Boycie the Knitted Bunny

The nephew and dog in question

I wanted to create something that my young nephew could keep, but would hold up to being dribbled on, chewed (occasionally by the dog) and thrown around. I settled on a cuddly bunny.


As I have been honing my knitting skills recently - producing delights such as a cardigan, some booties and the obligatory scarf - I decided to 'off-plan' and create a design entirely out of my head. I used a cornflower blue Baby DK, a cream DK and 3.75mm needles.

Boycie Bunny 

My first attempt was, by all accounts, a disaster. It was like a squashed bowling pin. After five minutes or so trying to convince myself it was fine (I didn't want to waste three day's worth of effort) my boyfriend's barely disguised amusement convinced me to go back to the drawing board. I kept the body to use as my head and then created a body and arms by knitting a big cross.

The legs were, essentially, long hats. I used the blue wool to knit tubes and started to decrease to create the rounded look, then swapped to a chunky cream to finish decreasing and sew up the edges. I used the same wool to add 'paws' to my arms (the rabbit's, not my own). Now my bunny was starting to come together and had a nice 'homemade' quality to it (read: uneven with wonky legs).

Ears and a fluffy tail were the finishing touches. I made the bunny ears by double layering oblongs of cream on blue and the tail was - obviously - a pom-pom. Stitched eyes and nose made a lovely baby-friendly face. Luckily after by week-long effort my nephew loved his bunny and my sister named him Boycie. Now for the next project!

Philippa

xxx