Introducing Motley Bear! I made this bear for one of my dear friends who was donating her kidney to a relative. I wanted to provide her with a bear that exuded confidence while at the same time bringing a lot of colorful cheer while she was recovering. I think Mr. Motley pulls it off nicely.

A striped bear provides a great opportunity to use up some leftover yarn too. I’ve made Motley Bears out of odds and ends of yarn that I collected over the years. I even have another bear that I am crocheting as I go, adding a round at a time as I gather leftover yarn from other projects. If you start a stash-busting bear like I have, my biggest word of advice is to pin a card listing your place in the pattern to your bear each time you put him aside so you’ll know where you left off when you pick him up again.

When I work in stripes like this, I prefer to end each round by joining with a slst and then chaining 1 with the new color to start the next round. By pulling on the strand for the previous color, it creates almost perfect, non-jogging rounds. They aren’t entirely perfect though. You still end up with a noticeable seam that spirals down the back, but I always just make sure that this part is at the back when I sew on the arms and legs and face. I prefer this method because I am too lazy to fasten off one color and attach the new one in each round. If you have a different method for changing colors in a striping pattern, by all means use it… and please share it with me! I am always up for learning new techniques. Visit the website for other stripe techniques you might try.

The online pattern also contains links to my photo tutorials for crocheting and embroidering the eyes, nose, and mouth.

Materials

Note about yarn: Feel free to use the yarn of your choice, but be sure that all of the yarn you use for this project is about the same weight. For reference, I used an aran-weight yarn — Caron Simply Soft (250 yds 228 m, 5 oz 141.7 g) in neon orange, soft green, cool green, orchid, and purple.

Yarn in the colors of your choice
Small amount of yarn in black and white for the eyes
Small amount of yarn in the color of your choice for the eyelids and muzzle
Crochet hook in the appropriate size for your yarn For my bear, I used a G-6 (4.00 mm) crochet hook
Polyester fiberfill
Yarn needle