Little Cotton Rabbit from Willow Hill Yarn Company — Day 5

Bunny body...

I’m so pleased.  My little rabbit looks just like I wanted her to.  Right down to the adorable little tail—which I opted to make tan like the rest of her body rather than white (half rebellion, half not wanting to haul myself upstairs to my yarn stash and hunt for white yarn).

The body proportions feel right to me, and the level of cuteness is perfect.  So satisfying. And Julie Williams—as well as Emily from Willow Hill—is correct in identifying my new urge to give this adorable critter a wardrobe.  I keep looking at her thinking, “what about a white dress?  Or light blue?  If I lived in Salt Lake, I would definitely join the knitting group at Willow Hill that will be making sets of clothes for Little Cotton Rabbits.  If I had grandchildren or young nieces, this could easily become an addiction.

I did discover, upon review, that I’d made the dress with the wrong size needles.  As such, it’s just a touch larger than it ought to be.  My bunny has a maxi dress rather than just a Sunday jumper.  But I think once I block it, it will still suit her just fine.

I admit, the stuff-and-construct aspects of projects like this aren’t my favorite thing.  All that poking, seaming, sewing, and fretting—I’d really rather just knit. But the payoff for this project is superb. I love it.

Little Cotton Rabbit from Willow Hill Yarn Company — Day 4

Lucky rabbit's foot...

I wasn’t at all sure this would work. Stitches didn’t match up the way they were supposed to, and I was working on such a tiny scale. Like any cookbook or Pinterest page, the pressure of living up to the helpful-yet-slightly-intimidating photos runs deep.  Williams’ bunnies look classic and charming, as if they walked off a Beatrix Potter page.  I’m living in fear mine will look as if it walked off the page of a neurological disorders manual.

Fortunately, as my mother used to say, “If they’re staring at your shoes, you’ve already done something wrong.” As such, I place slightly less quality emphasis on bunny feet than a bunny face.  Remembering that the dress is finished and downright adorable (what a tactical advantage that decision was!), I worked my way through the complicated process of constructing the shoes, straps, and legs that make up our rabbit’s lower appendages.

I don’t think it turned out too badly.  The shoe straps are a bit clunky—had I to do it over again, I’d use a backwards-loop cast-on rather than a bulkier long-tail cast-on.  And I was sure the shoes would never curve into the blobby little feet they needed to be, but they did.  A chopstick proved truly useful to get the bits of batting where they needed to go. I think perhaps one foot is a tad larger than the other, but no one should really notice.

Truth be told, the proportions don’t look out of whack. And I am proud to say that all this assembling has enabled me to finally master the mattress stitch!  Adding the head and arms will tell the true tale, but I think we’re on the right track.  Or is that rabbit trail?

Little Cotton Rabbit from Willow Hill Yarn Company — Day 3

Build-a-bunny...

Now we get down to the nitty gritty of bunny architecture.  This feels more like science than art, but I have to admit it’s cute science.  I’m glad to take this in small sections, because knitting small items with tiny needles is hard on my hands.  

The body is relatively easy—a rounded rectangle that you seam up the back, but the legs get tricky.  You’ve got to pay seriously close attention. The feet are downright complicated, but Williams does provide both clear instructions and lots of useful photos.

I have to say, this Little Cotton Rabbit is smaller than I thought it would be.  A part of me wants to try this again with a larger gauge yarn to make a bigger bunny.  Having not yet even gotten through it the first small time, I know better than to trust that instinct.  

I’m nervous that the proportions will be all out of whack on this, but there’s no way to know until it’s finished.

So, I press on, building a bunny, part by bitty knitted part.