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Theo's Heart · I crocheted a penguin from this sweet children's book!

I'm discovering a new joy for crocheting, and that's in crocheting characters that go with books that my daughter, Lena, loves! 

 

Fanart is not a new concept at all, but I haven't done a whole lot of it before as I mostly design original characters when it comes to amigurumi.  However, it's so fun to have an accompanying toy that goes with my daughter's interests!  I think I'll be trying my hand at more in the future.


One of my Lena's current favorite storybooks is Theo's Heart, written by Amy Kwong.  It features a little girl and her favorite companion, a stuffed penguin named Theo.  The story is super sweet and heart-warming, and my daughter just loves pointing out Theo on each page.  She even kisses the 2D picture of Theo while we flip through the book!  

We got the bilingual edition, which has text in English and Simplified Chinese.


Since Lena enjoyed reading about Theo so much, I decided to crochet a little Theo for her.  He worked up very quickly with the super bulky Bernat Blanket yarn and a 6mm hook!  I used some worsted weight yarn for sewing the beak and crocheting his two, little feet.  


This was a very quick project that I freehanded, so I unfortunately don't have a pattern for this little guy, but I'd be happy to recreate him and share a pattern if anyone's interested in making one too.

Oh... but get this.  I made the mistake of sewing Theo's parts together before crocheting the final (and most important piece) of this character -- his heart!  When Lena spotted the chubby penguin, she promptly claimed him and, well... off he went.  One of these days, I'll have to finish up the heart and sew it to his belly!

There's something incredibly special about seeing your little one enjoy a book while clutching onto the physical doll of the book character she adores.  She always goes looking for Theo whenever we bring out the book now!

Hope you enjoyed reading this bit!  Stay tuned if you'd like to see more book characters in yarny form... I'll definitely be crocheting more! 

Warm wishes,