Some bunny loves you...
I participate in an email list for GLBT knitters. It's a wonderful group from at least 8 different countries that I know of: US, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong (me!), Australia, England, Wales and Sweden. We swap patterns, ask for help, tell our tales of joy and/or woe, knit love blankets for each other when crises hit, etc.
Recently one of our members decided to knit an elephant (you heard me correctly) for his significant other. It was really rather cute, I'll admit. And somehow in his story about this elephant, a pattern for an adorable bunny rabbit came to light. Ah, but one had to PAY for this pattern...and I decided I was bold enough to try to create a rabbit WITHOUT paying for the pattern.
Creating a bunny rabbit is very much like knitting a sock or a glove (one of my favorite knitting projects - it's small enough to keep in your briefcase and you can whip it out on the airplane). You start with something called a "provisional cast on" - which are big fancy words for: cast-on- something-that-doesn't-commit-you-to-knitting-in-only-one-direction. For example, when you start a sock, you cast on from the top of the sock - and your start is concrete. But for my bunny rabbit - I cast on at what would be the rabbit's midsection - and I needed to knit DOWN to knit the legs, and then knit UP to create the torso, arms and head.
Legs, arms and ears are merely like fingers on a glove. Easy.
So, dear reader, I did a provisional cast on with abandon, and just experimented my way through my first bunny rabbit. She (she turned into a she, as I made the torso too long - I took a tuck in her torso, which make a natural skirt - so she's a she) taught me lots of things, including things to repeat and things to change. She also asked for a dress - which she got. Her name is Bunny Girl.
Shortly after Bunny Girl was born came Bunny Boy. I celebrated a rather momentous birthday this year, and my young nephews, knowing that I liked to knit, gave me 4 skeins of sock yarn for my birthday. Oh dear...two of the skeins were of striping yarn containing colors that should NEVER be combined; the most egregious of the combinations included true blue, scarlet, lime green, Pepto-Bismol pink, and white. I'm sorry, but I just could not knit socks with this - so Bunny Boy was born.
Bunny Boy was given to one of my most special friends, but there was enough to do a SECOND rabbit from this skein - which became a birthday present to the nephew who had picked out the colors. This second rabbit was christened "Yarno" by this nephew.
Rabbit #4 was a surprise. In August of this year, I paid a visit to my 91 year-old Great Aunt - one of two great-aunts I have left. Aunt Waneta was a knitter, but at 91, her poor eyes will not let her knit anymore (and I wonder how many years I have left at 50 sometimes!!!). She gave me some rather unusual yarn - a slubby boucle mixture of electric yellow and orange. Now - these are not my colors, I'll admit (though the electric blue in the same yarn that she gave me IS), so "Tinkerbelle" was born.
And now, I've finished #5 (the last in this CURRENT series) with another bit of sock yarn that Nephew the Youngest (also known as "The Monster") gave me. It was actually a nice color combo, and made a stupendous rabbit. I do not think The Monster has named his rabbit yet.
For those of you who loved the book "The Velveteen Rabbit", you'll understand when I mention that it was one of my mother's favorite childhood books, and you'll also understand why she is hinting MIGHTILY for a bunny for HER Christmas present.
I'm sure there are more bunnies waiting to be knitted. Perhaps some bunny loves YOU....
Recently one of our members decided to knit an elephant (you heard me correctly) for his significant other. It was really rather cute, I'll admit. And somehow in his story about this elephant, a pattern for an adorable bunny rabbit came to light. Ah, but one had to PAY for this pattern...and I decided I was bold enough to try to create a rabbit WITHOUT paying for the pattern.
Creating a bunny rabbit is very much like knitting a sock or a glove (one of my favorite knitting projects - it's small enough to keep in your briefcase and you can whip it out on the airplane). You start with something called a "provisional cast on" - which are big fancy words for: cast-on- something-that-doesn't-commit-you-to-knitting-in-only-one-direction. For example, when you start a sock, you cast on from the top of the sock - and your start is concrete. But for my bunny rabbit - I cast on at what would be the rabbit's midsection - and I needed to knit DOWN to knit the legs, and then knit UP to create the torso, arms and head.
Legs, arms and ears are merely like fingers on a glove. Easy.
So, dear reader, I did a provisional cast on with abandon, and just experimented my way through my first bunny rabbit. She (she turned into a she, as I made the torso too long - I took a tuck in her torso, which make a natural skirt - so she's a she) taught me lots of things, including things to repeat and things to change. She also asked for a dress - which she got. Her name is Bunny Girl.
Shortly after Bunny Girl was born came Bunny Boy. I celebrated a rather momentous birthday this year, and my young nephews, knowing that I liked to knit, gave me 4 skeins of sock yarn for my birthday. Oh dear...two of the skeins were of striping yarn containing colors that should NEVER be combined; the most egregious of the combinations included true blue, scarlet, lime green, Pepto-Bismol pink, and white. I'm sorry, but I just could not knit socks with this - so Bunny Boy was born.
Bunny Boy was given to one of my most special friends, but there was enough to do a SECOND rabbit from this skein - which became a birthday present to the nephew who had picked out the colors. This second rabbit was christened "Yarno" by this nephew.
Rabbit #4 was a surprise. In August of this year, I paid a visit to my 91 year-old Great Aunt - one of two great-aunts I have left. Aunt Waneta was a knitter, but at 91, her poor eyes will not let her knit anymore (and I wonder how many years I have left at 50 sometimes!!!). She gave me some rather unusual yarn - a slubby boucle mixture of electric yellow and orange. Now - these are not my colors, I'll admit (though the electric blue in the same yarn that she gave me IS), so "Tinkerbelle" was born.
And now, I've finished #5 (the last in this CURRENT series) with another bit of sock yarn that Nephew the Youngest (also known as "The Monster") gave me. It was actually a nice color combo, and made a stupendous rabbit. I do not think The Monster has named his rabbit yet.
For those of you who loved the book "The Velveteen Rabbit", you'll understand when I mention that it was one of my mother's favorite childhood books, and you'll also understand why she is hinting MIGHTILY for a bunny for HER Christmas present.
I'm sure there are more bunnies waiting to be knitted. Perhaps some bunny loves YOU....
posted by Susan in HK at 4:49 AM
2 Comments:
What a clever use of some less than sock-able yarn :)
I love the bunny story! My cousin's partner is actually knitting me some socks from the same yarn that the as-yet-unnamed bunny is knit from. They're all quite an adorable family of bun's.
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