Rosy the Rabbit

Rosy came about because I couldn’t choose between making an elephant or a rabbit (Edward or Rosy) from Sarah Zimmerman’s pattern book, Cute Crochet Critters.

They were both just too cute. So I crocheted both.

Meet Rosy the Rabbit

She’s adorable, extremely kind, and although she struggles with hopping around the place, she can sit down all by herself.

Rosy is a big Netflix fan, even more so now after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Her favourite programme is My Little Pony. She is rather envious of those pony’s tails, but I  try to reassure her all the time that her tail is super adorable too.

Rosy has a secret admirer in our household (or maybe not so secret). It’s our little bear called Gus who calls her his girlfriend. We try to explain to him that Rosy is actually his sister, but he just won’t listen. He’s too young to understand really.

Details for crocheters: Making Rosy the Rabbit

If you’d like to crochet a Rosy too, I’ve listed below the pattern and yarn I used, plus some tips, tricks and resources that helped me while I was making Rosy. I hope they help you too.

Crochet pattern for Rosy the Rabbit

The pattern I used for this project was Sarah Zimmerman’s Crochet Cute Critters: 26 Easy Amigurumi Patterns. You’ll find Rosy between pages 92 – 95. You can buy the book from Amazon here.

Yarn

I used Rico Creative Cotton Aran in pink and white for this pattern, however I still wasn’t in the habit of taking photos of my yarn at the start of projects or keeping labels so I don’t know for sure the exact colour codes. I bought these from my local yarn shop in Edinburgh called Be Inspired Fibres. If you click here you can find the shop’s website, or if you click here you can see the owner Mei’s Instagram account. She is extremely helpful, and I couldn’t recommend the shop more!

Although, I don’t know for sure the exact colour codes of the yarn I used, I have found these, which are similar if not the same as the yarn I used. Click here for Rico Creative Cotton Aran in Fuschia (No. 13), or Click here for Rico Creative Cotton Aran in White (No. 80).

Resources to help you crochet Rosy the Rabbit

Here are a few online resources I found helpful whilst making Rosy.

How to Crochet in the Back Loops

In this crochet pattern, I came across the abbreviation BLO, and had absolutely no idea what it meant! After google told me BLO meant ‘Back Loops Only’ it made a lot more sense. I used this YouTube video here by Fiber Flux called, Episode 184: How to Crochet in the Back Loops Only (blo), which showed me how it was done.

Making Pom Poms

For Rosy’s tail, you need to make a pom pom. I know most kids at school learn how to make pom poms in art class. However, I was one of those poor kids that missed out,  or more likely, I just can’t remember ever doing it, and had no idea where to start. I also don’t own a pom pom maker, so I needed to find a makeshift way to create one with something I already had at home. That’s where this YouTube video here by Red Ted Art called, How to make Fork Pom Poms, came in handy.

Lessons learned from crocheting Rosy the Rabbit

At the start, I thought Rosy would be fairly simple to make, but I definitely ended up learning more than I thought I would during the crocheting process. Here are a few of the lessons I learned while making Rosy.

Weaving in yarn tails

A neat trick I started to pick up whilst making Rosy is weaving in the yarn tails as I go. By this I mainly mean when making a magic circle, I weave in the extra yarn through the middle of the magic circle when I get to about two or three rounds in. I will admit, that I don’t always do this, but when I do it generally makes crocheting easier and helps the magic circle to stay tight and remain intact.

Counting is king

All crocheters should already know this, but this was back at the start of my crocheting journey when I would get a little bit lazy and didn’t relentlessly use stitch markers. The lesson learned here was, make sure you always count your stitches. If you don’t, you could end up with two different sized body parts that should’ve been the same size, like Rosy’s first two legs shown below. In the end, I had to crochet another leg for Rosy, so I still have her skinny leg in my yarn stash somewhere. Whoops!

Making Pom Poms

Yup, I’ve put this in twice. Although I had a fantastic resource to show me how to make pom poms, I still struggled somewhat and had to try to make Rosy’s tail a few times before I got it right. You may not encounter the same problem (and if so, woohoo!), but in case you do, don’t be disheartened by having to make multiple pom poms until it works out. The one trick I did pick up is make sure the first bit of yarn you use to tie the yarn on the fork together is very secure and tight. That way you have more of a chance of your pom pom staying together. Also, good, sharp scissors really help.

Sewing

Sewing amigurumi parts together is probably my least favourite part of making amigurumi, but I am at least getting a little bit better. When I sewed Rosy’s legs on, I made a bit of a mistake with the placement, and ended up ‘fixing’ it by sewing her legs on even more. This means that now instead of having moveable legs, Rosy has legs that are fixed in a sitting position. Essentially, the lesson learned here is to take care with placement of your amigurumi body parts when stitching. Sewing pins (like these ones here) definitely help.

Final thoughts

When I first started making Rosy, I honestly thought she would be extremely easy to crochet. For the most part she was, but I certainly learned a lot along the way – as you do with all crochet projects.

Overall, I’m extremely pleased with how Rosy turned out, even though she can only sit down. Her tail, which was probably the hardest part, is also my favourite part! It goes to show that sometimes the more challenging tasks, once completed, bring us more satisfaction.

I honestly think that starting with Sarah Zimmerman’s Crochet Cute Critters book for beginners really helped me catch my crochet addiction. I hope the book (and my blog) helps you too.

If you have any feedback, questions, or crochet inspiration to share, I would love to hear from you. Just leave a comment below or you can email me here.

Until next time, happy crocheting,

Cilla x