Goldilocks and the Three Bears Hand Puppets

I've always been a huge fan of giving kids puppets to play with as a way to encourage them to tell stories. My projects as of late have been focused on attaching them to books they can retell but bears and a little girl can easily morph off into a child's own story and so I don't find that idea at all limiting.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears has always been a favorite of mine. I loved the idea of civilized bears living in the forest. One of the first series I remembering reading on my own and loving was the Little Bear series. It would be interesting to know if the two families knew one another. You could see Little Bear and Baby Bear hanging out together.

This is another of my hybrid projects. I started with Maggie's Crochet Crochet Pattern Goldilocks Puppets PA861-R as I had the pattern from years and was determined to finally make use of it. I loved the heads and the clothing she made for the puppets. The hand puppet was another issue. I wasn't happy with the construction of the hand section and I had to decide what I wanted to do for that.

If you read my blog you know I'm not afraid of mixing and matching patterns to get the look I want. I found a free princess pattern for a hand puppet here which I had in mind for a castle project I'm working on for later. When I realized I needed a body for my puppets I decided to take a look and see if they were compatible. I had to adjust for the head size of the puppets I made but the body worked out really well. The bears were the easiest as they were solid brown for the bodies and their clothing items from the Maggie's pattern were added on once the body was complete. I had to play with the colors on Goldilocks dress to get look I wanted but I was happy with her outfit overall.

The Maggie's pattern calls for sport weight yarn and a g hook. I used worsted and a f hook as I am determined to use as much yarn as I have on hand to finish projects. I bought googly eyes that can be sewn a while back and never had a use for them until this project. The pattern suggest hot glue but if I can't sew or use saftey eyes I will generally just embroider. I just trust it more when kids are going to play with something rather than something that will be displayed.

That being said when I can avoid sewing I do so I used safety noses for the puppets since the snouts hide the post and connector thus preventing little hands from being scratched. They suggested a pom pom for Goldilocks nose I just crocheted one.

Three Billy Goats Gruff Medium Goat

I'm continuing to work on my ami's to go with my The Three Billy Goats Gruff present. I only need to make the small goat after this and this gift will be finished.

Having made the first goat from Once Upon a Time... in Crochet already, I found the second went a bit faster. The yarn for this project and the troll was another of my targeted attempt to finish off stash yarn. This was gifted to me by a friend when his sister passed away and I've been dilegently working on using it up but it is all one color and there was quite a bit of it. It worked well for this project.

I went from an f to an e hook as the yarn is slightly lighter than the worsted I used for the "large" goat, so it made the second goat slightly smaller than the first goat without having to go to a really small hook. I'm thinking about trying the last goat in sport yarn so I don't have to go to a real tiny hook. I'll have to experiment to see what works best.

This is the project so far. I'm pleased with it and I think it will make a fun way to retell the story and I suspect the goats will end up on the play farm at some point and the troll could even become a farmer.

Three Billy Goats Gruff Troll

I mentioned in a post last week that I was working on a crochet play set to accompany a book gift of The Three Billy Goats Gruff and I'd completed the large goat for the set from Once Upon a Time... in Crochetbut I wasn't happy with my options for the troll from the book.

This is the beauty of making your own toys. You can mix and match as you choose and I found a free pattern for my troll here. This troll is extremely adaptable and customizable.

There is a whole series of videos for the creation of the troll that are extremely detailed. If you've never made an ami before this starts right at the beginning and takes you through step by step. I had the current video for the section I was working on loaded on my phone and I'd fast forward to the places where the techniques were new or different than those I am used to using. I'm not generally someone who uses videos, but I'd advise anyone making this pattern to be prepared to refer to the videos as not everything you need to make the troll is documented in the print pattern. You will need to see some of the videos for directions on how to complete certain parts of the troll.

While my hair differs from her hair options I learned a wonderful new technique for rooting the hair which I will be using for my hair projects now. I loved the tail and I almost thought of using the technique for the hair as a throw back to the trolls of my youth but I really liked the way the hair looked when I was done rooting it and I left it as it stood. The feet are not attached to the body but to the pants and that was a really interesting technique I'd never seen done before. I learned a number of new shaping techniques that I used on the ears and face. The nose is another unique technique that I'd not encountered before.

This is one of my favorite types of projects because I loved the finished product and I learned quite a bit by making it. After making this troll and seeing how cute he came out I couldn't resist picking up the Troll's version of the story Listen, My Bridge Is SO Cool!: The Story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff as Told by the Troll (The Other Side of the Story) to send with my gift. After all I'm sure this troll has something to say on the subject of goats crossing his bridge.