Monday 1 April 2013

Cosy Warm Easter Bunnies


Hi there!
It is Spring...if the weather would allow it to be and it has also just been Easter. I love Easter. It always reminds me if a trip I took with my family a few years ago to Belgium. We were going to see Battlefields and the graves if our ancestors but we also stayed in a beautiful vintage hotel in Ypres and it was Easter and Ypres were celebrating it big style. Belgium is an extremely under rated holiday destination. It has a lot of history, beautiful buildings and amazing food and truly the best chocolate. But also boy do they know how to do Easter!
Easter is everywhere and before it became big over here to put up little Easter Trees and decorate the home with chicks and rabbits, Belgium had mastered it. My Mum was the most inspired and emulates this every Easter, with decorations in every room and bowls of chocolate eggs to nibble on. Easter is always special to me, I bought my own Easter tree a couple of years ago and have tiny paper eggs to place on it, the spring colours are so lovely and cheery. I really think Easter is an undervalued holiday and the decorations you can get can be really lovely and make a really big impact.
This year I was seeing my friends before Easter and I wanted to give them an Easter Present. I have been buying Knitting magazines a lot at the moment, 1) because you can get some very useful free gifts like cable needles and stitch holders (I live a free gift!) 2) because there are some lovely quick and easy patterns to keep from very talented knitters and designers. My favourite at the moment is Simply Knitting but I also like Mollie Makes and Knit Now.
In Simply Knitting they had an entire Easter Knitting segment full of tiny.Easter eggs for Easter trees and egg cosies a plenty. I found a pattern for bunny egg cosies knitted in the round. As some of my previous readers may know one of my New Years Resolutions was to master Knitting in the round and these small bunny egg cosies were perfect for me to try and complete!
I started with a multicoloured baby wool in Spring Pastels and learnt to cast on through a YouTube video. (Got to love YouTube!). The pattern asked for 28 stitches but as my needles were slightly smaller than the pattern asked for I cast on 30, 10 on each needle. Then remembering the words of my knitting teacher 'Don't twist your stitches! The first round is hard enough without twisting the stitches!' I began to knit in the round properly for the first time.
The first 2 row were hard, they are in Moss stitch (1K: K1, P1 2P: P1, K1) but after that I was on a roll and knitting in the round isn't too bad. In a way it is easier than knitting on 2 needles as you just knit the rows and get stocking stitch without alternating Knit and Purl, and there are no ends to knit together no seams, just a knitted round tube. The bunnies have 6 rows of Moss stitch and then 7-28 rows is knitted. Then you cast off using Kitchener stitch and make i-cords 5 stitches wide for ears. Tie some of the wool over the ears to cross them over and darn on a little twitchy bunny face. I also had some stick on ribbon bows so put these on too for a bow tie.
I made 6 for my friends and used lots of ends of wool I had in my bag to make different bunnies. Each one was unique and had a charm of its own.
I was really happy with the effect and put chocolate eggs in each one and presented them in an egg box which raised some laughs as I did give the bunnies to them during cocktail hour! I am really pleased with the egg cosies and feel like I have done my little bit back to celebrate Easter the Belgium way as well as completing one of my resolutions!
Happy Easter everyone!!
Lots of love
BomoKnitting











6 comments:

  1. Love my easter bunny! X shell

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  2. They all have their own little personality. The little bow ties are really cute. Well done on working on your new year resolution :)

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  3. They're lovely, really cute. Well done on taking the first steps in knitting in the round - I love it!

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  4. Well done you mastered the knitting in round well, the bunnies look fab.

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  5. Lovely bunnies! I've been to Ypres (although in the Autumn) and it is a wonderful place to visit. Simmi x

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