How to Crochet Hamburger Helper – Handy (ha!) New Pattern!

Crochet Hamburger Helper was born in the 70s along with lots of other awesome things (like me!).  When he was a young lad, he had dreams of being a hand model when he grew up. He moisturized his hand frequently and always kept it safe inside a white cotton glove.  Sadly, when he was 15, his modelling dreams were crushed (along with one of his fingers) when he was helping his mother grind hamburger for dinner.  Although his agent told him he’d never be able to model with only four fingers, he refused to give up hope.

Helper changed course and went to culinary school.  There he created his revolutionary “Helper” line of products, which enabled home cooks to turn the simplest of ingredients (hamburger, stuff in a box, and water) into a meal fit for royalty or at least fit for hungry kids of lazy parents.  Meeting with great success in the hamburger space, he helped many different foodstuffs (tuna, chicken, Asian, Italian, fruit, etc.) become their best selves.

Happily, his dream of being a hand model did come true when his marketing department asked him to be the mascot and spokeshand.  He now graces the front of every box of Helper and has appeared in numerous television commercials.  Give him a shout out on Twitter.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Helper is now exploring a rap career.  He recently released a mixtape, Watch the Stove.  Oh yes.  I am “In Love With The Glove.”

What an inspiring story*!  (Now onto the pattern.)

Hey Helper!

HEY!

I don’t really need help with hamburger (er, maybe I do?), but can you help me with other things?

Like laundry?

Cleaning up toys?

Yardwork?

AWESOME!

This is fantastic I LOVE having a helper!  If you would like to make your very own crochet Hamburger Helper, here’s a pattern for you.  He’s super easy to make and you should be able to complete this project in a couple of hours.

Materials Needed to Make Crochet Hamburger Helper:

• White and red worsted weight yarn (I used Red Heart Super Saver)
• Black embroidery floss
• 9 mm safety eyes
• Red and black felt

Construction Notes:

This pattern is worked from the fingers down.  You’ll first crochet two fingers, then a thumb, and then a pinky.  The pinky and two fingers are joined together first, then worked in rounds, and the thumb is joined a few rows later.  Then continue working in rounds down to the bottom of the hand.  It sounds confusing but once you get going you’ll see how it works.  =) This pattern assumes basic crochet and amigurumi making skills…but if you get jammed up let me know and I will do a tutorial for you!

Pattern:

Step 1:  Make two fingers.

1. Make a magic ring
2. SC 6 into magic ring
3. SC, inc around (9)
4. -10. SC around
5. DC 1, SC 7 (8)
6. Break yarn, leave 6” tail

Step 2:  Make one thumb.

1. Make magic ring
2. SC 8 into magic ring
3. -7. SC around
4. Break yarn, leave 6” tail

Step 3:  Make one pinky finger.

1. Make magic ring
2. SC 6 into magic ring
3. SC, inc around (9)
4. -8. SC around
5. Dec 1, SC 7 (8)
6. DO NOT BREAK YARN

Step 4:  Join fingers together.

1. SC into 1^st 4 sts of pinky
2. SC into 4 sts of next finger
3. SC into 4 sts of next finger
4. Continue working around the other sides of the fingers by SC into the remaining 4 sts of each finger (24) (leave tails dangling between fingers, you’ll use them in two seconds)
5. Use the tails from each finger to stitch together any gaps between the fingers, and weave in ends
6. – 8. SC around (24)

Step 5: Attach thumb and make hand.

1. SC 9, SC around all 8 sts of thumb, SC 15 (32)
2. Weave in thumb tail
3. -4. SC around
5. Stuff fingers
6. SC around
7. SC 25, inc, SC 6 (33)
8. SC around
9. SC 23, inc, SC 9 (34)
10. SC around
11. SC 4, inv dec, SC 1, inv dec, SC 2, inv dec, SC 7, inv dec, SC 2, inv dec, SC 4, inv dec, SC 2 (28)

** If you are using safety eyes, place eyes now.

12. SC 1, inv dec, SC 1, inv dec, SC 1, inv dec, SC 7, inv dec, SC 1, inv dec, SC 3, inv dec, SC 2 (22)

** Stuff hand firmly.

13. Attach red yarn, SC around (22)
14. Inc around in front loops only (44)
15. -16. SC around
17. Inv dec around (22)

** Fill in with more stuffing.

18. Pinch bottom together, slip stitch closed, filling in with extra stuffing as needed
19. Break yarn, weave in ends.

Step 6:  Make nose.

1. Make magic ring
2. SC 6 into magic ring (6)
3. Inc around (12)
4. Break yarn, leave long tail for sewing

All the Rest

Stitch Helper’s nose on.  Cut out felt shapes for mouth and tongue, and glue on with tacky glue or hot glue (I did it this way because I am lazy!), or stitch them on.  Stitch eyebrows with doubled black embroidery floss.

Enjoy your new helper!

So I had to go out and buy a box of Hamburger Helper for science.  It’s not the sort of thing I usually cook but I couldn’t just make a Hamburger Helper dude and not eat some.

I made the “Supreme Cheese Pizza” kind (and you know I couldn’t leave it alone so I added chopped tomatoes, leftover taco meat, and topped it with cheddar cheese so it was like, Mexican Pizza Extravaganza all up in there).  Thoughts from my dining companions:

This doesn’t look right.  There is too much liquid.  The next time we have Hamburger Helper I am making it.  I used to make this all of the time and you didn’t use the right pan. – Tolerant Husband

Can I have lettuce?  Do we have any salad?  I want a carrot. – Kiddo

There you have it.  I suck at cooking Hamburger Helper and it is not a carrot.  It was tasty though, and I’m sure it will be even better when my husband makes it for us. 😉

*I totally made all of this up.

Do you love this crochet Hamburger Helper?  Don’t forget to pin and share!