Callisto the Grizzly Bear and Ursula the Polar Bear would love to go fishing with you. The head and body of the bears are knit as one piece. The arms, legs, ears and tail are knit separately. Callisto and his tuque and vest were knit using bulky weight yarn. Ursula was knit using a medium worsted yarn as was her sunhat. The coat and fishing pole were knit using bulky weight yarn. The fish are a blend of wool and cotton – together the gauge is medium worsted. I used French knots to make the buttons for the coat. I also used a plastic drinking straw inside the fishing pole to keep it rigid.

Materials Required:

• Yarn: 1 ball (50g) each of white or dark brown (bulky or medium worsted yarn) depending on the colour of bear you would like. 1 ball of dark blue, light blue, yellow, red and orange.
• Sewing needle made for thread.
• Thin yarn or thread for eyes, nose, eyebrows and paws in blue/green, white and black.
• Size 4 mm knitting needles.
• 3 double pointed needles (size 4 mm) for the fishing pole
• Poly-fill stuffing.
• 1 plastic drinking straw for the inside of the fishing pole.

Gauge: 11 stitches and 16 rows = 4 x 4 square using stockinette stitch and 4 mm knitting needles. This is simply an approximation. I used both medium (worsted) weight yarn and bulky yarn and both turned out great. Since this is meant to be a toy, I wouldn’t worry too much if your gauge is off by a few stitches – it may simply make your bear a bit smaller (like Ursula) or larger (like Callisto) depending on the yarn and needles you use. I like to use smaller needles with thicker yarn for knit toys since the knitting is tighter: it is less likely to stretch and holds up to playing.

Finished dimensions: Sitting: 20-22 cm (8-9 inches). Standing: 30-36 cm (12-14 inches).

Techniques Used:

• Stockinette stitch: knit the right side, purl the back side.
• Increase 1 stitch by knitting once in the front of the stitch and once in the back of the stitch.
• Decrease 1 stitch by knitting two stitches together.
• I use parenthesis ( ) to group together repeated patterns. For example, if it says (knit 2, knit 2 together) repeat to the end of the row, you should repeat everything between the ( ) in that order until you run out of stitches. If it says (knit 2, knit 2 together) 3 times, you should repeat everything in the ( ) 3 times.