Book Review: Knitting Peter Rabbit

The characters developed by Beatrix Potter may be even more well-known than the stories about them. The classic illustrations in her books have a timeless appeal, and now you can knit 12 of those characters with help from Claire Garland’s Knitting Peter Rabbit.

These designs are incredibly detailed and definitely not for people who have never knit animals before. Many parts of the patterns involve holding two strands of yarn at a time to give the animal’s fur the right texture. There are also felt garments for the characters to make them look even more like the original illustrations.

Because I’m sure you’ll want to know, here’s the full list of characters in the book:

Peter Rabbit
Benjamin Bunny
Flopsy Bunny
Jemima Puddle-Duck
Mrs. Tiggy-winkle
Mr. Jeremy Fisher
Tom Kitten
Squirrel Nutkin
The Tailor of Gloucester
Samuel Whiskers
Mr. Tod the fox
Tommy Brock the badger

My favorite is probably Mrs. Tiggy-winkle, the adorable hedgehog laundress. She has a little knit sweater and a felt apron and is just so cute. (You can see a few of the patterns on the book’s Amazon listing.)

But honestly they’re all pretty adorable, and the whole set would be great to knit for someone of any age who loves these stories. Or if they don’t already love them, knit up a character and gift it along with the book in which they appear and you’ll make a fan in no time.

The designs are very faithful to the original illustrations and the level of detail is amazing, but well worth the effort. She includes detailed finishing instructions and advises you to make good use of locking stitch markers as you knit to make it easier to know where pieces are supposed to go together when you’re doing the assembly. All the pieces are knit flat on straight needles, and there are templates in the back for making all the felt clothing and accessories.

For fans of Beatrix Potter, or just those who love adorable animals in human clothes, Knitting Peter Rabbit is a great guide to knitting these classic characters.

About the book: 128 pages, paperback, 12 patterns. Published 2023 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $29.99.

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns.

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn.

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options.

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners.

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set.

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn.

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers.

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.

Have you read?