Koala Accessories

A friend of ours had a baby boy recently and I wanted to make a little something.  I thought about making another little bunny cuddly, like I did here, but decided I wanted to do something new this time.

I've also made hats as presents and bags.  For a baby I decided that a hat made a lot more sense.  I umm and ahhed about whether to make an owl in more masculine colours for him, but I wanted something completely different. I've said before that I'm mad about owls, but my son is mad about koalas, so that was my inspiration.  

I used the same hat pattern as for the owl, but used grey yarn, changed the ears to pom poms and tried to create a koala looking face.  I did want to do bigger pom poms, but I was worried about whether they would be comfortable for a little head, so I went smaller.

Continuing on with the koala theme, I made a little coin wallet/purse for my son for Christmas.

I used the same method for this as I did with my stripy pencil cases, but used a 2 inch zip instead.  I think he looks cool and my son is very pleased with him.

Paper Bunnies

Getting ready for Easter I was thinking about what crafts we could do and what we have done in the past.  We have made some lovely bunny paper punch art a couple of years ago.  For this one I used 2 different sized circle punches and then cut out a couple of ear shapes and used some cotton wool for the tail and drew on the whiskers.  It is an easy Easter card to recreate.

Another bunny paper punch art, but this time no bottoms!  We used an egg/oval shaped hole punch and then added a couple of cut out ear shapes and a little paper punched heart.  Googly eyes and some whiskers and you're done!

Whilst looking for rabbit related crafts, I came across this on the Crafty Crow blog. Sadly when I followed the link, this particular cut out was no longer available.  So I have created my own and thought I would share.

I designed it to fit on a piece of A5 paper.  Print it out landscape onto A4, cut off the large blank expanse, fold in half and then cut out the shaded bits to create the rabbit in the frame.  I hope you like it. :o)

Rabbit Template PDF

Crochet Bunnies

I didn't realise, but it turns out that I like making bunnies/rabbits.

I found a couple of lovely patterns for free online.  One to make a bunny cuddly.  I really, really love this pattern.  It was the first baby toy I had ever attempted to make and it came together really quickly. I'll admit I don't use two strands of wool to crochet him, just one Double Knit Acrylic.  Oh and I extended his arms by a couple of stitches so that it was easier to knot them into hands.

I wanted to make sure that he would be washable as I know how essential that can be with baby toys! To make sure he was safe I didn't use beads for the eyes, but I've seen there are those safety eyes you can sew on too.  There are lots of projects for this little fella on Ravelry, and I looked through them all to get inspiration on how I wanted his face to look.  Then I decided on one that I felt I probably could at least have an attempt at re-creating.  There are some lovely faces for bunnies on there, it is worth a look for inspiration.  I've made a couple now, though only managed to photograph one, and I love how each one can look totally different.  I also love how you can make a mistake or two and hopefully no one will spot them!

I also love this little appliqué bunny.  I made a few for our New Year's Eve Party this year and added them to elastic and used them for napkin rings.  As I had made them out of various coloured scrap yarn, we also used them around our glasses, so we knew which glass belonged to who.  Since then my daughter has used them as hair bands and bracelets.

Now, as Easter is coming up I decided this was the year I was finally going to create some of my own chocolate egg covers.  My Mum and Mother in Law have both found/made lovely ones in the past for my kids, so I figured, how hard can it be?  Turned out not so hard at all.

I used a 2.5mm hook with normal DK acrlyic wool for this project.  The pattern is my own.  The terms are American terms

Body (Make one)

Row 1:              Magic Circle to begin and chain 1, then 5 single crochet into the circle. (5 st)
Row 2:              2 single crochet into each stitch (10st)
Row 3:             *2 single crochet into next stitch and 1 single crochet into the next stitch* - repeat until end (15st)
Row 4 - 13:       Single crochet around (15st)
Row 14:            *Single crcohet in next stitch, single crochet two together in next stitch* - repeat until end (10 st) Fasten off and weave tails in.

Ears (Make 2) - These are inspired by the ears for the bunny cuddly above)

Row 1:              Chain 2
Row 2:              3 single crochet into 2nd chain from hook
Row 3:              6 single crochet around (so 2 single crochet into each stitch)
Row 4 :             *2 single crochet in next stitch, 1 single crochet in next stitch* repeat 2 times
Row 5 - 12:      Single crochet around
Row 6:             Single crochet two together, repeat 3 more times.  Fasten off - Leave a longish tail to sew on the ears.


Finishing Off:   Sew 2 beads on for eyes, use some thread to make a mouth and whiskers (I didn't have any black embroidery thread, so mine is just thick yarn.  Sew on the ears to the top of the body and add 2 small pieces of felt to them.  Lastly, but most importantly(!) add your chocolate egg, this also fits the plastic inside of a Kinder Egg, if you want to add your own chocs/treats to it. I've also created a little lamb chocolate egg cover and I'll be back soon to share the pattern for that.  I imagine that they would both work as egg warmers if you upped the hook size to at least a 3mm hook, maybe a 3.5mm hook.

The most impressive thing about this project is not that I managed to get the size right on the first try, but the fact that over a week later, the chocolate egg is still inside the bunny and hasn't been eaten by any member of the family yet...