Baby Bunnies crochet pattern
Bunnies are one of the most commonly-designed toys – maybe second only to the ubiquitous teddy bear. I’ve even designed 3 different bunnies myself, previously. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a realistically-shaped amigurumi rabbit, which is strange when you think about it, because real bunnies (especially babies) are one of the cutest things you’ll ever see!
We could all use a little more cuteness in our lives, so I decided to do something about that, in the form of my new Baby Bunnies crochet pattern:
My Dwarf, Angora and Lop bunnies are so adorably tiny – about 4.5″ (12cm) long – that they can sit in the palm of your hand – just like real baby bunnies!
Meet the Bunnies
1. Dwarf
There was a time when I was desperate for a grey Netherland Dwarf rabbit. With their short ears and big eyes, I thought they were absolutely irresistible. My dream of a bunny of my own didn’t work out (although I ended up with the world’s most intelligent guinea pig instead, so that was okay!) but now, 20+ years(!) later, I finally have my little grey dwarf bunny:
FYI, while researching this breed, I discovered that this solid grey colouring is actually called ‘blue self’ in the rabbit breed standard – just like with cats!
2. Angora
Ever since I made my alpaca from alpaca yarn, I’ve been planning a series of natural fibre amigurumi, of fibre-producing animals made from their own yarn. With that in mind, I bought one precious 22g skein of locally-produced angora a couple of years ago – it was the only one I could find in my budget, and was unfortunately a 2-ply laceweight yarn: not exactly ideal for amigurumi! Here’s how to turn laceweight into worsted with a minimum of effort (a ball winder is essential though!):
- Wind the skein into a ball.
- Hold both the outside and centre ends together, and wind them together into another ball.
- Repeat step 2 with the doubled yarn, to make a ball with 4 thicknesses of yarn wound together.
Now, this isn’t exactly ideal; the new ‘plies’ aren’t twisted together, so you have to be careful to pick up all 4 strands of yarn with your hook as you form every stitch. But it was sooooo worth it to get to work with this angora yarn: although it took concentration to make sure I was grabbing all 4 strands with my hook, the yarn was deliciously soft and a real pleasure to work with. A little part of me did worry that I was ‘wasting’ this high-quality fibre, but, now I see the end result, I don’t regret it at all:
I wish you could reach out and touch her through your screen; words don’t do justice to how amazingly soft and fluffy she is!
3. Lop
Rounding out the party, I just had to add a baby lop to the collection. I couldn’t stop saying “awwww!” while I was looking up reference photos for this one; do a Google image search for baby lop bunny and you’ll see what I mean. Go on, do it now so you can see what I mean; I’ll wait… Right? Ahhh, the cuteness!
* * *
I’d love to take the credit for my clever timing with this design, but when I started it in January, it didn’t even occur to me that this would be a perfect design for Easter and the upcoming spring season. (I put that down to southern hemisphere confusion – it’s hard to think about Easter when you’re in the middle of summer.) But now, serendipitously, Easter is 6 weeks away, so it’s the perfect time to start making bunnies galore. The March PlanetJune CAL (more details nearer the time) will be Easter-themed, so I’m hoping to see a lot of adorable bunnies in amongst the crocheted Easter Eggs this year 😀
Tempted to make an armful of bunnies of your own? You can pick up the pattern right now from the shop – it even has a special price until the end of February! If you’re not quite ready to buy though, how about queuing Baby Bunnies on ravelry so you don’t forget about it?
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Gianna said
The bunnies are so CUTE!!!!! Can you please try to make some more and sell the actual bunny instead of the pattern ????????
June said
Thanks, Gianna! I’m afraid I don’t have time to accept commissions for finished items based on my patterns, but some of my customers do: you can find the list of customers who sell items based on my patterns at www.planetjune.com/buytoys – maybe you’ll find one of them who has what you’re looking for in stock, or can custom-make it for you 🙂
Rina said
Pls tell me the angora yarn u have is fake. Because of the cruel way of getting their fur. Pls don’t encourage the use of angora. It would be best of there are alternative.
June said
Angora bunnies are fibre-producing animals, just like sheep, alpaca, etc, and it’s not cruel or painful to remove their excess fur and spin it into yarn, provided it’s done humanely.
You’re probably thinking of inhumane practices in Chinese angora fur mills, but local companies can produce small quantities of angora yarn without hurting their rabbits, although it is extremely expensive. I bought my yarn directly from the producer at a local fibre festival in Canada, and I’m sure it was produced ethically and without any harm to the rabbits. That’s why I could only afford one small precious ball; enough to make my bunny.
As for yarn alternatives, my Baby Bunnies pattern is primarily designed to be used with acrylic yarn, but, as with all my amigurumi patterns, you can use almost any yarn (with an appropriate hook) and get a good result. You certainly don’t need to use angora yarn to make my angora bunny pattern.
Stef & sa Belette said
I just made it !
wonderful !
her name is Huguette !
Thank you very much
I’m so sorry my english is so bad
St
Janet said
These rabbits are absolutely adorable. They will definitely be added to my list of things to make for Easter!
I have a very funny story about last Easter and a lop eared rabbit. Hope you don’t mind if I tell it here.
My husband has never bought me an Easter egg. Last year, I kept telling him that all I wanted was a Lindt bunny. Easter Sunday turned up but no Lindt bunny. Later I went into our bedroom. As I looked out of the window, I saw a little bunny hopping up our driveway!
I called out to hubby to come into the bedroom and see the bunny hopping up the drive. He didn’t believe me but came in anyway, just to humour me. Then he saw the bunny. He went outside just in time to see it hop under the gate and into the backyard.
Well, it took both of us about an hour to catch it. We were worried that if it went into a neighbouring property that a dog might attack it.
Bunny was finally safe in my arms and we took him inside. For a while we kept him in the laundry before letting him into the house. He was a curious little lop eared bunny, so I called him George.
We put a sign on our fence letting people know we had found a rabbit. Easter Sunday and a rabbit appears in our house. LOL. A lot of people didn’t believe us.
George was a very clean bunny and knew what the paper in the laundry was for. He also knew when we were going to feed him and he would hop out to the laundry.
After a couple of days, George had settled in. When he hopped onto my lap, I just melted. He ran laps around the house, which was funny. When I stood still and he ran laps round me, hubby and I laughed. At the time we didn’t know he was doing a “love dance”. He also answered to George.
We had George for a week before his owners claimed him. They had been on holiday and thought he was gone forever when he disappeared just before they left for the Flinders Rangers. I was so sad to see him leave and cried for ages.
We visited George at his real home. His name is really Bailey. When we called him George, he still knew who we were. I held him and he purred for me.
After nearly a year, I still miss George. We are moving into our brand new home next weekend and I keep telling hubby that there is enough room for another George there. I would call him, or her, George. Not George 2, just George. I think it’s a great name for a rabbit!
So it’s just wait and see for me. Hopefully a bunny will turn up in my life soon. And just in case he doesn’t, I’m going to make your lovely little lop eared bunny. I already know his name.
Thanks for a wonderful site. (And thanks for letting me tell you about George. Something another bunny lover would understand.)
Best wishes from a very hot and windy Australia.
June said
Awww!
steph said
Another ADORABLE one to try is a lionhead, my bunny recently had three and OMG sooo cute ( after the first week) lol
Summer Van said
Awww…. my favorite is the white fuzzy one. Thanks for the pictures!
Michelle Bogart said
I designed a realistic bunny pattern several years ago that I just wanted to share with you. I love your bunnies too.
s26.beta.photobucket.com/user/MichelleBogart/media/Crochet/Toys/100_7058.jpg.html?sort=3&o=63
s26.beta.photobucket.com/user/MichelleBogart/media/Crochet/Toys/2006_1010Image0001.jpg.html?sort=3&o=46
s26.beta.photobucket.com/user/MichelleBogart/media/Crochet/Toys/100_7793.jpg.html?sort=3&o=66
I’ll have to try some of yours now!
Sandra said
Hi June!
I must say, a lovely and easy to follow pattern this is. Last saturday evening I made my first bunny from your pattern and today I featured your pattern right here: sandiensminiworld.nl/2012/05/07/amigurumi-konijntje/
The English text is below the photo’s.
Thanks for making this lovely pattern!
Seyeon said
OMG!!!!! They are all sooooooooooooooooooooo CUTE!!!!!!!!
Di T said
So adorable, I haven’t bought any patterns for a while but saw these and said ‘must have’ so got them. I had an adorable Netherlands Dwarf bunny who was light ginger with a tiny white patch on his head, so cute and tiny. The little grey bunny reminds me of him a little. Thanks for such a cute pattern.
Yvonne said
These are the most darling bunnies I have ever seen! I am new to crocheting and tried your whale (it was a little wonky) but really a wonderful pattern. I have to buy this one tonight and get it started!!!
Do you have a darling little carrot pattern to go along with this?
Thank you for making such wonderful patterns!!
June said
Haha, no, I’m afraid I don’t have a little carrot pattern – maybe I should make one!
Silverleaf said
Not that I’m trying to make you jealous, but about 14 years ago I had a grey Netherland Dwarf (not the solid blue colour, but a kind of shaded, ticked grey colour I don’t know the name of). He was very cute!
I love these patterns, and just had to get them as soon as I saw this. I’d like to make a ND like my current bunny Neo, who is a colour called black otter (see images).
Basically he’s black with white belly, inner ears, tail, eye circles and a kind of white highlight effect around the nose, mouth and jaw. He also has a brown patch behind his ears (which is called orange, but is really a gingery-beige).
I’m not precious about reproducing the markings exactly, but I’d love ideas on how to _suggest_ them. I’m okay with colour changes and I can see how to do the white belly and inner ears, but the face is more problematic to my not-terribly-experienced-at-crocheting self.
June said
Awww, how adorable! I suggest you use white felt behind the eyes to make the border – you can see the technique in action in my pug, but don’t trim the felt quite so close to the eye, and you can even cut it into an almond shape instead of a circle. It may take a couple of attempts to make two that match but it’s a very effective technique!
As for the face markings, the FOURTH repeat in round 2 is at the bottom of the face, so if you want to do some fancy colour changing, make sure it’s centred around those 2 stitches so it won’t end up looking wonky. I’d try to keep the white patch small so it has the best chance of looking symmetrical in the finished bunny – making patches of colour look even in amigurumi isn’t an obvious technique (they tend to slant because the spiralling sc stitches don’t stack on top of each other).
Or you could ‘cheat’ by adding a white felt patch around the chin (stitch or glue it down) after crocheting. Otherwise, you could also ‘shade’ the face after crocheting it by stitching over the top with a different coloured yarn and a yarn needle (something like duplicate stitch in knitting, if you know what that is) to add the second colour – just ‘go over’ the lines of each crocheted stitch with the second yarn. It does add a little bulk and I wouldn’t recommend it for large areas, but it may be a good way to ‘suggest’ some of those markings as you said!
Silverleaf said
Brilliant, thank you! After some experimenting I used a chain stitch for the markings in the end, and white felt eye circles as you suggested. I did try surface crochet and the “duplicate stitch” idea (yes I’ve done that with knitting) but I wasn’t happy with how either of them looked, and felt I got better “coverage” with chain stitches (this is most likely due to lack of experience on my part). I liked how I could get the markings exactly where I wanted them rather than having to follow the original crochet stitches.
My little Neo-inspired bunny is now on Ravelry if you want to see him, username silverleaf79. I’m quite pleased with how he turned out! Thanks again, it’s an awesome pattern. 🙂
mireya said
these are awsome! have you ever thought of doing a buffalo??
mireya said
i hope you don’t mind, i mentioned this pattern on my blog and included one image of yours, with credit to you of course.
this is a really lovely pattern I started my first one a little while ago
^_^
thank you
June said
Of course I don’t mind! Thanks for sharing my link with your readers.
June said
I haven’t! I’ll add it to my list of ideas – thanks 🙂
sue said
Oh they are cute!
tuome said
omg, they’re so sweet ^^
CrochetBlogger said
Adorable. And you’re right, “We could all use a little more cuteness in our lives”!!
Rachael said
I have ordered this as a friend is mad on bunnies!
Billi said
These are seriously cute! I’m somewhat of a connoisseur of toy rabbits and these are very nicely done. The Angora is my favorite of them.
Lindy said
Awww – they are SO cute! I love all three of them. They’re absolutely brilliant!
Love, Lindy xx
Chrisie Merriman said
I totally clicked on the baby lop bunnies google link. So adorable! I had some dwarf and lop bunnies one summer when I was growing up. 🙂
Awesome looking pattern, btw… just goes to show that even when there’s lots of bunnies already out there you can do something special. 🙂