Pattern: Easter Egg Bunnies

A friend of mine was in need of a bit of cheering up. Last week, I sent her a care package with some tasty goodies, and, seeing as we know each other through Ravelry where we moderate the We Love Lucy group and swaps, some yarn and yarnie gifts in the form of an adorable little family of Easter egg bunnies! They're really easy to make, and surprisingly addictive because once you start you can't make just one. And seeing as we've still got little less than 2 weeks to go until Easter, you can still whip up a bunch of these cuties as random decorations!

All you need for these wobbly, egg-shaped decorations is a small amount of scrap yarn in the colour of your choice, some black yarn or other colour of choice for the eyes (or, if you want fancy, you can use plastic eyes), some peach/pink yarn for the nose, some white yarn for the fluffy tail, and some polyfill or scrap yarn to fill your bunnies with.

The size, and what size hook you need, of course depends on the yarn used. For instance, the bright green bunny was made with a 4.0 mm hook, but the yellow bunny was made with a 2.5 mm hook. I also increased once more on the brown one to really make that one tubbier than the others. Experiment with this: do you want cute, chubby little bunnies? Or tall, big bunnies?

So go ahead! Whip up some adorable bunnies for your Easter brunch table! Have fun!

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Easter Egg Bunnies

Materials:
- scrap yarn of your choice
- black/blue yarn for the eyes
- white yarn for the tail
- pink/peach yarn for the nose
- hook (size matching your yarn)
- polyfill or scrap yarn
- yarn needle
- a stitch marker (optional), if you think you need one.

All stitches are single crochet (sc) or a variation thereof (SCx2 means do two SC in the same stitch, SC2TOG means crochet the next two stitches together). The bunnies are worked in continuous rounds so don't join the rounds at the end. The numbers in parentheses at the end of the row are the total number of stitches that make up the row.

Body:
1: Make a magic circle and make 6 SC in the magic circle. (6)
2: (SCx2) in all 6 stitches. (12)
3: (SC, SCx2) 6 times. (18)
4, 5: SC around. (18)
6: (SC, SC, SCx2) 6 times. (24)
7, 8: SC around. (24)
9: (SC, SC, SC, SC, SC, SC, SC (that's 7 SC), SCx2) 3 times. (27) (this slight increase is to ensure your egg-shape is actually egg-shaped. If it doesn't look much like an egg yet, don't worry! It will!)
10, 11, 12: SC around (27)
13: (SC, SC, SC2TOG) 6 times, SC, SC2TOG. (20)
14: SC around. (20)
15: (SC, SC2TOG) 6 times. (14)
16: SC around. (14)
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At this point, you want to fill your egg up. Grab your polyfill or your scrap yarn and stuff your egg. Not too tightly, you don't want it to spill out through the stitches, but not too light either, otherwise your egg-shape won't hold up.
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17: (SC2TOG)  7 times. (7)
18: SC2TOG until closed.

Weave in your ends.

Ears (make 2):
1. Make a magic circle and make 6 SC in the magic circle. (6)
2. (SC, SCx2) 3 times. (9)
3, 4, 5, 6, 7: SC around. (9)
8: (SC, SC2TOG) 3 times (6)
9: SC around (6)
Finish off, leave a long tail. With the tail from the magic circle (the top of your bunny ear), weave through the ear from one side to the other a few times to ensure it stays flat, though don't pull too tightly or your ear will be bumpy.

Assembly:
Using the tails from your ears, sew the ears to the top of your egg shape (the top is your magic circle). I found it easiest to take the first round of 6 stitches as a guide and sew the ear to stitches opposite of one another on that circle .I thought it looked slightly better if the ears were at a slight angle, but do whatever floats your boat!

Once your ears have been sewn on, take some pink or peach yarn and pick a stitch that's roughly in the centre between the two ears, at about 1/3 from the top of the ear. Push your needle through the egg from the back to the selected stitch at the front and make a few stitches over the top of the selected stitch. To finish off, simply stick your needle through the egg again to  the other side and cut off the yarn as close to the egg as you can (you can pull on it or push the egg down, it'll bounce back).
Now take your black yarn and pick two stitches next to the nose, only one row above it. These two stitches will become your eyes! Follow the same method we used for the eyes: feed your needle through the back to one of the two stitches and embroider around it a few times, then feed it (through the inside of the egg) to the other stitch and repeat. To finish off, simply push your needle through the egg again after your last stitch and snip off the yarn as close to the edge as you can.

Make a pompom out of the white yarn and fluff it up nicely. Make a straight line from between the ears down the back of the bunny and attach it close to the bottom of your bunny egg.


Voilá! Little Easter Egg Bunnies!