Friday, February 10, 2012

Hobbes: Crochet!

I am thrilled when I see my kids reading comic books. Perhaps some would gawk at this, but I embrace it. Of course, the comic of choice in our household is Calvin & Hobbes. If any comic could build a big vocabulary, that one would! I love that they laugh along side the famous duo even if they don't fully understand it. "What does 'nuances' mean?" "What's 'mayhem'?" "Why is Calvin's mom mad?" They then bring the comic to life as they reenact certain recurring events including G.R.O.S.S. meetings and Calvinball. But without a Hobbes, they have not been able to reenact the reunion of Calvin & Hobbes after a long day apart.



My oldest adores Hobbes. For Halloween we sprayed his hair yellow, found a red shirt with black stripes and he was Calvin. But he needed a Hobbes to complete the ensemble. However, Bill Watterson never allowed his characters to be licensed for plushies (or anything else for that matter) so finding a Hobbes look a like was a challenge. We were able to find a cute Hobbes substitute for the costume at a Goodwill that year, but ever since, my eyes have been scanning the web for crochet patterns. In my searching I came across several great Hobbes projects folks had crafted:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amigurumiphotos/4450655872/

http://www.cuteamigurumi.com/2009/06/29/hobbes-andno-calvin/


Of course Hobbes doesn't look like an active tiger all the time. To moms and dads he's just a stuffed animal:

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=334522.0

http://www.amiamour.com/2010/08/hobbes-your-imaginary-friend/

http://sukigirl74.blogspot.com/2011/03/free-hobbes-crochet-pattern.html

I noticed that so much of what makes Hobbes great is in the details of his face, which each fiber artist interpets themselves. This gave me the idea to look at some generic toy tiger patterns that I could then adapt. I decided to start small and my first Hobbes was inspired by this Sugar n' Cream pattern:

http://www.sugarncream.com/pattern.php?PID=4772&cps=21191

I liked the full amigurumi style of this little guy, and the color scheme (doing brown & orange instead of black and orange) but he needed some major adjustments on body shape, tail length and facial features to really become Hobbes. The end result?



Calvin & Hobbes love the snow so much, you often see Hobbes wearing a scarf:

A quick work up of 5 hdc across to the proper scarf length gave Hobbes an accessory for the winter weather:


If enough folks are interested in the specific changes I made to the toy tiger pattern from Sugar n' Cream, I'll try to post it soon. For now enjoy a last C&H comic strip and come back this weekend for 





5 comments:

  1. I adore Calvin and Hobbes :-) I love al the Hobbes patterns out there but where's the Calvins?? Seems no one makes him, might have to design one myself :-)

    Your Hobbes is adorable!

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  2. I would LOVE to see your version of Calvin :) Thanks for your comment!

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  3. Oh please can you post your pattern for Hobbes! It is the best one I've seen and I would LOVE to try it myself. :) (If you did post it, I apologise- I obviously need to look harder!)

    Debi

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    1. Thank you, Debi! I love Hobbes and really did try to get him just right! I will try to dig up & post my adjustments to this pattern soon. But in the mean time check out this pattern and note I changed the color of the ears and basically expanded the body, arms, legs & tail by adding a few more stripes to the pattern. Mostly, it was looking at the comic and trying to get his sweet face just right: big nose, downward mouth, close set eyes. I suppose the tummy was a big adjustment, too. Now to find my notes...

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    2. http://www.yarnspirations.com/pattern/crochet/new-year-tiger

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