Friday, February 5, 2010

the other bunny, a few more notes

Finally, finally, finally finished the Knitted Bunny. Man, 40 stitches take a long time to make enough rows to be a square. Next time, I think I'll do just 20 stitches.
Anyway...
I followed the modified ear directions, offered on that main page, not on the downloaded pattern. And I improvised a pom-pom tail, just wrapped the yarn 15 or so times around three fingers, tied it off tight, and clipped the ends. Quick and dirty. I like it okay. Twin1 says it looks more old-fashioned. It would have been much cuter in sock yarn.
I used Wool-ease in White Frost. Took about 1/2 a skein.


I am trying a new Tea Cup Bunny, in a beige sportweight.
It's a whole different kind of cute. I notice on her pictures that the "smooth" bunnies have an edging of single crochet around the ears to finish them off, and I think I agree with that idea. The edges do look a bit wobbly on their own. Plus, when you sc around the ears, they both curl forward, instead of taking off in different directions. I take it back about adding more rows if your head looks too wide. I think it's got correct proportions once it's put together, even the fluffy nervous-making bunny, so forget I suggested it. Wide is good for this bunny.
A couple notes on the head/ear construction portion:
Don't finish off after doing the rows for the head, just flatten and continue for ear, going through both layers. I did 5 rows of 4 sc, (with ch 1 and turn each row) then decrease to 2, and immediately decrease to one on the next row, finish off by doing one sc and then pulling up the loop, and weaving in the strand. If you want to sc around the edges, join yarn at outer base edge, and sc around to base on other side. When you start the second ear, I recommend starting at the outside edge of the head again. You'll leave one unworked sc at the fold. If you leave a longish tail after sc around the ear, you can use it to sew up the head after you stuff it.
Or, you can do what I did, and sc around the ears, starting at the outside of one, continuing across the opening in the head with sc, and then sc around the other ear. (make sure you've done the eyes and stuffed it before you do this)
The eyes should go two rows down from top of head, placed just under the inside edge of the ears on either side. I used 9mm for fluffy bunny, and 6mm for smooth bunny.

I think it's so appropriate that she called it a tea cup bunny. It's cute, small, fits in a tea cup, yes, but also, each of the body shapes is cup shaped before you flatten the top edge together. How clever is that?

My knitting group all agreed fluffy bunny was adorable, but then also, I think unanimously, agreed he looks like a gremlin. I hadn't even said anything about what those of us at home thought, and spontaneously, one of them says he looks like Gizmo. Weird.

Should have said before: I used Patons Carmen in Camel for fluffy bunny. And I used my pieces inside-out, because when you work with fluffy or furry yarns, the opposite side generally has more fluffy, due to the way you work the yarn, pulling it towards you through the loops, which leaves the fluffiness behind a bit. Working in the round means all your fluffy ends up on the side we traditionally call the "wrong" side, but working in rows will have an even effect. Make sense? PlanetJune has some great tips on working with fuzzy yarns here.

My office mate says fluffy bunny is her favoritest yet of all the stuff I've brought in. *grins*

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