5 Little Monsters: April Bear of the Month: Easter Bunny Bear

April Bear of the Month: Easter Bunny Bear

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It is the first of another month, April 1st to be exact, which means it is time for another bear! This is bear number 4 in the Bear of the Month Crochet Along. I kind of had a hard time deciding between a couple of themes for this month's bear, but ultimately decided on...


The Easter Bunny Bear! I wanted to make an Easter themed bear, and last month I debated back and forth between doing a St. Patrick themed bear, which I obviously ended up doing, or an Easter Bear since Easter is sometimes in March and even though it is in April this year it is pretty early. I worried that it wouldn't give you a lot of time to make the bear before Easter if I released the pattern for an Easter bear on April 1st, and then Easter was just a few days later. But I really wanted to include both a St. Patrick's Day bear and an Easter bear, so I decided to go ahead and stick with the Easter theme for this month. 


I wanted to somehow turn my little bear into an Easter bunny, but still have it be a bear, so I decided to give the little bear a bunny ear headband. I also wanted to include something more so I decided to also make a little basket filled with eggs. I used some spike stitches on the basket to give it a little bit of a "basketweave" look. 


There were a couple of different ways I could have made the bunny ears and I kind of went back and forth a little bit because both ways gave me something I wanted. I thought about making them two flat layers that are joined tighter by crocheting around the outside edge, this was appealing because I really wanted the inside of the ear to be pink and with that method I could have made a pink ear and a white ear and joined them with white around the outside. The downside of that method is that I feel like sometimes the stitches around the outside can look a little messy, especially when working around the pointy tip. I really like the look of ears that are worked in the round, it just looks a little cleaner to me. So I decided to go with the stitches in the round style, but I was still missing that pink that I wanted in the center, so I ended up adding a little bit of blush to the inside of the ears. I think it added just the right little bit of pink that I was looking for, but you can just leave the ears white if you prefer, or make them a different color entirely if you want. 


Like the other bears in this series you can use any medium/worsted weight yarn for your bear. This month  all of the yarns I used for my bear were Red Heart Super Saver. I really wanted a light color for my bear this time, just because when I think of Easter and Spring I think of lighter, more pastel colors. I started with a light brown color of Loops and Threads Impeccable. I had heard people talk about the fact that newer skeins had thinner yarn, and I had noticed that but it didn't seem to be enough to make a huge difference in projects I had used it in, but this time my bear was turning out so much smaller than the others. I didn't like the way it was looking so I scrapped that and ended up using Red Heart Super Saver in Buff for my bear. It is more of a light tan or beige color, so a little lighter than I had originally envisioned, but I think it still worked well for the light, springy look I was going for. I made the bear all the same color using the same exact pattern as the other bears. For the bunny ear headband I used white yarn, Red Heart Super Saver in White. I used Red Heart Super Saver in Cafe Latte for the basket. Then last I just chose a few pastel colors for the eggs, I ended up using Red Heart Super Saver in Pale Yellow, Minty, and Light Jasmine.


We are now a third of the way through the year, 4 bears down, 8 more to go. Come back next month to see what the May Bear of the Month will be. 




How to Crochet an Easter Bunny Bear


Finished Size: about 6" tall sitting + bunny ears

You will need:



Instructions:


The body and head are made in one piece, the other pieces are made separately and sewn on. Most pieces are made beginning with a magic ring (mr), the beginning of each piece will indicate if it starts with a magic ring or a chain. The basket uses spike stitches in a couple of rows to give it the woven texture. To work the spike stitches you will work a single crochet as normal but instead of stitching into the previous row you will work into the stitch 2 rows below that one, stretching the single crochet to reach. If you don't want to make the spike stitches you can work regular single crochet instead, but you won't have the same basketweave effect.


Body/Head

Make 1 with bear color yarn, beginning with a magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next st] repeat around (18 sc)
Round 4: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 2 sts] repeat around (24 sc)
Round 5: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (30 sc)
Rounds 6-12: 1 sc in each st (30 sc)
Round 13:  [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (24 sc)
Rounds 14-15: 1 sc in each st (24 sc)
Round 16: sc2tog, repeat around (12 sc)

Begin stuffing body, next round begins the head portion 

Round 17: 2 sc in each st (24 sc)
Round 18: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (30 sc)
Round 19: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 4 sts] repeat around (36 sc)
Rounds 20-25: 1 sc in each st (36 sc)
Round 26: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 4 sts] repeat around (30 sc)

Insert eyes between rounds 23 and 24, about 5-6 stitches apart, begin stuffing head and continue to stuff as needed as you finish closing up the head

Round 27: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (24 sc)
Round 28: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 2 sts] repeat around (18 sc)
Round 29: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next st] repeat around (12 sc)
Round 30: sc2tog, repeat around (6 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn, use tail to weave around opening to close, weave in end

Muzzle

Make 1 with bear color yarn, beginning with magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: [3 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 2] repeat (10 sc)
Round 3: [2 sc in each of the next 3 sts, 1 sc in next 2 sts] repeat (16 sc)
Round 4: 1 sc in first 2 sts, 2 sc in each of next 2 sts, 1 sc in next 6 sts, 2 sc in each of next 2 sts, 1 sc in next 4 sts (20 sc)
Round 5: 1 sc in each st (20 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving long tail for sewing

Add safety nose to the muzzle, and you can at this point use embroidery floss to embroider a mouth if desired but I chose not to, if you do just make a line coming down from the nose and then branching off to each side.

Sew the muzzle to the face just below the eyes, adding stuffing behind it 

Ears

Make 2 with bear color yarn, beginning with magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 3] repeat around (15 sc)
Round 4: 1 sc in each st (15 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving long tail for sewing

Flatten the ears into a semicircle shape and sew to the head

Arms

Make 2 with bear color yarn, beginning with magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat around (15 sc)
Round 4: 1 sc in each st (15 sc)
Round 5: 1 sc in each st (15 sc)
Round 6: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 3] repeat around (12 sc)
Rounds 7-11: 1 sc in each st (12 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving a long tail for sewing

Add a little bit of stuffing to the end (hand area) of the arm

Sew the arms to the sides of the body, I wanted to stitch the basket into the hands so I stitched the arms in a position that they were sticking out at a little bit of an angle, rather than hanging down to the side, also after I sewed the arms to the body I poked the needle down through the arm to the hand and pulled the tail through the hand and left it there until I was ready to attach the basket, then used the tail to sew the hands to the basket

Legs

Make 2 with bear color yarn, beginning with magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next st] repeat around (18 sc)
Round 4: 1 sc in each st (18 sc)
Round 5: 1 sc in each st (18 sc)
Round 6: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 4 sts] repeat around (15 sc)
Rounds 7-11: 1 sc in each st (15 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving a long tail for sewing

Add a little bit of stuffing to the end (foot area) of the leg

Sew the legs to the bottom of the body in a sitting position

Headband

Band
Make 1 in white, beginning with ch 

ch 20
Row 1: 1 hdc in 3rd ch from hook and each ch to the end (18 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn, leaving long tail for sewing

Bunny Ears
Make 2 in white, beginning with magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 1 sc in each st (6 sc)
Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 2 sts] repeat (8 sc)
Round 4: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 3 sts] repeat (10 sc)
Round 5: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 4 sts] repeat (12 sc)
Rounds 6-11: 1 sc in each st (12 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn, leaving long tail for sewing

Use a small brush to add blush to the center front of the ear

Sew the headband to the top of the head, I put it in front of the ears because I felt like behind the ears it would have been too far back on the head but you can do either way depending on your preference 

Pinch the bottom of the ear so the pink is in the center and sew the ears to the headband on top of the head


Basket

Make 1 in brown/basket color, beginning with a magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next st] repeat around (18 sc)
Round 4: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 2 sts] repeat around (24 sc)
Round 5: 1 sc in blo of each st (24 sc)
Round 6: 1 sc in each st (24 sc)
Round 7: [1 sc in first st, spike sc in the st 2 rows below (same st where you worked in round 5), repeat around (24 sc- 12 regular sc, 12 spike sc)
Round 8: 1 sc in each st (24 sc)
Round 9: [1 sc in first st, spike sc in the st 2 rows below, repeat around (24 sc- 12 regular sc, 12 spike sc)
Round 10: 1 sc in each st, sl st to first st to join (24 sc)
Handle: ch 25, sk 11 sts, sl st in next st, ch 1, turn and sc back across in each ch of the handle, sl st to the basket edge

Finish off and and weave in ends

If you would like the basket to be attached to the bear you can stitch the basket to the hands of the bear (I used the tails from the arms as I mentioned above in the arm section)

Eggs

Make 3 with different colors, beginning with magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
Rounds 3-4: 1 sc in each st (12 sc)
Round 5: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 2 sts] repeat around (9 sc)

Add stuffing to the egg

Round 6: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next st] repeat around (6 sc)

Finish off and use tail to weave opening closed 

Put the eggs in the basket




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