Knit a Giant Peep-Style Easter Bunny

I recently posted about a couple of my older Easter knitting patterns, and I was thinking out loud how it would be fun to make a giant Peep-style bunny out of blanket yarn, following the trend of giant amigurumi.

I happened to have most of a ball of Bernat Blanket yarn left over from another project, so I decided to give it a go.

The result is this Peep bunny knitting pattern that I shared over on Our Daily Craft.

It’s actually a pretty quick and easy project, worked in one piece from the bottom up. You increase to form the base, then do a round of purl stitches to mark the edge of the base. The body is worked straight in stockinette stitch as long as you want, with a little shaping for the head. Then each ear is worked in turn from some of the stitches used on the head. If you need to “seam” anything, it’s that tiny space between the ears.

My absolute favorite part, though, is that I wanted this bunny to stand up on its own, so I wanted to stuff it with things heavier than standard stuffing (though I did use regular stuffing in the ears). So I gathered all this random stuff (so much random stuff) like the tops of old T0shirts I’d used to make yarn, the edges of old cloth napkins I had cut off so I could reuse the rest of the fabric, yarn ends and fabric scraps and just so much stuff.

It was really quite satisfying. Bunny is firm but still huggable, and weighs a whopping 3.5 pounds. It also stands 25 inches tall and is nearly 30 inches around the belly. This would be so fun to make for a little one for Easter, or just to have hanging around your living room during the spring.

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Knitwear designers can get inspiration from almost anything when it comes to re-creating a color scheme, an image or a texture in stitches. Sometimes the inspiration isn’t always obvious in the finished project, but sometimes it’s more literal.

That’s the way it is with the Tin Ceiling Blanket from Purl Soho. Not just because the inspiration is in the name, but if you’ve ever seen one of these old ceilings you can see that the design of the blanket is quite similar to the pattern of the tin tiles.

This is also a good example of the idea that you don’t have to use fancy stitch patterns or lots of color to make a big impact with your knits. This single-color blanket (designed by Gianna Mueller and inspired by a washcloth and towel set designed by Sandi Rosner) is made completely with knits and purls, other than slipped stitches at the beginning of rows to make neater edges.

The pattern is written out row by row, but there’s also a chart, which means this project is a great opportunity to practice reading a chart where you can check your work against the written pattern if you need to.

It comes in two sizes, a crib blanket and a throw. The yarn used in the sample is an organic cotton sold by the cone, which is a great way to get a large quantity of yarn and have fewer ends to weave in. In fact, you can knit either size of the blanket with just one cone of yarn, which isn’t inexpensive but makes you a great, sturdy, heirloom quality but still washable blanket you’ll use for years to come. (Of course you can use any sport weight yarn you like to make this blanket.)

Check out all the details and grab the free pattern from Purl Soho.

[Photo: Purl Soho]

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