Miss 7's new blanket and a bunny egg cosy pattern

Miss 7 has been so very patient, waiting for me to finish her special blanket. She had chosen the colours, lined them up in the order she wanted them and then sat back and waited... and waited some more. I got distracted with other projects, then it was summer and it was just too hot to be working on the final bit of a big blanket.

But it is now officially finished. The edging was going to be wavy, but it just didn't look right. So I went with a crab stitch/reverse single crochet and I love the way it has given it a 'bound' look. It feels sturdy but soft at the same time. Miss 7 is currently snuggled up on the sofa watching a movie with her new blanket after taking part in a kids 'tryathlon' this morning. A perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon after a very early start!

And of course, Bella has given the blanket her approval. No sooner had I put it on the floor to photograph, she appeared and wouldn't budge. So now my kids have said that I need to make a mini version for Bella. It seems a good suggestion considering she sleeps approximately 23.5 hours a day these days! She might as well do it on a gorgeous blanket.

One of the distractions during the blanket process was the arrival of this gorgeous book that I bought from the UK. I started making the pretty poncho in it with some fab green yarn I had.

I love this pattern, but for some reason I just can't keep the repeat in my head so I have to keep a track of which row I'm on. I also made a boo-boo and had to undo half of it, but I'm back on track now and loving it. The green is very bright so I'm thinking I'll have to make a nice sedate version in a cosy grey. I found some amazing painted wooden buttons that will be perfect for both the green and the grey versions.

Remember those wee bunny egg cosies I was working on in my last post? Well I made about 30 of them for our school fair a few weeks ago, and we sat them atop a marshmallow egg. They were really popular and I've had quite a few orders since. These are just a few more that I bagged up with a mini egg. How cute are they? I made this pattern up and because it turned out to be not too bad, I thought I'd share it here, so you can whip up a little egg cosy for Easter and beyond. Hopefully the instructions make sense. I have typed them up based on a scribbled, scrunched up piece of paper I've been working off!

Bunny Egg Cosy

I used a 3.5mm hook and DK yarn.

For the body:

Make a magic ring, secured by an SC. Then work 5 SC into the ring and pull tight, join with a slip stitch.

Ch1, SC in same stitch, then 2SC in each stitch around. Join with a sl st.

Ch2, HDC in same stitch, then 2HDC in each stitch around. Join with sl st.

For the next 3 rows, start with Ch2 then work an HDC in each stitch, joining with a sl st at the end of each row. (If you have large eggs in your neck of the woods, work an extra row of HDC).

For the ears:

Ch7, now working back down the chain, sl st in 2nd st from hook, then SC in next st, and HDC in next 4 sts. Work a SC in the last stitch. Now working back up the other side, HDC in next 4 sts, SC in next st, sl st in last stitch. I then pull the yarn through the very top stitch from front to back if that makes sense. It just finished it off with a nicer point. Leave a tail long enough to thread back through the top of the ear to the base and also enough to attach it to the top of the cosy.

Sew 2 ears on, placed wherever you fancy. And there you go, one cute little bunny egg cosy. Just in time for Easter!

Just a few more pics of my blanket. Boy, stripes are hard to photograph. Just when you think you have it nice and straight, you discover a wibbly wobbly bit and it throws the whole pic out.

Right, the final of the Cricket World Cup is just starting and I'm off to support New Zealand, with my crochet hook in hand. It's going to go until around midnight, so hopefully I'll get a lot of my poncho done in that time. Go the Blackcaps!!

Leah