Cabled Spiral Bunny Rug in lavender, leaf and stone

It might not be the largest of projects, but if anything takes me weeks to make it really drags on and seems to take forever! This swirling cables spiral bunny rug was made for the friend of an in-law who is expecting a baby, they even paid in advance! Thankyous!


swirling spiral bunny rug in 4 ply baby wool

I started this on Tuesday 17th July, and finally finished sewing in the ends on 5th August. Because I used a 3mm hook and 4 ply baby yarn from Bendigo this took a lot longer than a bunny rug in thicker yarn using a larger hook. But the spirals look so effective I had to do it, and I'm a real glutton for punishment! The spiral is not easy to do, the yarns can get tangled if I don't carefully swap them over every time I change colours. One thing I improved this time is, to change colours less often and therefore create less opportunity for them to tangle, I now go with one colour all the way around instead of a quarter. The three colours meet up at the same place, and I don't even them out again until the end.

lavender, leaf and stone are colours suitable for a boy or girl

So I am able to pick up the project where I left off (I always have to take an extra moment to find my place and untangle the yarns), I have to leave an extra large loop. I even started securing the two unused colours with a safety pin to stop my work unravelling.


starting the spiral in leaf, lavender and stone 4 ply baby wool

Its a tricky pattern, but here is a rough idea of how it starts.
1. main colour, 2 ch, 6 sc into 1st ch, sl st
2. 1 ch 2 sc into same, 2 sc into next, start new colour on next sc, 2 sc in same, 2 sc into next, start 3rd colour on next sc, 2 sc in same, 2 sc into next
3. change hook to 1st colour, 2 dc in next, 2 dc in next, 2 dc in next, 2 dc in next (8 dc), repeat for each colour
4. continue with 3rd colour of previous round, (2 dc into next, fptrb around next) repeat for a total of 4 times, change to next colour and repeat for each colour
5. cont. with last colour, (1 dc in ext, 2 dc in next, fptrb in next) repeat for a total of 4 times, repeat for each colour
From then on, do the increase (2 dc) just before the cable (fptrb), otherwise put 1 dc into every dc, change colours as you come to them. To change colours less often and save time, catch up the colours to each other, then go all the way around, with each colour.

the beginning looks like a shell when all three colours catch up to each other

In a round, cables marking the increases from the centre out can be straight or swirled. I discovered this when making my latest spiral rug when I decided to mark the increases with cables instead of chain spaces. To make the cable straight, a stitch goes into every stitch, the increase occurs in the stitch before the cable. The treble is around the front post of that stitch, the next stitch is in the next stitch. Alternatively, to make the cables swirl, the increase occurs right after the stitch around which the cable will go. If no stitch is skipped then there are no gaps, and the swirl is slight. For a more prominent swirl, the stitch after the cable could be skipped and the increase can go into the stitch the cable goes around, then the cable goes around that same stitch as well. Some small gaps might appear in your work, but the swirl is more pronounced.

blanket edge pattern free from Lion Brand

Finally, after what seemed more like months than mere weeks, I came to the end and decided on an edge I found on pinterest. It turned out to be a free pattern from Lion Brand, just the trick! Although I changed it slightly by doing a dc instead of tr and 2 ch instead of 3 ch.

overview of the special bunny rug

The last thing to do was carefully sew in the ends, I did so that the ends can not be seen by either front or backside. Then I washed the bunny rug flat on my kitchen table, easing it into a 12 sided star shape. Gorgeous!