Fuzzy Wuzzy was a lonely bunny, and he begged and pleaded, so I set out to make him a new snuggly friend. Follow along to make your own Easter Bunny and learn the basics of knitting all in one go!
How to begin? Well, to start you will need:
- Knitting Needles
- Yarn
Later on (to finish your bunny) you will need:
- Stuffing (or fabric scraps) to stuff your bunny
- Darning Needle to sew up your bunny
- Buttons or fabric for bunny’s eyes
- Contrast Colour yarn to make a pompom tail
——————————————————————
Project Overview: How Do I Knit an Easter Bunny?
You will knit a piece of flat fabric, then fold it and sew it into a bunny shape. The finished piece of fabric will look like this:
To create this piece of fabric, you will learn to CAST ON, KNIT, and BIND OFF – these are the most basic skills you need to knit!
——————————————————————
HOW TO BEGIN KNITTING: CAST ON
Casting on is how you BEGIN knitting.
The first step in casting on is to create a slip knot. This takes 2 steps. First you make a loop in the end of the yarn. Hold this loop in your left hand. Now with your right hand, take a piece of yarn from one side of the loop, and push a loop of it through the loop in your left hand. Put this loop of your needle (or crochet hook if you’re beginning a crochet project), and pull down on the ends to tighten the loop up a bit.
The slip knot counts as your first stitch. To add stitches, we will be casting on using the KNITTED CAST ON method.
knitted cast on : EASY METHOD
Hold the needle with the slip knot on it in your LEFT hand, and the other needle in the RIGHT hand, as if you were knitting.
- Insert the RIGHT hand needle through the loop, under your LEFT hand needle.
- Using the working yarn (the yarn that leads to the ball), wrap the yarn around the RIGHT hand needle point, counterclockwise. This forms a loop around the point of the Right hand needle.
- Use the needle point to draw this loop through to the front of the work.
- Now you have a stitch on the LH needle (the slip knot), and a new stitch on the RH needle.
- Put the new stitch on the LH needle. You have just cast on 1 new stitch!
Continue by inserting your RH needle into the last stitch made, wrapping the working yarn around the RH needle point, and drawing a new loop through to the front of the work, then placing this new stitch on the LH needle.
So to begin your Bunny, cast on 11 stitches.
Next, you will knit 18 rows.
On the next row, you will cast on 5 stitches at the start of the row (using the same cast on technique we used to begin the bunny).
Now you have 18 stitches on your needle. Next you will knit 8 rows.
At the start of the next row, you will BIND OFF the first 5 stitches. This leaves you 11 stitches on your needle. Finish this row by knitting to the end, across these 11 stitches.
On the next row, you knit across these 11 stitches. Then at the start of the following row, you will cast on 5 stitches again at the start of the row, and you will have 16 stitches on the needles again.
Next, knit 8 rows.
On the next row, bind off 5 stitches, then knit to the end of the row.
Lastly, knit 2 more rows.
Now bind off all your stitches.
HOW TO BIND OFF:
Knit 2 stitches. There are now 2 stitches on the Right Hand needle. Using your Left Hand needle, pick the first of these 2 stitches up and lift it OVER the second stitch, and let it fall off the needle. Now you just have 1 stitch on the Right Hand Needle. This is 1 stitch BOUND OFF.
To bind off all stitches, continue, knitting 1 more stitch (so you have 2 on the Right Hand needle), then lifting the first stitch over the second stitch and off the needles. At the end, you will be left with a single LAST STITCH. Now you will break the yarn, leaving a 6″ tail.
To secure the last stitch, you thread the yarn tail through the last stitch, and pull it tight to finish your knitting!
Congratulations, you have completed the knitting part of bunny creation. Now your knitted bunny shape looks like this:
SO next, how do you make this flat piece of knitted fabric into a BUNNY?
Well first you fold the fabric in half, so the CAST ON edge and the BIND OFF edge are touching. Then you SEW along that edge, and along the top opening, sewing the back to the bottom of the bunny ears.
Then you stuff your bunny, with stuffing or old fabric scraps, and sew up the bunny bottom.
Now you have a stuffed bunny, but you need to fold & sew the tops of the ears together, so they have a bunny ear shape
Then you do the same to the other side, and then you sew on some button or safety eyes, and a fluffy pom-pom tail, and your lovely bunny is complete! Hop Hop Hop
And now Fuzzy Wuzzy is happy because he has a new friend! Joy and Happiness!
And that, my friends, is how you to knit yourself a lovely fuzzy bunny!