Knitted Bunny Tutorial

I have been going knitted bunny mad. I discovered that I can knit a 30 by 30 stitch square in 45 minutes which is exactly the time it takes me to get home on the train. I have been using my circular needles as regular needles so I can knit on the train without taking anyone's eye out (good tip for any knitting commuters out there).

Knit your 30 stitch by 30 stitch square. Then knit two ears. I made mine 4 stitches across and 5 lines deep before starting to cast off one stitch at every other row. My red bunny was a 40 stitch bunny with 10 stitch (plus cast off) length ears.

Once you have your square, sew up the four corners and with the last corner run the thread through the straight edge to the opposite corner. This will be the front of your bunny. If you have used more than one colour of wool (I used up old cross stitch wool bundles to make mine stripey) and you have ends sticking out, stitch it so the ends are all on the outside. Then turn it inside out. All your loose ends and in my case dodgy sewing will then be on the inside.

Take some stuffing. You could use ripped up t-shirt but I am using carded wool from world of wool. This makes the bunny really really soft and wool heats up when a child holds it so the bunny will warm to the child's touch. You need more than you think because it packs down quite tight.

 Shove the wool into the four corners and then bulk out the rest of the square. Pull the thread you have weaved through the front edge. This will gather the front of your bunny and bring the two front legs closer together. Then take a long piece of thread and wind it round a head shape. (If the head doesn't feel firm enough unwind the thread and push some more wool into it.). Tie off the thread around the head and stitch it into the body under the head and between the two front legs. Sew down the middle of your bunny. At the back end you will get a T shape between the back legs. Sew this up and push the needle inside one of the legs and out the toe.

 Fold the leg into the body and take the thread from the toe and stitch the toe to the side of the body. Before stitching it is worth turning your bunny right side up and playing around with the positioning of the leg until you get it where you want it. Then stitch the other leg down to the other side.

 You have two options for the tail. You can either make a mini pompom by wrapping wool around your fingers and then stitching it into the bottom in the position that looks right. Or you can take some of the stuffing wool and needle felt it into a ball and stitch that on (as with the red rabbit at the top of the post). If you are making a bunny menagerie you can make a selection of both.

 Here is what the pompom tail looks like. Once the tail is on you can stitch the ears on. I leave a long length when casting off the ears. Then i weave that thread down the side of the ear and across the bottom and use that to stitch the ears on. And there you have your little bunny. You can squish it around a bit to get its shape right.

I'm linking this to