5 Little Monsters: May Bear of the Month: Little Graduate Bear

May Bear of the Month: Little Graduate Bear

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The first day of May means it is time for another bear! This is bear number 5 in the Bear of the Month Crochet Along. This month I had a few ideas of what to make, but ultimately I kept coming back to making a smaller version of a bear I had made previously, similar to what I did with the Leprechaun and the Pumpkin Bears. The bear for May is the...


Little Graduate Bear! I know some college graduations have already happened over the last couple of weeks, but most high school graduations, at least around here, are happening this month or the very beginning of June. Plus there are preschool graduations and kindergarten graduations, and other celebrations that it would be cute for. I thought about some other options for this month's bear, especially since I had already made a Graduation Bear, but this was the one I just kept coming back to. 


I think the reason I kept coming back to a Little Graduate Bear is because I have a daughter graduating from high school this year. She is actually my second kid to graduate, my oldest son graduated last year. But my son didn't really care about doing anything, he just wanted to graduate and be done. He didn't want to take senior pictures, send out invitations, have a party, or do any of that stuff. My daughter on the other hand has wanted to do all of the senior year things and has been planning graduation stuff for months, so it has been a big topic in our house lately. This probably won't be the last graduation themed project you will see over the next few weeks. 


I didn't really do anything new or different for this bear compared to the larger one, it is pretty much just a smaller version. With the Leprechaun Bear I really wanted to add something more to the smaller version so it wasn't just the same bear in smaller form, so I added the vest. This time I kind of felt the same way and I wanted to maybe add something, but a robe, although it would be cute, seemed more complicated than I wanted and I couldn't decided on anything else that would add to the bear. I tossed around a few ideas but ultimately it felt like I would just be adding them just to add more, not because it needed more. So ultimately I decided to just keep it simple and stick with the original bear wearing a little grad cap and holding a rolled up diploma. 


For this bear I used Red Heart Super Saver yarn for all of the colors. I have been wanting to make my bears a variety of different colors, using different shades of brown, as well as blacks and whites, but this one is actually a duplicate color for the first time. I used Cafe Latte for this bear, which is the same color as the February bear, but I did not change the color for the muzzle like I did on the February bear, I just made it all one color. For the cap on my original bear I used black since I feel like that is kind of the most traditional color for a cap and gown, but since a lot of schools use their school colors I decided to make this one in a different color. I chose blue because that is the color my daughter's cap and gown will be. Same thing with the tassel, you could make it in any color to match school colors. Technically my daughter's tassel will also be blue, but her other school color is yellow so I used yellow in order to have some contrast. Then the last color I used was for the diploma, I used a cream color. Those three colors were Red Heart Super Saver in Blue, Saffron, and Aran. 


We now have 5 bears done, with 7 more to go. I have decided to make one little change to the way I am going to do the ebook for this crochet along. Instead of waiting until the last bear is released in December I am going to do the ebook in 2 parts- Book 1 will be January-June and will be released shortly after the June pattern comes out. Then Book 2 will be July-December and will be released in December. I feel like that way if you want to get the PDF patterns you won't have to wait the full 12 months to get them. That means the 6th bear will come out next month and shortly after the first ebook will be available. 



How to Crochet a Little Graduate Bear


Finished Size: about 6" tall sitting + hat

You will need:



Instructions:


The body and head are made in one piece, the other pieces are made separately and sewn on. Most pieces are made beginning with a magic ring (mr), the beginning of each piece will indicate if it starts with a magic ring or a chain. 


Body/Head

Make 1 with bear color yarn, beginning with a magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next st] repeat around (18 sc)
Round 4: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 2 sts] repeat around (24 sc)
Round 5: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (30 sc)
Rounds 6-12: 1 sc in each st (30 sc)
Round 13:  [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (24 sc)
Rounds 14-15: 1 sc in each st (24 sc)
Round 16: sc2tog, repeat around (12 sc)

Begin stuffing body, next round begins the head portion 

Round 17: 2 sc in each st (24 sc)
Round 18: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (30 sc)
Round 19: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 4 sts] repeat around (36 sc)
Rounds 20-25: 1 sc in each st (36 sc)
Round 26: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 4 sts] repeat around (30 sc)

Insert eyes between rounds 23 and 24, about 5-6 stitches apart, begin stuffing head and continue to stuff as needed as you finish closing up the head

Round 27: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (24 sc)
Round 28: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 2 sts] repeat around (18 sc)
Round 29: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next st] repeat around (12 sc)
Round 30: sc2tog, repeat around (6 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn, use tail to weave around opening to close, weave in end

Muzzle

Make 1 with bear color yarn, beginning with magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: [3 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 2] repeat (10 sc)
Round 3: [2 sc in each of the next 3 sts, 1 sc in next 2 sts] repeat (16 sc)
Round 4: 1 sc in first 2 sts, 2 sc in each of next 2 sts, 1 sc in next 6 sts, 2 sc in each of next 2 sts, 1 sc in next 4 sts (20 sc)
Round 5: 1 sc in each st (20 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving long tail for sewing

Add safety nose to the muzzle, and you can at this point use embroidery floss to embroider a mouth if desired but I chose not to, if you do just make a line coming down from the nose and then branching off to each side.

Sew the muzzle to the face just below the eyes, adding stuffing behind it 

Ears

Make 2 with bear color yarn, beginning with magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 3] repeat around (15 sc)
Round 4: 1 sc in each st (15 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving long tail for sewing

Flatten the ears into a semicircle shape and sew to the head

Arms

Make 2 with bear color yarn, beginning with magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (15 sc)
Round 4: 1 sc in each st (15 sc)
Round 5: 1 sc in each st (15 sc)
Round 6: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 3] repeat around (12 sc)
Rounds 7-11: 1 sc in each st (12 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving a long tail for sewing

Add a little bit of stuffing to the end (hand area) of the arm

Sew the arms to the sides of the body

Legs

Make 2 with bear color yarn, beginning with magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next st] repeat around (18 sc)
Round 4: 1 sc in each st (18 sc)
Round 5: 1 sc in each st (18 sc)
Round 6: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 4 sts] repeat around (15 sc)
Rounds 7-11: 1 sc in each st (15 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving a long tail for sewing

Add a little bit of stuffing to the end (foot area) of the leg

Sew the legs to the bottom of the body in a sitting position

Cap

Base
Make 1 in cap color, beginning with ch 

ch 20
join with sl st to make a circle
Round 1: ch 1, sc in each st around, join with sl st to first sc (20 sc)
Round 2: ch 1, sc in 9 st, hdc in next st, (dc, ch 2, sl st in first ch, dc) in next st, hdc in next, sc in next 8 st, sl st to first sc to join (17 sc, 2 hdc, 2 dc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving long tail for sewing


Top
Make 1 in cap color, beginning with magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 8 sc, sl st to first sc to join (8 sc)
Round 2: ch 1, [3 sc in first st, 1 sc in next st] repeat around, sl st to first sc to join (16 sc)
Round 3: ch 1, 1 sc in first st, 3 sc in next st, [1 sc in next 3 sts, 3 sc in next st] 3 times, 1 sc in last 2 sts, sl st to first sc to join (24 sc)
Round 4: ch 1, 1 sc in first 2 sts, 3 sc in next st, [1 sc in next 5 sts, 3 sc in next st] 3 times, 1 sc in last 3 sts, sl st to first sc to join (32 sc)
Round 5: ch 1, 1 sc in first 3 sts, 3 sc in next st, [1 sc in next 7 sts, 3 sc in next st] 3 times, 1 sc in last 4 sts, sl st to first sc to join (40 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn, leaving long tail for sewing

Sew the base to the center of the top square

Sew the cap to the head with the point at the center front of the head

Make a tassel in desired color by wrapping yarn 3-4 times around a book or piece of cardboard 5 or more inches wide. 

Slide off and tie a piece of yarn around the middle leaving a long end to attach the tassel to the hat.

Fold in half (with the tied piece at the center) and tie a piece of yarn a little below the top, and trim the tassel to the length you want

Attach the tassel to the center of the hat using the long center string so that it hangs down over the edge of the cap

Diploma

Make 1 in cream, beginning with a magic ring

ch 9
Row 1: 1 sc in second ch from hook and each ch to the end (8 sc)
Row 2-8: ch 1, turn, sc in each st to the end (8 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving long tail for sewing, weave in beginning tail

Roll into a scroll and tie with a short piece of yarn in desired color

Sew the diploma to the bears hand




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