For some reason, the other day I found myself writing out the recipe for how to knit a teddy bear. I don’t remember where I learned that pattern; possibly in needle work class in elementary school. And then I tried out the instructions to make sure I remembered them correctly and they actually work. Which they do.
Knitting a teddy bear is easy. The only skills you need are knit stitch, casting on, binding off, and simple sewing. If you can make a scarf, you can make a teddy bear. (*For crochet instructions, see below – and here, too, if you can make a washcloth, you can make a teddy bear.)
For materials and tools, you need yarn (about one ball’s worth), knitting needles (optional: one spare one to hold stitches for a while), stuffing material, a yarn needle, scissors, a piece of ribbon for the neck, and either a few buttons or contrasting yarn for making the eyes, mouth and nose.
Teddy is made out of three squares, or five, if you want to be precise. Two small ones are the legs, which are joined together into one large square that becomes the body and head, and two more small ones are the arms, which get sewn on. The neck is made by threading a ribbon through the upper half of the large square and pulling it tight, and the ears are made from two corners of the head square.
You begin by casting on a number of stitches twice as wide as you want the legs to be—say, 15 (I did 10). Knit in garter stitch (i.e. knit all stitches, front and back) for as long as you want the legs to be, say, 20 rows (I did 13, and so on). Leaving a longish tail, cut the yarn. Put the live stitches on a spare knitting needle, or, if you don’t have one, thread a piece of yarn through the stitches to keep them from unravelling while you make the other leg (it helps if the holding yarn is a different colour).
Make the other leg exactly the same way. When you’ve reached the last row of the second leg, slip the leg stitches from the spare needle onto your working needle next to the second leg. You now have a row of stitches twice as wide as your leg pieces, and that’s the beginning of the body.
Knit across both squares, then continue knitting in garter stitch until the body and head are twice as long as the legs (another 40 rows). Bind off the knitting.
For the arms, knit two separate squares the same size as the legs (e.g., 15 stitches by 20 rows). Bind off the top edge.
To assemble your teddy, lay the body-and-leg piece in front of you with legs pointing away from you and the side of the knitting you want to be the outside of the teddy upwards. Fold the sides to the middle so the two edges meet. This will be your back and inside-leg seam.
Thread the yarn needle with a long piece of your knitting yarn. Start sewing from the top edge and go all the way down the back to where the legs meet, then instead of sewing the two edges together as back seam, sew the outside edges to the inside of each leg. Close the seam at the bottom of the leg for a foot. Turn right side out.
Sew up the arms: fold the arm squares in half lengthwise, right side together, and sew along two of the three sides. The third side is left open for stuffing and attaching to the body. Turn right side out.
Stuff your bear: stuff in filling, all the way down into the legs, the body, and the head, as tightly as you want it. Keeping the back seam in the middle of the back, sew up the head seam. Stuff the arms. You can either close the open arm seam like a pillow, or leave it open to sew directly onto the body.
Finish your bear: to separate the body from the head, thread a ribbon or a double length of yarn through the body piece about one-third of the way up, where you want the neck to be—just thread it up and down through the knit stitches, starting and ending in the front middle. Pull the ribbon as tight as you want, tie it in a bow. That’s the neck.
Sew on the arms on either side of the body.
To make the ears, sew across each of the two corners at the top of the head. You can catch a bit of stuffing in each ear, or not, as you like—stuffing makes the ears rounder and more bear-like; leaving in no stuffing and keeping the corner as pointy as possible looks more like a kittycat.
Sew on three buttons for the eyes and nose, or embroider eyes, nose and mouth.
Tuck all loose yarn ends inside the body.
Then give your bear a name, and give him a hug to welcome him to your family.
*PS: If you want to make a bear in crochet instead of knit, just crochet two leg squares (like two small washcloths); join them together into a big body and head square; and crochet two arm squares. The assembly is exactly the same as the knitted version.
PPS: If you want a written pattern, here you go:
KNITTED TEDDY BEAR
Gauge: doesn’t matter
Legs and body:
CO 15.
k across, turn, sl1 purlwise, k across, 20 rows
Put sts on spare needle.
Repeat.
Join first square to second (30 sts)
*k across, slipping first st purlwise*, for 40 rows.
Bind off.
Arms:
CO 15.
k across, turn, sl1 purlwise, k across, 20 rows
Bind off.
Assembly:
Sew together back, leg, and arm seams, stuff, close open seam, thread ribbon through for neck and pull tight, sew on arms, sew on buttons or embroider for face.
