Long-legged bunny
Little ones will love this rabbit friend. Crocheted in the Japanese amigurumi technique, it is surprisingly quick to make
MATERIALS
Ricorumi dk yarn in the following shades: Shade 055 (beige) 25g Shade 074 (aqua) 25g Shade 067 (lotus) 25g Shade 060 (black) small amount for Nose
3 mm crochet hook Toy stuffing Needle
3.5cm pompom maker Eye buttons 8.5mm
ABBREVIATIONS
ch – chain; dc – double crochet; dec2tog – double crochet 2 sts together; dtr – double treble crochet; rnd – round; sl st – slip stitch; st(s) – stitch(es); tr – treble crochet
TENSION
20 sts and 20 rows = 10x10 cm Finished size: 32cm tall (12.5in)
HEAD
Starting at the nose. Rnd 1: In beige, working into magic ring 6 dc. Rnd 2: [2 dc into next st] 6 times. 12 sts.
Rnd 3: [1 dc, 2 dc into next st] 6 times. 18 sts. Rnd 4: 18 dc.
Rnd 5: [2 dc, 2 dc into next st] 6 times. 24 sts. Rnd 6: 24 dc.
Rnd 7: [3 dc, 2 dc into next st] 6 times. 30 sts. Rnd 8: 30 dc.
Rnd 9: [4 dc, 2 dc into next st] 6 times. 36 sts.
Rnd 10: 36 dc.
Rnd 11: [5 dc, 2 dc into next st] 6 times. 42 sts. Rnd 12-18: 42 dc.
Rnd 19: [5 dc, dec2tog] 6 times. 36 sts.
Rnd 20: [4 dc, dec2tog] 6 times. 30 sts.
Rnd 21: [3 dc, dec2tog] 6 times. 24 sts.
Add eyes between rounds 12-13. Stuff head. Rnd 22: [2 dc, dec2tog] 6 times. 18 sts.
Rnd 23: [1 dc, dec2tog] 6 times. 12 sts.
Rnd 24: [dec2tog] 6 times. 6 sts. Fasten off and break yarn. Weave through last
6 sts and pull tight to close. In black, embroider nose as seen on the picture.
EAR (MAKE 2)
Rnd 1: In beige, working into a magic ring, 6 dc. Rnd 2: 6 dc.
Rnd 3: [1 dc, 2 dc into next st] 3 times. 9 sts.
Rnd 4: 9 dc.
Rnd 5: [2 dc, 2 dc into next st] 3 times. 12 sts.
Rnd 6: 12 dc.
Rnd 7: [3 dc, 2 dc into next st] 3 times. 15 sts.
Rnd 8-9: 15 dc.
Rnd 10: [4 dc, 2 dc into next st] 3 times. 18 sts. Rnd 11-20: 18 dc.
Sl st into the next st to finish off. Pinch the bottom of the ear together and sew through to keep in place. Sew the ears onto head.
BODY
Rnd 1: In beige, working into a magic ring, 6 dc. Rnd 2: 2 dc into next st,
6 times. 12 sts.
Rnd 3: [1 dc, 2 dc into next st] 6 times. 18 sts.
Rnd 4: [2 dc, 2 dc into next st] 6 times. 24 sts.
Rnd 5: [3 dc, 2 dc into next st] 6 times. 30 sts.
Rnd 6: [4 dc, 2 dc into next st] 6 times. 36 sts.
Rnd 7: [5 dc, 2 dc into next st] 6 times. 42 sts.
Rnd 8-12: 42 dc.
Rnd 13: [5 dc, dec2tog]
6 times. 36 sts.
Rnd 14-15: 36 dc.
Rnd 16: [4 dc, dec2tog]
6 times. 30 sts.
Rnd 17-18: 30 dc.
Rnd 19: [3 dc, dec2tog]
6 times. 24 sts.
Rnd 20 -21: 24 dc.
Rnd 22: [2 dc, dec2tog]
6 times. 18 sts.
Rnd 23-24: 18 dc.
Sl st into next st to finish off. Leave a long tail.
Stuff the body then sew the head to the body using the long tail.
ARM (MAKE 2)
Rnd 1: In lotus, working into a magic ring, 6 dc.
Rnd 2: [1 dc, 2 dc into next st] 3 times. 9 sts.
Rnd 3: 9 dc.
Change yarn.
Rnd 4-5: In aqua, 9 dc.
Rnd 6: 7 dc, dec2tog. 8 sts. Change colour every 3 rnds from lotus to aqua.
Rnd 7-18: 8 dc. Flatten the top of the arm and dc through both sets of sts to close.
Sew arms to sides of the body.
LEG (MAKE 2)
Rnd 1: In lotus, working into a magic ring, 6 dc.
Rnd 2: [1 dc, 2 dc into next st] 3 times. 9 sts. Rnd 3: 9 dc.
Change to aqua on the last st and change colour every 3 rnds from lotus to aqua. Rnd 4-24: 8 dc.
Flatten the top of the leg and dc through both sets of sts to close.
Sew legs to the sides of the body.
TAIL
Using lotus and a pompom maker make a pompom for the tail.
Sew in place.
■ Amigurumi figures are the current crochet trend and the Ricorumi yarn by Rico Design is a must-have for all Amigurumi fans. There is a range of 100 colours, including neon, spray and print shades, as well as gold and silver. Buy Ricorumi yarn at www.woolwarehouse.co.uk
These five plants are known to thrive in unwelcoming, polluted environments, such as near roads or railway tracks. They may absorb or act as a screen for pollutants and could play a vital role in the quest for cleaner air. 1
BUDDLEJA
This tough cookie thrives in the most inhospitable and polluted environments, such as railway embankments, but its nectar-rich flowers are a magnet for butterflies in spring and summer – hence its common name, the butterfly bush.
Our homes and offices are full of toxins that can lead to allergies, asthma, fatigue and headaches. Formaldehyde can be given off by furniture and fabrics, benzene can be present in adhesives and tobacco smoke, xylene may be emitted by paints and varnishes and ammonia can be in cleaning products. A number of studies have found that houseplants have a remarkable ability to clean-up many of these pollutants.
FIVE OF THE BEST
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■
’ll do it,” Rosy said. The other cleaners crammed into the office of Spick and Span heaved a collective sigh of relief. Now Helen, who ran the company, wouldn’t blow a gasket calling them all cowards for refusing to clean 21 George Street. The old relic was used as a nursery for tots. Gaily painted inside, it was hard to imagine the things that creaked and groaned after 6pm when the place closed. Bumps and thumps had sent Janice charging out of the door with her steam mop days ago. Before her, whispered cries had made Hannah flee with her caddy. Poor Anna, who’d tried to clean the place first, had sworn some malevolent ghoul had thrown a cobweb into her face before she’d scarpered to her car.
Rosy straightened her spine as Helen smiled.
“I knew you’d volunteer. You don’t scare easily.” She gave the other cleaners a withering glance.
Rosy, in her 60s, was the oldest woman in the firm. Sometimes, the energy of her younger colleagues made her bones ache.
“Off you go,” Helen said. “Call me and tell me how you get on.”
Outside, Rosy climbed into her car, trying to breathe deeply. ‘Ghosts don’t exist. It’ll be old pipes, loose floorboards and bats in the attic,’ she told herself.
When she pulled into the road,
I■ the streetlamps barely held back the inky darkness.
The old house dated back to 1800s. There’d been a murder there once – or so the rumours suggested – some wellto-do Victorian doctor had done away with his wife. The ghost had to be her. ‘Except there isn’t one,’ Rosy reminded herself, as she poked her head round the front door.
The walls of the nursery were festooned with pictures by the children and sticky finger marks. The skirting below lay splattered in paint of many colours, like drips from a rainbow.
Rosy eased herself down the tiled hallway carrying her caddy of polish and cloths. With her free hand she dragged Henry the vacuum cleaner.
“Don’t get scared,” Rosy told him when he hugged at her heels like a frightened dog. “We’ll just turn on all the lights and get on with the job.”
She made a start with her feather duster and hummed loudly to cover up any mysterious noises. Concentrating hard on the grime, it was only when she glanced up, she noticed the can of polish hanging in mid-air. It seemed it had escaped her caddy and flew.
Rosy’s heart pounded. “No, no, no,” came her endless denials before realisation struck. “I… know who you are, I… know what you want.” The blood rushed to her head and she collapsed in a heap. “Rosy? Rosy?” a voice roused her. Rosy found herself lying across four of the kiddies’ beanbags in the ‘Any ghost just aching to pick up a can of polish just had to be a kindred spirit...’
playroom. She blinked up at Helen. Surely the woman hadn’t carted her into the room? Had someone else?
“Having a nap were you?” Her boss’s flushed cheeks warned of a dressing down.
Rosy sat up fast. “No, not at all.” “I thought I’d better check on your progress since you didn’t answer your phone.” “Oh…Oh didn’t I?”
“So, how are you doing?” Helen gave the room a once over. “I worry about your decreasing speed now you’re getting on at bit.”
Rosy gulped. “Nevertheless, no marks on the walls,” mused Helen. “No gunk on the skirting boards. The blinds are all shiny. I’ve never seen a floor… so glossy.”
Rosy frowned. She glanced up as Henry the Hoover started rolling across the floorboards of the room above their heads, his motor going full throttle. “Do you have some help?” asked Helen, frowning.
Rosy finally managed a smile. It seemed her earlier hunch had been spot on. Any ghost aching to pick up a can of polish just had to be a kindred spirit. This phantom wasn’t a doctor’s wife at all.
“I think this house once had a very industrious maid, very proud of her work,” Rosy whispered. “She must be used to a mop and broom but you have to move with the times, don’t you?”
Helen clearly hadn’t heard a word over Henry’s racket. “Sorry, did you say something?”
“No,” Rosy pressed her lips together. There are secrets in the cleaning industry: the best way to clean glass without leaving a smear, how to remove limescale from a shower door. Some things should remain hush-hush.
‘I wonder if this ghost would be interested in helping out with that big office block on Richmond Lane,’ Rosy thought. I bet Helen would be surprised if I volunteered for that job at my age. I need the money and I’m not the oldest cleaner in the company now, am I? I’m positively a babe-in-arms, considering my wannabe partner is more than 200 years old!
■ This story appears in the Yours Special – on sale from June 4
Cherry and Heather learn that Mr O’Brian, the park keeper, won’t be replaced when he retires
kind of work you are interested in and how much time you are prepared to commit.”
Handing Cherry a pad of paper and a pen, she smiled: “Perhaps you can take down the details, dear, while I continue to explain.”
Pink with indignation, Cherry was about to make a rude response when she felt Heather giving her a hefty kick on the ankle. “Keep calm,” her friend muttered behind her hand. “We need all the help we can get with this.”
“We might not get any volunteers at all with her in charge!” Cherry whispered back. “She’ll scare them all off.”
An hour later, the meeting broke up and as people drifted out they could be heard chatting eagerly among themselves.
“That went very well, I thought,” Mrs Wilson said, shuffling a pile of papers. “I think most of them will come back, but
“Mrs Wilson is a nightmare,” Cherry said. “She’s so bossy – there’s no way I can work with her!”
we are bound to lose a few. Volunteering is much harder work than people realise!” Heather and Cherry had to agree. They both felt quite drained after a lively question and answer session that had thrown up some challenges they hadn’t even considered. Cherry’s son Archie, with chocolate cake all round his mouth, was curled up on his mother’s lap and Heather’s little girl, Poppy, was fast asleep in her buggy.
“Same time next week then, girls,” Mrs Wilson said as she buttoned up her jacket. “We’ll have it all shipshape in no time. I must dash! Don’t forget that rota, Cherry.”
The door slammed behind her. The friends surveyed the debris that was left behind; paper plates, sandwich crusts, someone’s red scarf and chairs waiting to be stacked. They looked at each other. “Not quite what we’d planned,” Heather sighed.
“Mrs Wilson is a nightmare,” Cherry said. “She’s so bossy – there’s no way I can work with her!”
Heather sighed again. “Well, bossy or not, she got the volunteers motivated. They certainly responded to her leadership qualities.”
“Leadership qualities! She’s just an old bully,” Cherry snapped. “I could have done it much better if only she’d given me half a chance.”
Ever the peacemaker, Heather said: “But if she gets results and we end up with a well-organised team of people to keep Castle Green up to scratch, surely that’s the important thing.”
Cherry fumed as she put Archie back in his buggy. “I thought that we would be in charge! All we’re in charge of is making sandwiches and clearing up this mess.”
Taking a black plastic bag each, they collected up the rubbish before putting the chairs back against the wall.
“You’re not going to give up, though, are you?” Heather asked, looking worried. She knew her flamboyant friend wasn’t used to sharing the limelight.
A tearful Cherry replied: “I don’t know. It just didn’t go the way we’d planned.” She sniffed loudly. “I’ll call you when I’ve had time to think about it.”
This was a problem Heather hadn’t expected and she wasn’t sure how she was going to fix it. Handling volunteers was hard enough, but handling her volatile friend and bossy Mrs
Wilson looked like it could be a whole bigger problem.
■ Can Heather find a way to keep both Cherry and Mrs Wilson onboard? Find out in the next issue, out on June 16
Hazel lives in Hereford and says this story was inspired by a local much-loved park which is kept looking beautiful all through the year by a band of volunteers.