Monday is brought to you by: Knuffels!

[highlyeccentric]

One of my favourite non-english words is the dutch Knuffel, which I'm told means both cuddle and cuddly-toy.



Here is one of my greatest investments since I moved back to Switzerland: a stuffed toy Bernese Mountain Dog, who has eventually acquired the name Othon. I bought him when my immediate moving-countries financial aargh cleared up, because I had coveted ones like him in the airport as I was departing in 2018, but couldn't justify buying more knuffels at the time, what with wildly unstable career / housing / residency prospects. I didn't *expect* him to become a Quarantine Friend, but he has done a very good job.

(Lacking pets, I have to stage my own cute and/or hilarious tableaux with stuffed toys.)



This is Brown Bear, who is nearly as old as I am. His snazzy little jacket is newer: a few Christmases back I got my mother to make him a new outfit as - well, it was supposed to be my Christmas present, but since I got other presents as well, I mother recognises bear's status in the family and gave him his own present that year.

He spent a couple of years back at my parents' place, because I thought he was getting too old to be squished in suitcases. Of course, *not two days* after I left him at my parents' house in 2018, as I was preparing to fly back to Europe, someone notified me my my home town was cut off by bushfires. I held off until the immediate danger was passed, but subsequently made Dad promise that Brown Bear goes in any evacuation bags that might be packed! Turns out the next person to have to worry about that was me, living at home temporarily last year, in charge of the house and contents during the first 'Catastrophic Fire Danger' day since NSW instituted the rating. (This photo is from the day after, at which point I was comfortable leaving the house, but carrying a backpack with all my ID and all the family's prescriptions + bear any time I did.) Brown Bear is now safely back in Switzerland, where we are unlikely to suffer from wildfires, and stuffed bears at least are safe from pandemics.*

Do you still have your childhood stuffies? Do you acquire new ones? If you have kids, do you have a soft spot for any of their bears in particular (we found my brother's Best Bear cleaning out a cupboard, and my mother definitely has a soft spot for him)? What about dolls? I had a few dolls, but only one I really loved, and I haven't stayed attached to them like I did the stuffed toys.

*I worry for people for whom a comfort stuffie is a functional necessity for getting out and about, rather than an optional extra - bears pick up germs pretty easily, as any parent of toddlers knows, and washing them is Quite A Production.

Comments

[smallhobbit]

I still have my bear, who is safely in the cupboard. My daughter, now a 28 year old trainee paramedic, has her pink rabbit (Chewed Ears - for fairly obvious reasons) in her house - for many years we've only been able to tell which way he's facing because of the nametape sewn on the back of his neck.

[highlyeccentric]

Awww poor elderly bunny!

[aome]

My daughter's favorite stuffed bunny might as well have been called "Sniffed Ears" - when she was stressed, she'd breathe in the comforting bunny smell, but only on the ears. One ear in particular, IIRC.

[shadowhive]

Knuffel! I love it! That‘s so cute, I don’t blame you for wanting one. And aww brown bear and his jacket

Those fires sound so scary! I’m glad you and him and everyone was safe

As a kid I had a bear called Mr Ted and I’d take him everywhere (not in general, but when we went on holidays and such, I’d always pack I him in my bags). Mum knit him a few jumpers and stuff, including one which has badges I used to get whenever I went anywhere. He’s still sitting on the sofa across from me.

I still get cuddly things now. I have a massive sheep I got years ago as well as the build a bear bulbasaur that sits next to me. I’m also a sucker for getting Star Wars cuddly stuff. When I went to Star Wars celebration one of the things I was sure to get the first day was a pair of cuddly loth cats from the shop (and a basket of ewoks for mum). The other year when I went to my uni exam I came back with a massive cuddly porg and I sleep with him, giving him cuddles if I feel like I need them.

[highlyeccentric]

The fires were certainly An Experience! Fortunately for my town, the previous years' fires had been earlier in the season (limited damage to dwellings) and had burned basically a big protective buffer around us... I had the car all packed and ready to go, with my Dad texting me (unbeknownst to my mother) lists of photo albums and things.

When they got home, I was like... look around the living room, Dad, see anything missing?
Dad: ... your mother's memory quilt?
Me: Yes, and? *points to the guitar corner*
Him: ?? what happened?
Me: ... it's in the car. wrapped in the memory quilt. Caught sight of it mid-afternoon and thought "that's older than Brown Bear". Uh. It's probably wildly out of tune now?

*A basket of ewoks*. That's a BRILLIANT mental image, I hope your mum liked them! And a massive sheep sounds like a good friend. There's a swiss company that makes really high quality sheep stuffies for babies, and honestly I'm tempted...

[shadowhive]

Oh that’s good!

Awww🖤


This is a pic Of it! She loves ewoks so I had to get it her. Awww sheep are so cute, I love them!

[unicornduke]

I have a stuffed horse, who I bought with a bit of money I saved when I was eight or nine. Her name is Black Beauty after one of my favorite horse related books. She lives in my bed and I spoon her at night because she's the perfect height to prop up my hip so I can sleep on my side/front comfortably. She's pretty big for a stuffed animal, probably 2.5 feet long. I've done some minor repairs on her over the years, her front legs are prone to getting holes in the elbow area. The only time I've been separated from her is when I spent a semester abroad in university and couldn't justify the luggage space. So I bought a seal at ikea to snuggle!

I still buy stuffed animals occasionally and my friend group gifts them occasionally. Squishables brand animals are extremely cute and round and I have a large turtle that is a back rest in my bed. All the rest of my childhood stuffed animals are stored in a plastic bin to stay safe and they have also come with me in all my moves. I don't have a good place to put them out right now but I think about them snuggled together in the bin sometimes.

I'm so glad your bear was okay!

[highlyeccentric]

My sister has a Squishable, it's pretty satisfying to, well, squish, but I think I prefer the texture of plushies.

Black Beauty sounds like a very good horse friend! And, yeah, big stuffies aren't great for international (or even domestic!) moves. At the moment I find myself missing Big Bunny, who I'm pretty sure has never left my parents' place. When my sister was one-and-a-bit I dug him out of a toybox on a visit home and presented him to her: there's some great photos of her, 2/3 his size, wrestling with a giant white rabbit, and basically loosing. After that she always made sure to put him on the spare room bed when I came home, and I think he lives in there now. I spent four whole months there last year, and did not appreciate the wonders of a Large Cuddly Friend while I had the chance!

[redbird]

I have a stuffed panda, purchased during a trip to the National Zoo in Washington, DC, when Chin sent the zoo a pair of pandas for the first time in decades. I'd put it away in a corner for a while, thinking that a grown-up shouldn't sleep with a stuffed toy. Some years later, I decided I was old enough not to care what strangers might thing about that, and started sleeping with Panda again.

She is now an old bear, and inexpertly patched, and I tuck her under my arm every night, as the best way to follow a doctor's recommendation to prop my left hand up a little when I sleep (to prevent a recurrence of tennis elbow). I have been meaning to get a new panda for a while, but it was a low-level kind of thing, and now is on hold until after we're staying home because of the pandemic. Even though I'm likely to wind up doing this by mail order.

[highlyeccentric]

What an extremely good long-service panda she sounds!

[beer_good_foamy]

I don't have any childhood stuffies left, but I do have plush versions of The Groke, Cthulhu and the Black Beast Of Aaaaaargh keeping watch over my bookshelves.

[highlyeccentric]

I had never considered the possibility of a stuffed Beast of Aaargh, but I love it!

[beer_good_foamy]

He is rather adorable, with all his little googly eyes.

[light_of_summer]

I'm having cognitive dissonance at the idea of a plush Groke. Wasn't she freezing cold? 😉

[beer_good_foamy]

Whereas Dread Lord Cthulhu and the Black Beast of Aaaaaaargh are so nice and cuddly? ;)

But yeah, the Groke did come with a note encouraging owners to refrigerate her regularly.

[light_of_summer]

Point and 😄!

[autobotscoutriella]

I've had Kitty (a very patched grey stuffed cat) for almost twenty-four years now; my grandparents got my cousin and I matching stuffed cats when we were both toddlers, and Kitty has been my special comfort thing ever since. She hasn't gone out with me since I was ten (had a small scare at the zoo when I almost dropped her into one of the water exhibits and decided that she was probably better off at home), but I still cuddle with her at night.

She's not the only one, though--I can't walk through a zoo or aquarium gift shop without at least longingly staring at the stuffed aquatic animals. I have a couple of sharks, one of which I got from Shedd and one of which was a present from a friend, and a couple of otters from various zoos and aquariums over the years. Also a very, very tiny stuffed Grimlock from Transformers--I don't remember where he came from, but I think my younger sister might have gotten him for me as a joke one year. He's a cutie.

[highlyeccentric]

Zoo and museum shops are a terrible hazard. I have a stuffie stegosaurus thanks to the British Museum shop...

[althea_valara]

Hmm, I'm not sure I have any of my childhood stuffies. If I do, they're in a bag in my closet. I had stuffed koalas rather than teddy bears, a whole bunch of them! I think I did keep the smallest one, but yeah, it's put away somewhere.

I'm a knitter and crocheter, and I love making toys! I have a tab for amigurumi in my Ravelry notebook (you might need to be a Ravelry member to see that, I'm unsure.) Some of my favorites are my two Parlor Cats, first unnamed, and the second, Tom. They sit at the end of my bed and make me very happy, since I can't have a real cat right now. I like to give them a pat on the head when I pass them by.

I design my own stuffies, too! The Heartilly Doll was inspired by a fellow knitter. I was showing off some crocheted dolls I made, and she lamented that she couldn't crochet, so I took that as a personal challenge to design a knitted doll. Now, I usually knit my dolls instead of crocheting them. I've made a BUNCH of dolls inspired by Final Fantasy and other video game characters:

* Rinoa (Final Fantasy VIII)
* Aerith (Final Fantasy VII)
* Akstar (Final Fantasy Brave Exvius)
* Noctis (Final Fantasy XV)
* Maria (Star Ocean)

My earlier dolls were crocheted, though some have knitted clothes:

* Tonberry
* Moogle
* Olive (FF Brave Exvius)
* Lasswell (FF Brave Exvius)
* Rain (FF Brave Exvius)
* Fina (FF Brave Exvius)
* White Knight Noel (FF Brave Exvius)
* Nichol (FF Brave Exvius)
* Kefka (Final Fantasy VI)

...why yes, I do like stuffed toys, why do you ask?

[highlyeccentric]

Aaaa those are all so cute! I would love to one day get good enough to do amigurumi, but realistically, I am just not precise enough (also I taught myself to crochet wrong, that doesn't help).

[althea_valara]

For years I did a yarn under while crocheting rather than a yarn over, so technically I was crocheting wrong as well. Didn't stop me from making toys. I did it that way for ten years. It's only been in the past year that I corrected to a yarn over, and I'm still not sure why I changed after so many years of doing it "wrong". I am sure with enough practice you'd be able to make anything you want.

[cynthia1960]

I have many stuffies. The latest one is a Miffy/Nijntje I got in Amsterdam this last January which seems like eons ago.

[highlyeccentric]

Aaaah. The only reason I don't have a Miffy from Utrecht is I usually travel carry-on only. I do treasure a photo of me with the giant Miffy in the Miffy museum, though.

[tjs_whatnot]

Ahhh, I didn't know that word, but makes the book "Knuffle Bunny" even more precious! I've never been one for stuffed things to comfort me, but when we were cleaning out my mother's house after she passed a few years ago, we found a huge box in her closet FULL of beanie babies and other stuffed things--some of them I remembered from our travels. I kept those and they have a special place in my room and my heart. ♥

[brumeier]

The only stuffie I've held on to is Weetie, the stuffed raccoon my high school boyfriend gave me the year before I went to college. Weetie was with me all four years, and with me for years after. He didn't get put away for good until the first year my husband and I were married, after our dog chewed off Weetie's nose. He's still with me, though, noseless, in a tub under my bed.

My 16 year-old son still has his collection of bears. Warrior teddy bears, we used to call them, because when my boy was little he suffered a lot of nightmares and the occasional night terror, and those bears always made him feel better. Snuggle Bear came with us on his first airplane trip when he was a year and a half, and then he added Superbear and Batbear when he was old enough to start going to Build-A-Bear. There were plenty of other stuffies, but the bears are the ones that remain. (Unfortunately, the Eeyore collection was damaged while in storage.)

[aome]

I have a large white bear with red paws - well, he USED to be white - that I got from Hamley's toy store in London when I was 8 years old. That bear went everywhere with me, on many vacations (if I had room), to college, everything. For the first year I was in grad school, though, I was across the country and hadn't had room in either boxes or suitcases, so I bought a smaller floppy puppy. Those are still my primary sleep friends if my husband is out of town, although I've since adopted a small soft horse from my daughter (who no longer wanted it) so I can sneak it into my small carryon when I visit my dad. I need something to hold when have to sleep alone!

My daughter received an adorable bunny from hamsterwoman's daughter, the first time we met in person (MiniPlu was almost 5 and the other girl was just 6). That was HER favorite lovey from that moment on, although the bunny now sits on a shelf. I do hope she'll take L-bunny to college in the fall.

My son fell in love with penguins when he was about five. Since his 6th birthday, his best companion has been a large king penguin stuffy. He has a zillion stuffies at this point, but King is still his best buddy. (And he's 16.)

[singedsun]

I have this Anirollz puppy that I bought on a trip a few years back that is the softest squishest pillow like stuffed animal that I now take with me a lot of places. I don't have any particularly attachment to him specifically other than liking him a lot, but every few years I find I like a new something like this from squishable or some other squishy soft toy manufacturer, just so I can have something when I need something. Usually for travel but sometimes for other things. Like this guy came in handy when I had surgery last year.

I like to collect squishy toys for comfort reasons but have a healthy (I think) unattachment to any one in particularly as I've gotten used to having dogs and kids and accident prone humans in my life that make keeping any one stuffed creature long-term incredibly difficult.

I do have one though, on display in the guest room that I've had since I was a kid. It's a stuff cat, named appropriately Miss Kitty for the Miss Kitty of Gunsmoke reruns which I apparently watched (likely too young to be doing so as a child). My mom made it out of some cat and flower fabric and polyfill and has managed to survive exactly because it doesn't ever get used for anything ever.

[therealsnape]

I'm Dutch, so I have an actual Knuffel. It's a little monkey that is now 53 years old. I got it for my first birthday, when it was beige and brown and sitting stiffly upright.

Now it's blue (my grandma covered it when the original fabric was worn out), and it cannot sit upright unsupported. It still lives in a cupboard. Not a cupboard under the stairs - I'm not a Dursley! - but a very nice one in my study, where it is much appreciated.

It's called Aapje. Do I need to explain that one, or is your Dutch fluent enough? ;-)

[duskpeterson]

What a great thread! I love all the descriptions and pics!

Here are my companions.

As I said in the accompanying interview:

o--o--o

Julian is my octopus. He’s named after the emperor. I first met him during college at a children’s bookstore, where he was working as a display; he kindly consented to come home with me. (His creator gave her consent also.) I used to take him to class with me. (College instructor sitting at the head of our discussion table: “And so Mendel hybridized the green peas with the white peas and got— There’s an octopus on the table.”) These days, Julian sleeps with me.

Wiggletail would sleep with us too, but he’s getting rather old; he was a handmade gift from my great-grandmother when I was four years old, to replace a stuffed dog that I’d lost, with bitter tears, at a religious camp meeting our family was attending. My great-grandmother also sent my mother the design and material for making another dog, should I ever lose Wiggletail. The material came in handy during college when Wiggletail needed a skin graft.

Because he’s too frail to sleep with us, Wiggletail sits by the bed and keeps guard over Julian and me. He does a good job at it. No one has ever attacked us at night.

o--o--o

Unfortunately, I had to put both of them in temporary storage while we did some extermination. And now, because of COVID-19, I can't get them out of storage. (*Weeps*)