For Make It! Challenge #11, I crocheted contestants to compete in a Thumb Wrestling World Championship. The contestants include a ninja, sumo wrestler, luchador, and Hulk Hogan, the famous WWF personality.

To play, you simply pop one of these contestants onto your thumb, lock thumbs with your opponent, say “One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war,” and wrestle thumbs until someone’s thumb is pinned or the crochet thumb wrestler falls off. Whoever is left “standing” with their crochet thumb wrestler intact is the winner.

Note About Changing Colors

For this pattern you’ll need to know a bit about changing colors when working in the round. When the instructions tell you to switch to a new color, go to single crochet in the next stitch as you normally would and pull up a loop in the original color, but yarn over with the new color. Pull the loop through and continue with the new color. Whenever you are only doing a few stitches in the new color, it is a good idea to carry the original color yarn along the back as you go. The best way to do this is to crochet over it with each new stitch in the new color. This will encase the strand and allow you to pick it up easily when it is time to switch back to the original color.

Note About Googly Eyes

This pattern calls for the use of glue-on googly eyes. Because of the choking hazard, if you are making these thumb wrestlers for small children, please consider embroidering the eyes instead.

Note About Yarn and Gauge

This pattern was made for adult-sized thumbs. If you are making it for a child or an adult with smaller hands, try using lighter weight yarn and/or a smaller hook size.