Kung Fu Panda 3 - Cookies and Crochet

We joined friends today, going to see Kung Fu Panda 3, as a sort of impromptu birthday party for their daughter.  It was last minute, but there was just enough warning for me to attempt a quick crochet Po for the birthday girl.

I couldn't find a Po pattern, and so muddled through modifying a free crochet panda pattern from Angie's Art Studio.  The original pattern was a breeze to follow, by the way.  And, just so I don't forget myself - the modifications were: changing colors for the legs, and bottom of the body, to make pants, adding yellow stitches (sewn on) and then looping through red string for the belt, adding an extra round of stitching to the muzzle, and two extra stitches and an extra round to the belly (making 32 instead of 30 stitches in the middle), removing one round of stitches from the ears to make them smaller, and crocheting rounds similar to the ears for the eye patches, with white felt sewn on top.

All the changes made the pattern a little fussier than I would have liked, and the shortness of time meant I had to settle for how it turned out the first time through.  I wasn't completely happy with the results, though now that I look back at the original bear - this one does look more Po-ish.  My children liked him anyway, and the birthday girl held him on her lap to watch the movie, so I guess that makes him a success.

Personally, I had a lot more fun trying to piece together Oreo cookie and M&M pandas for a post movie snack.  They didn't turn out looking anything like Po either...

...but I think he would have appreciated the attempt to craft (and eat) to our potential.

 "If you only do what you can do, you'll never be more that you are now." (Shifu, Kung Fu Panda 3)