I got a head start on celebrating the Fourth of July today by crocheting.

Both inspired and challenged by Stephen Colbert’s alleged fear of bears, I took hook to yarn, and using the pattern for this small, yellow amigurumi:

(a free download from Clover), I used a 3.5mm hook to transform my stash of Red Heart Super Saver cherry red, soft white, and blue from ordinary yarn into this threatening ursine menace:

Camouflaged in the festive colors of the week, this voracious predator is, no doubt, looking to sink his teeth into some of the deer that populate my yard:

The directions for this bear are written in the Japanese style which includes not only text, but charts as well. If you are not fluent in Japanese (I am not), it helps to acquaint yourself with the style of amigurumi in a language in which you are fluent.

Once you have a basic understanding of the features of amigurumi, it usually only takes a few minutes of studying the charts to be able to decipher the meaning and know where and how many stitches you need to make.

The most time consuming part of this project was going to the store to buy the foam stars onto which I sewed black mini pony beads; the second most time consuming part was the legs and arms. I modified this part of the pattern so that the striping and shape of the limbs would better coordinate with the striping and shape of the body.

Stephen was a tremendous amount of fun to make, and I am certain he will have a wonderful time tomorrow when he begins his tour of duty as holiday table decoration. And if cute bears really are, as Stephen Colbert asserts, a threat, then we are certainly in deep trouble with this little fellow.