Bunnies for babies

 Have I gotten this small animal making out of my system? I don't know. They are interesting to knit. They knit up quickly. 

And when you finish, they are so stinking cute! 

These are from the Mini-Christopher Bunny kit designed by Susan B Anderson, from Barrett Wool Co. 

I've always considered myself pretty resistant to advertising and impulse buys in general. Most of my life I've tended to decide I want or need something, and then figure out the details of buying it -- I buy yarn for something I want to make, I buy a new dress for a wedding, or an outfit because I see a gap in my wardrobe. But these days, I'm not that person!  I got an email from Barrett Wool - with key words like "mini" and "special batch" and "botanical dyes."  And suddenly there's a package on its way, and I'm busy thinking about who I can knit them for. 

Granted, there's a lot of pleasure here, even before a child loves them. The yarn is lovely, soft wool. Natural dyes make for subtle, interesting colors. And even though these are knit of fine yarn on small needles, they knit up fast. There's very little sewing - other than fastening the head on the torso, all the other body parts are knit on as you go. This also means they "get cute" quickly. 

This pattern was written for a bigger bunny, with bigger yarn. But the only change to the pattern to make a mini bunny was to use smaller needles and smaller gauge yarn. I'm thinking this opens a lot of possibility for size and gauge shifts for little creatures like these.

I'm not totally pleased with the green sweater. I tried both the brown and the gray yarns as contrast, and neither showed up very well. I suppose I could have used the red, or substituted some leftover yarn I must have somewhere. But in the end I left it with the gray.  And after trying it both ways, decided I liked it better on the brown bunny. The pattern also includes pants, but I wasn't sure I had enough yarn, so no pants.

The kit came with safety eyes. I added them as instructed to the gray bunny, and then as I knit along, I kept thinking about a child chewing on this toy.  And how I could imagine the eye getting chewed on, and coming out. Then I did a little googling and learned that safety eyes aren't actually recommended for babies (or pets). So with some difficulty I removed the eyes and instead embroidered an eye later.

I did think of a couple of babies for these bunnies - the first grandchildren of our long-time next door neighbors. They're on their way to two little boys - cousins just a month or so apart in age. 

Christopher Bunny 

• a kit from Barrett Wool Co. designed by Susan B Anderson
• size 2 needles for the bunnies, and size 4 for the sweaters
• the yarn is fingering weight California Variegated Mutant wool dyed with goldenrod (green), madder root (red) and walnut (brown) and left natural (gray).
• black embroidery floss, polyester stuffing
  
• On Ravelry here.