I made this bunny for a friend’s baby, then decided he looked a bit sombre in colour and manic in expression for little kids. His name is Velveteen, and he’ll be joining the other explorers over at the Travelling Monsters  project. Velveteen is made more or less to the same pattern as Watership but in much chunkier chenille (aka baby blanket) yarn. I learned a few hard lessons along the way…

Velveteen welcoming adventure with open arms.

As you can see, he’s a big bunny.

Shaking his tail.

Here’s Velveteen with a bunny made to the original pattern in DK yarn.

Had to adjust the pattern for the ears for the chunky yarn as they were far too wide from back to front. Started with a 10 stitch chain instead of 5.

The extra weight of the ears meant Velveteen’s neck had to be thicker, so I had to adjust the whole pattern of the body with a slower decrease to a wider neck.

As well as adjusting the pattern for the size and weight of the chunky yarn, I had to be extra careful with the chenille. It’s a bit of a pain to unravel if you make a mistake. And you need to be doubly careful if you need to unpick stitching on something. I sewed on an arm, tried to unpick the stitches to move it and, accidentally cut through the crochet on the body. I had to redo a load of work – more than once as I’m making another 2 bunnies this size. I did learn a lot about blending repairs back into the fabric.

If you’d like to make your own enthusiastic Easter bunny like the little beige bunny in the pictures, there is a free pattern available here. I recommend working in DK yarn, though.