More Than a Plushie: Making the Comfort Companions

If you have been following along with what has been on my hook lately, you have probably noticed some very special new friends beginning to appear.

They are called Comfort Companions, and while they may look like adorable crochet plushies at first glance, there is a whole lot more going into each one.

The idea behind the Comfort Companions is simple:

Create handmade friends with a purpose.

Each Comfort Companion is designed around an emotional theme, given their own story and personality, and filled with interactive sensory features meant to make them just as comforting to hold and explore as they are cute to look at.

And now, I want to start bringing you along for more of the making too.

Before I ever pick up my hook, I start with the character.

Who is this companion?

What do they represent?

What kind of encouragement are they meant to offer?

I did not want to simply crochet a collection of animals and then add sensory features to them. I wanted those features to feel like they belonged to the character and supported the purpose behind them.

That means each Comfort Companion begins with a theme, a Comfort Mission and a story.

From there, I start figuring out what that friend should actually look and feel like.

This has probably been one of my favorite parts of creating the collection.

I get to look at a crochet plushie and ask:

What can this do?

Can a wing crinkle?

Can something be hidden inside for fingers to manipulate?

Can the feet stretch and spring?

Could part of the body be weighted?

What textures could I add?

Is there something that can twist, turn or move?

Instead of every Comfort Companion having the exact same sensory features, I have been experimenting with different combinations.

Some ideas work beautifully the first time.

Others look much better in my imagination than they do once yarn gets involved.

And sometimes I discover something completely by accident that sends me in a new direction.

That experimentation is a big part of what makes creating them so much fun.

Piper the Peacock was the first Comfort Companion to come to life.

Piper is The Encourager, created as a colorful reminder that the world needs what makes each of us unique.

With a soft chenille body, flexible legs, weighted feet, interactive wings and all of those colorful tail feathers, Piper became my first opportunity to figure out what I wanted a Comfort Companion to be.

Not just physically, but emotionally too.

I wanted someone to be able to pick Piper up and immediately begin discovering things.

There are little details tucked throughout the design that invite busy hands to explore without taking away from Olive simply being a soft, comforting owl to cuddle.

Olive also showed me just how much this collection could grow from one companion to the next.

You can meet the Comfort Companions and learn more about the friends currently available in the Comfort Companion Collection.

Here is where I have to admit something.

I did not document the making of Piper or Olive nearly as well as I wish I had.

I have the finished companions. I have some photos. I have my notes, ideas and memories of figuring things out along the way.

But I did not really stop to capture the entire process.

I did not photograph every experiment.

I did not document every feature as it was being created.

I did not show you all the moments where something did not work, got pulled apart and was tried again.

At the time, I was so focused on figuring out what the Comfort Companions were going to become that I did not think enough about documenting how they became that way.

Now I wish I had.

So, I am changing that.

For the remaining Comfort Companions coming to life this year, I plan to do a much better job of bringing you behind the scenes.

I want to show you the beginning.

The yarn choices.

The inspiration.

The pieces scattered across my workspace.

The sensory features before they are sewn into place.

The ideas that work.

The ones that absolutely do not.

The frogging.

The changes.

And finally, that moment when a pile of yarn and pieces suddenly starts looking back at me like a little friend with a personality all their own.

Because the finished Comfort Companion is only part of the story.

The making is part of the story too.

One thing you can probably expect to see plenty of is frogging.

These companions are still very much a creative process.

There are ideas scribbled down before I forget them, features being moved from one place to another, stitches being pulled out and entire sections being redone because something just does not feel right.

There are also plenty of moments where I stare at a half finished creature wondering exactly how I am going to make the idea in my head work in yarn.

And sometimes the answer is simply to try something.

If it works, great.

If it does not, out come the stitches and we try again.

That is the part of handmade I want to start sharing more of here in What's on My Hook.

Another thing I love about this collection is that I am not trying to turn these into perfectly identical factory made toys.

They are handmade.

That means one expression may be a little different from another. A feather might sit slightly differently. The exact placement of a sensory feature may change as I continue improving a design.

And sometimes making one companion teaches me something that I want to do differently on the next.

I love that.

Each Comfort Companion gets to have a little personality of their own.

Want to get to know these handmade friends a little better? Explore the Comfort Companion collection to discover their stories, Comfort Missions, sensory features and the companions currently looking for their person.

Meet the Comfort Companions

Piper and Olive may have started this little family, but there are more personalities, stories, textures and sensory ideas waiting for their turn on my hook throughout the rest of the year.

Some will encourage courage.

Some will celebrate joy.

Some will offer a reminder of safety, calm or comfort.

But they will all have one thing in common.

They are being handmade with purpose.

These are not just plushies I want someone to look at sitting on a shelf.

I want them to be held.

Hugged.

Fidgeted with.

Explored.

Loved.

And maybe, when someone needs it, I hope their Comfort Companion can offer a small handmade reminder that they have a friend nearby.

I may have missed the opportunity to fully document Piper and Olive coming to life, but their making taught me so much.

Now, for the rest of this year's Comfort Companions, you get to come along for the journey.

One idea, one stitch, one frog and one new little friend at a time.

Handmade with purpose.

Find Your Comfort Companion

Every Comfort Companion has their own personality, purpose and special combination of sensory features. If one of these handmade friends feels like the right fit for you or someone you love, come meet the companions currently available.

Explore the Comfort Companions

And now we get to begin documenting one from much closer to the beginning.

Next up is Ember the Dragon, The Brave Heart.

Ember is being created around courage, bravery and finding the strength to keep going even when something feels a little scary.

The starting plan includes crinkle wings, spiral horns for little hands to explore, weighted feet for soothing support, textured dragon scale stitching and a soft tail perfect for holding onto.

But that is the starting plan.

If Piper and Olive have taught me anything, it is that these companions have a funny way of changing as I make them.

An idea might not work.

A better one might pop into my head halfway through.

A texture might end up somewhere completely different than I originally planned.

And this time, I want to bring you along while all of that happens.

Ember's Comfort Mission:

Be brave. Take the next step. You are stronger than you think.

So, as Ember begins taking shape on my hook, I will be sharing more of the process along the way.

Not just the pretty finished photos.

The actual making.