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.

Generally I like knitting patterns where I feel like you can use whatever yarn you have (because my stash is big enough and I want to use it, thanks) and make a successful project. This is one of those times when a special yarn makes the process that much easier.

The Floral Bouquet Shawl from Xandy Peters uses a specific extended color pooling yarn from Feisty Fibers, which allows you to place the bobble flowers with increasing frequency as you knit the project.

It starts with a solid color yarn, then the two color yarn is added in, and you make a bobble whenever you encounter the color pops. This would be hard to replicate with other yarn that doesn’t have the extended color pooling built in.

The background of the shawl is ribbed, making the project reversible.

The shawl uses fingering/sock yarn and comes out to be an asymmetrical triangle that’s 54 inches/137 cm long and 36 inches/ 90 cm deep and 60 inches/150 cm across the top edge.

Xandy says the pattern is for intermediate to advanced knitters. Knowing how to work traditional bobbles would probably help, but there’s a great video tutorial for how to work the floral bobbles so you can practice on other yarn or even incorporate the bobbles into other projects.

The bobbles are five-petaled flowers but they also kind of look like starfish to me, which could be fun on a child’s cardigan or other pattern. They’d also be fun on the leg of a sock or around the brim of a hat for extra whimsy.

The pattern includes photo and video tutorials, and written and charted instructions. It also includes tips on what to look for if you choose to use different yarn for the project, and instructions on how to dye your own yarn to use in the project.

If you want to give it a try, you can find the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Xandy Peters]

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