Scrap Wool Bunny!

…a Scrap Wool Bunny!

Happy Earth Day lovely readers!

In this uncertain time, being kind to our earth is actually easier than ever! Staying home? You’re not using your car, going for walks, good for your health and increasing use of green spaces! We’re being less wasteful with food products and looking for more ways to be thrifty and resourceful. This will make such a big impact on the environment and how we live our day to day lives, and it can only get better from here.

So, with resourcefulness and recycling in mind, this week and next week’s Chloe Makes will be along those lines. This week, we are making a knitted bunny. I hear you; “That sounds so difficult?!” you say! Well, actually, no, this bunny is made from a simple square. So, you’ll be making bunny toys in no time at all! In fact, this only took me one afternoon, from knitting the square to assembly, that’s how easy it is!

You can use any scrap wool in your supplies, I happened to have this gorgeous Rico Teddy Aran going spare, so I thought what better wool to use for a bunny than a lovely soft one. The blessing and curse about this type of wool is that it hides a multitude of sins, so if you drop a stitch, not to worry! That being said, it’s not the easiest to see what you’re doing, so not a wool I would suggest for a beginner. I made a different version using a fleece print yarn for a friend’s baby, and that turned out just as adorable!

Assemble your supplies: scrap wool, stuffing, appropriate needles for your wool, knitters’ needle and stitch markers.

First decide how big you want your bunny to be. I roughly doubled the tension square of the Rico Teddy Aran and went by eye on how square it was – it doesn’t have to be perfect; goodness knows mine wasn’t! The first part of this instruction is simple – knit your square!

Once you’ve got your square, we’re aiming to make a triangle, with the point at the top of the square. You’ll want to find the centre point by folding in half and mark it with a stitch marker. Then find your edge points, roughly one third of the way down from the top. Mark those on both sides with a stitch marker each and it should look like this.

Using a length of the same yarn, sew a line from point to point to form your triangle, leaving the ends untied, this will be for the head.

Run another length of yarn along the bottom edge, this will be for closing the body up.

Pull the ends for the triangle so the square starts to fold in on itself, and stop when you can fit a couple fingers in there, put some of the stuffing inside, not too much so you can’t close it, but enough to make a good size head.

Tie off the ends. You’ll find that there’s a small hole showing the stuffing, so use the loose ends to sew into where this hole is and close it up.

Next we’re going to join the two sides together, just using a whip stitch, I quickly went through either side to join them together. Make this tight enough so that the stuffing doesn’t burst through! Insert your stuffing, the amount depends on how fat you want your bunny to be! Then pull the bottom run of yarn tight so it makes a small circle at the bottom. Tie these two ends together and slip them through to inside the bunny so they’re not visible.

Now you can stop here! I decided to add a little tail, just make sure you consider who you’re making for. Mine is just for me, so I’m using a small amount of stuffing as a tail, but this obviously wouldn’t be safe for young children and babies. You can also use a pom-pom or knit another smaller square and sew a circle of yarn around it to tie it in tight and attach that way.

You can even customise further from here, adding features such as eyes, nose and whiskers. Even little clothes such as a waist coat or pinafore in true Beatrix Potter style! I’ve left mine plain, as I love how it looks as is, but the rest is up to you!

Once again, don’t forget to keep sending us your quarantine makes, I’ve been loving looking at what you’ve all been getting up to whilst we can’t go out and it’s certainly been inspiring me with my creations! Another way to support the cause is to donate or volunteer your time to our scrubs campaign, for more info see our facebook or Instagram posts.

Stay home, stay safe, protect the NHS,