Tshirt Yarn Foot o’ the Bed Rug – Free pattern included

Whoa. What a week! Am preparing for a month long holiday to Australia, as well as preparing to start a new position at work when I’m back from my holidays. As well as interviewing for my replacement, preparing for a possibly complicated handover and trying to plan what I’ll need for an expensive but glorious month in the Australian wilderness! Surprisingly all I’ve felt able to concentrate on after work is trying not to fall asleep before eating dinner. I always thought that work was just something I did to pay the bills. My life was outside of work, and crocheting was my most convenient creative outlet. I found it very easy to seperate work from my personal time. But after this week I’ve noticed that I really do care about my job. When my boyfriend said to me, “Don’t worry, it won’t be your problem soon” I realised that I actually really do care! I want everything to go smoothly and I want the guys in my team to continue having a nice working environment. So anyway, I think this is my long winded way of saying, I have not been crocheting that much this last week. I am working on something but it’s slow going.

In the meantime I did want to share something that I made about a month ago. I had a whole bunch of Tshirt yarn (yes, that is what it sounds like, it’s lengths of Tshirt fabric that can be crocheted together with a very large hook) and due to the cold weather I was inspired to make a nice rug for the foot of the bed. It didn’t take too long to complete thanks to the thickness of the yarn.

Because Tshirt yarn is the off-clippings of other clothes, it does not have the uniformity of most yarns. But it’s a great hardy and flexible material to use. Just excuse the slight deformity – It’s not my technique, I swear!

We’ve got a dark wood bed frame so I really like that the colour of this rug matches that. Adds to the room nicely I think!

The pattern is available for FREE at my pattern blog MumboJumbo Crochet by following this link HERE.

Enjoy and hope you have a great and relaxing weekend! I know I will after the busy week I’ve had!

Free Easter Bunny Pattern. Come one. Come all!

Super cute little crochet plush toys, AKA Amigurumi, can be anything from food, animals or even furniture. Most of the stuff I have done has been food related (see my Donuts, Watermelon Bites and Tutti Frutti set). But I have constantly been keeping an eye on cute little animals to crochet. And with Easter coming up I wanted to get started with more theme crocheting. One of the things I wanted to do was crochet a cute little Amigurumi Bunny. Though to be honest I couldn’t really find any ideal patterns. Call me picky… cos I am. So what happened is I ended up creating my own pattern!

As I am super proud of myself for doing so, I naturally want to share/flaunt/show-off my pattern to anyone who will listen.

Here it goes!

Materials:

Dude, just use whatever yarn you want and get a hook that’s the correct size for it and you’ll be sweet! Just remember that it might work a little better to use a slightly smaller hook than recommended, cos that will tighten up your work and ensure that no stuffing peeks out. Up to you though.

I used a very thin yarn, which can be fiddly and a bit frustrating at times, so if you are a beginner, I would recommend using something a little thicker than I did!

Also a thought – maybe have some other colour threads ready to do some embroidered facial features.

Go nutso with the colours! Make the face unique (search pinterest for Amigurumi faces if you want some inspiration). Give it a belly button, some sunglasses, a butt crack… Make it your own!

You can also create accessories for this guy to give him his own personality. For example:

A city chic scarf from the Winter 2016 catalogue! Rugged up and ready for going out on the town:

Or a bit of gangsta bling with a dope ass chain:

Just to give you an idea of how big this Bunny ends up, I used cotton thread (you know that stuff that you made friendship bracelets with in Grade 6? It’s called Mulina in Polish, but I cannot remember the technical English name) and a 1.5mm hook. It ended up being roughly 7cm tall, and that’s measuring from feet to the top of the head (so, not including the ears).

You’ll also need some stuffing too, obviously.

 

Notes:

You will be crocheting in the round (spiraling all the way around continuously) so it is essential you use a stitch marker. I was using a safety pin. When I start a round, I will place the stitch marker in the first stitch of that row.

The pattern is very easy and it only uses 4 different stitches/techniques. All four of which I have provided tutorial links to in the abbreviations section. So if you are a beginner, YOU CAN TOTES DO IT! I believe in you.

Oh and if you have any questions, ask away!

 

Abbreviations:

US Terms Used

Magic Ring = Adjustable loop (tutorial with pictures here)

SC = Single Crochet (tutorial with pictures here)

INC = Single Crochet Increase (this means that you do two Single Crochets in the same stitch. Check out some instructions here)

DEC = Single Crochet Decrease (tutorial with pictures here)

 

Head and Body:

Start with a magic ring.

1. 6 SC into the magic ring and pull it tight (6)
2. INC in each stitch around (12)
3. * 1 SC, INC * around (18)
4. * 2 SC, INC * around (24)
5. * 3 SC, INC * around (30)
6. * 4 SC, INC * around (36)
7. SC around (36)
8. SC around (36)
9. SC around (36)
10. SC around (36)
11. SC around (36)
12. SC around (36)
13. SC around (36)
14. SC around (36)
15. SC around (36)
16. SC around (36)
17. * 5 SC, INC * around (42)
18. SC around (42)
19. SC around (42)
20. * 6 SC, INC * around (48)
21. SC around (48)
22. SC around (48)
23. * 7 SC, INC * around (54)
24. SC around (54)
25. SC around (54)
26. SC around (54)
27. SC around (54)
28. SC around (54)
29. SC around (54)
30. SC around (54)
31. SC around (54)
32. SC around (54)
33. SC around (54)
34. SC around (54)
35. * 7 SC, DEC * around (48)
36. SC around (48)

FYI – Here’s a good time to stuff da booty.

Now to start on the legs! Count and place a stitch marker in the 24th stitch from your hook. Chain 12 and join it with a slip stitch to where you placed your stitch marker. You should now have two separate sections of 36 stitches each. These will form the legs, and you will do one at a time.

37. In the first section, SC around (36) – This means you will have 24 SC on the body and the remaining 12 SC will be on the back loops only of the chain (the reason I use the back loops is so that the front loops can easily be used for the second leg…)
38. * 4 SC, DEC * around (30)
39. * 3 SC, DEC * around (24)
40. SC around (24)
41. SC around (24)
42. SC around (24)
43. SC around (24)

Finish off and break the yarn.

Do the second leg on the other section of 36 stitches. Basically, just repeat steps 37-43!

Add extra stuffing if it’s needed.

 

Bases of the legs:

Two will be needed, obviously.

Start with a magic ring.

1. 6 SC into the magic ring and pull it tight (6)
2. INC in each stitch around (12)
3. * 1 SC, INC * around (18)
4. * 2 SC, INC * around (24)

No need to break the yarn here, just continue to SC the next round straight onto the legs of the body to join it.

Repeat this with the other leg.

 

Arms:

You’ll be making two of these.

As usual, start with a magic ring.

1. 6 SC into the magic ring and pull it tight (6)
2. INC in each stitch around (12)
3. * 1 SC, INC * around (18)
4. SC around (18)
5. SC around (18)
6. * 1 SC, DEC * around (12)
7. SC around (12)
8. SC around (12)
9. SC around (12)
10. Stuff the arm (but not too much) and then pinch the end closed. 6 SC across to close the edge and make it flat.

Finish off, leaving a long tail of yarn to sew to the body.

 

Ears:

Obviously you’ll also need two of these (unless you want your bunny to look like he’s lived a tough life on the streets)

Aaaaaaand, guess what? Start with a magic ring!

1. 4 SC into the magic ring and pull it tight (4)
2. INC in each stitch around (8)
3. * 1 SC, INC * around (12)
4. * 2 SC, INC * around (16)
5. * 3 SC, INC * around (20)
6. SC around (20)
7. SC around (20)
8. * 3 SC, DEC * around (16)
9. SC around (16)
10. SC around (16)
11. * 2 SC, DEC * around (12)
12. SC around (12)
13. SC around (12)
14. SC around (12)
15. SC around (12)

Finish off, leaving a long tail of yarn to sew to the body later.

 

Tail:

This is up to you what colour you want to do this in. Or if you want to do this at all. Maybe you wanna use a pom pom instead? I dunno… Up to you! However I will give you the pattern for what I did just in case you want it:

Say it with me now: “Start with a magic ring!”

1. 6 SC into the magic ring and pull it tight (6)
2. INC in each stitch around (12)
3. 1 SC, INC, 2 SC, INC, 2 SC, INC, 2 SC, INC, 1 SC (16)
4. 3 SC, INC, 3SC, INC, 3 SC, INC, 3 SC, INC (20)
5. 4 SC, INC, 10 SC, INC, 4 SC (22)
6. SC around (22)
7. SC around (22)

 

Assembly

Sew those bits and bobs onto the body YO! Use my pics as reference, or just play around with the positioning. Maybe the arms will look cuter if they are more in front, or higher on the body? Maybe you want those ears to flop down the side of the head?

One thing I do recommend though – don’t stuff the ears. They are rigid enough to stand up on their own. Also, if you leave out the stuffing of the ears, you have more options to shape them!

EDIT

I made another bigger version of the Easter Bunny! Using the exact same pattern except with thicker yarn and a larger hook:

You can literally crochet anything

My crochet addiction started with knitting. For years I had been more of a drawer and painter. Usually I would draw or paint something every weekend. Then it dried up. For some reason I just wasn’t feeling it anymore. I was kinda beating myself up about not being disciplined enough and not creating enough but on the other hand I didn’t want to force myself to draw and paint and then end up hating it. I knew the desire to draw and paint would come back to me eventually. So I started looking for something creative to do during my hiatus. I gave myself a break, stopped beating myself up about not drawing and painting and decided I was going to knit a scarf.

This was the result:

It ended up being an infinity scarf and as it was made out of 100% wool yarn it was super warm. Seriously warm. Maybe too warm, because of course that winter was one of the mildest ones we’ve had in a long time. So it didn’t end up getting much use. Sad face.

BUT, in the process of making this scarf I started using Pinterest to find patterns and learn some new tricks. Pinterest is honestly a god send and a horrible enabler for people with the crafting gene. I mean holy SHIT there was so much to make!

What I did spot was that there was a crazy load of different crochet patterns out there. In particular, I saw some crochet lace patterns and was immediately feeling determined. You could do so much with crochet! And to me it just seemed so much more straightforward than knitting. If you want to do some more detailed knitting you gotta have a lot of tools too.

So I was browsing Pinterest today when I came across something truly ridiculous. Cat anus coasters. You really can crochet ANYTHING if you put your mind to it. This is the perfect example of how much you can do with crochet.

By hooksandballs

I dunno why anyone would think that crocheting cat butts is a good idea, but this person seems to have really cornered a niche market!

It reminds me of that Bob’s Burger’s episode. IT’S ART!