’t ugly—she was mine. And suddenly, I thought she was the cutest thing I’d ever seen.

Overall, I really enjoyed working from this pattern. I wouldn’t say it was hard, but it was tedious at times—though never boring. I think it helps that the bear is made up of lots of small, manageable parts, and it was fun watching it slowly come together. I’m not sure I’d recommend it to total beginners, just because of the sewing and embroidery involved, but if you’ve done a little bit of amigurumi or are up for a challenge, it’s totally doable and actually really fun. 

Now that the bear is done, I’m finally getting to the part I was most excited about: the wardrobe. I love that this is something I can keep adding to over time, making use of my scraps whenever I have them. But for now, I just want to make her a few outfits to start. I’m currently working on the sweater and overalls set that comes with the pattern, and hopefully I’ll add a few more pieces soon. I might share a look at the wardrobe next week, depending on how it turns out. 

I still don’t know what her name will be, so suggestions welcome, but I do know that she’s literally my child. 

(Yes, it was a natural birth.)