A Comfy Kind Of Restless

Hi!

For World Book Day this year, our youngest wanted to dress up as Peter Rabbit.  I ‘hopped’ on to Ebay and bought him a costume that came with brown rabbit ears on a headband, and a wee polyester blue jacket. 

I already had a bag that would do (modern-day Peter has a satchel) to hold the small board book and carrot that are (naturally) bunny essentials – so our boy just needed a tail. 

Cue mummy me giving in to the crafty cravings that bubble up around Spring!

I did not have a lot of time to dedicate to the task (blog to write, housework to procrastinate over, blah blah) so I thought I’d just throw together a crocheted round that increased, then tapered and closed.  Easy.

Made a hash of my first attempt. I didn’t keep track of the stitches, used too small a hook, and tried to parent while crocheting.  Not good.

I bound it off and gave it to our son as a hat for his toys…

Around about 8pm on the night before we needed it, I started over while waiting for my husband to return with my chippie tea. This time I doubled up the yarn and used a bigger hook!

Pattern for a bunny’s tail

Materials:

6mm crochet hook

Double Knitting yarn in white.  I used two strands held together throughout. 

A scrap piece of brightly coloured yarn as a marker

Washable toy stuffing

I used single crochet for all of the tail, see here for how you do that. I worked in continuous rounds, so no turning chain is needed.

Abbreviations:

Rnd – round

St(s) – stitch(es)

Inc – increase (two stiches worked into one stitch. See here.)

Dec – decrease (work two stitches as one. See here.)

To start:

6st in a magic ring or chain 2 and work 6st into the second chain from the hook.

1^st rnd:  Work a st, place a marker underneath this stitch, so you know where to stop your round (I usually use a brightly coloured piece of yarn.  See picture) remember to move the marker up every time you work that first stitch. Work a second stitch into the same stitch you just worked from (so you are inc 1 st).  Inc into each st around. (12sts)

You are adding 6sts to each inc round:

2^nd rnd: Work first stitch, inc into second stitch.  Repeat around.  (18 sts)

3^rd rnd: Work first 2sts, inc into third st.  Repeat around.  (24 sts)

4^th rnd: Work first 3sts, inc into fourth st.  Repeat around. (30 sts)

5^th rnd: Work first 4sts, inc into fifth st.  Repeat around. (36 sts)

6^th rnd: Work every st just once, around. (36 sts)

Start Decreasing by 6sts in each round:

7^th rnd: Work first 4sts, dec in fifth st.  Repeat around. (30sts)

8^th rnd: Work first 3sts, dec in fourth st. Repeat around. (24 sts)

9^th rnd: Work first 2sts, dec in third st.  Repeat around.  (18 sts)

10^th rnd: Work first st, dec in second st.  Repeat around (12 sts)

[At this point, you need to start stuffing with washable toy stuffing.  Put enough in so that it looks nice and round, but not too much that you can’t work the next row with it annoying your hook!]

11^th rnd: Dec in every st around. (6 sts)

[Finish stuffing, try and make it nice and tight.  I always use the non-hook end of my crochet hook to help pack it in.]

Final rnd: Dec around.

Finish off.

One bunny tail!  I put a large safety pin through the bound off bit, and attached it to our youngest’s tracksuit bottoms.

Sorted!

I hope you like this pattern, and get to bounce off happy 🙂

[You could even make two of these and attach them to a hairband somehow, as earmuffs!

Or sew/attach safety eyes to one, and call it a blob monster. 

Crochet different colours, stuff them really well, and have them as juggling balls. 

Leave a long tail on them and hang them as decorations

…they’re a pretty versatile product 😉

Please link back to my blog if someone asks for the pattern, thank you.]

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Please do not use any of my content (posts, pictures, poetry etc) without my permission, but feel free to link back to my blog if something catches your eye. Thank you!