Bunny was a huge success

I am proud to announce that Bunny's life just got a lot more exciting. And the transition from crafty item to cherished play companion was pretty remarkable to behold.

Bunny was presented to her proud new owner yesterday, an awesome and adorable 20-month old Little Girl, and they are truly and completely in love.

(As you know, I don't care for children. But for this particular Little Girl, I have a great deal of fondness. And watching this whole thing unfold yesterday only made that fondness grow.)

When they first met, Little Girl looked long and hard at Bunny's face, looking deep into Bunny's french-knot eyes to make sure Bunny was trustworthy and/or kind. After this careful assessment, it seemed all was good in the world, and Bunny was promptly relieved of her pink dress and placed face down on her little quilt for a nap. The pillow? That was placed on top of Bunny like a blanket. Well, that was for a second. The pillow then became Little Girl's pillow, and there was a quick demonstration of what taking a nap is, complete with "honk-shoo" snoring noises.

Then there was interest for a moment in putting Bunny's shirt on as Little Girl pants, but it was explained that those were Bunny's clothes, and that was fine. The pillowcase was worn as a glove for a moment, and Bunny's back was patted kindly with a be-cased little hand for a bit.

Then, a tiny mistake happened. It was time for Little Girl and Bunny to leave Dr. B.'s place, and Little Girl's Mom said to Little Girl, "Put Bunny in the stroller. It's time to go." Little Girl ran excitedly over to the stroller, and started to strap Bunny in. So happy and gleeful, she sort of called out, "Bunny. Stroller!" Very excited.

Mom went over to make the necessary adjustment. "Bunny and Little Girl both go in the stroller." No sooner had Mom said this and taken Bunny out of the stroller than Little Girl screamed with a desperation and panic I can hardly describe. BUNNY!!!! STROLLER!!!!!! Like something really, really bad was going to happen if Bunny didn't get to ride in that stroller. Like, "Did you not just tell me to put Bunny in the stroller?! What did you just say?! Bunny goes in the stroller, or she'll DIE!"

Fine. Bunny stays in the stroller.

As we all walked to their car, Little Girl walked alongside Bunny's giant stroller, occasionally stopping to offer Bunny some water from her sippy cup, or taking Bunny out so Bunny could get a closer look at the gardens we were passing. This was crushingly cute.

Since then (yesterday afternoon), Bunny has gotten her own Bun-sized stroller and has been pushed around all over, I hear. Before day care this morning, there was apparently prying from hands and much dismay that Bunny would not be going along.

Dudes. Who knew crafting could bring this kind of love? It may not last, as love sometimes doesn't. But for now? Such cuteness!

The Purl Rabbit, y'all. I highly recommend it.

Bunny has a scarf

You know what takes exactly two seconds to make? A scarf for a 12-inch rabbit.


It didn't really take me two seconds, but Stomp The Yard on DVD is to blame for that. Piece of advice for the knitters? This is not really a movie to knit to -- unless you find drooling and heart palpitations provide added value to your knitted item. If that's the case, then be my guest.


Do not fear, kind reader. Operation Bunny Friedan is nearly complete. Once I've finished the little raglan sweater, I might make a small tote bag for all of bun-bun's items, and then that's it. I'll be back to my hodgepodge of craftery in no time.

And, for the record, I said might make a little tote bag. As always, don't hold me to that. Because if you do, it'll just be awkward for everyone.

Bunny pride

I've cracked the code.

Remember when I said I thought the Purl Rabbit was stealing my funny? I was wrong.

What has been stealing my funny is my recent reluctance to talk about my crafting debacles in detail. That is absolutely it! I've been all earnest, and isn't the rabbit cute and awww look at her clothes. And that's just not funny like making 39 mistakes a minute is funny.

If I had the energy or the constitution, I'd start a new blog, and I would call it Debacles in Detail. That sounds quite good, and it has the nice double meaning. Out of that one title you get (1) details about numerous debacles and (2) ways that attention to detail is lacking and/or debacle-y. See? Change the word you emphasize, and you've got a different thing. Dual-purpose things are cool.

Maybe I'll change the sub-title of this blog to Debacles in Detail. If I do that, will you promise you'll pronounce it debb'-a-clees to keep with tradition?

Great.

Before I do that -- if I do that -- allow me to share a last couple of earnest and sweet and unflinchingly not-funny photos of Bunny tucked in for the night.


On her pillow, under her quilt, with her ear flopped down, she is pretty cute.


It's a shame I'm not up for really bringing it right about now. Because I tell you what. With the quality and quantity of debacles in that little quilt alone, I'd have enough material to play every Chuckle Hut and Funny Factory in the country.

(Chuckle Hut and Funny Factory are names I just made up in my head. If you have an establishment named either of those things, my apologies for assuming I could get a gig at your venue relying solely on crafting-related disaster comedy. I am not a comedian and do not intend to minimize the difficulty and skill associated with that profession. Again, sorry.)

I promise I'll swallow my Bunny pride and share more of the disasters with you here. That be-holed raglan sweater still needs the sleeves to be attached. We all know where that's headed.

Bunny has a pillow

Bunny's chillin' on her new pillow.

She likes it because it's fluffy and has its own pillowcase.


Bunny sleeps easy on the pillow.


Now if only someone would finish that mother-flippin' quilt, maybe a rabbit could actually get some sleep around here!

Bunny has some anger. Pillows and cute clothes can only do so much. At the end of the day, Bunny's gotta have what Bunny's gotta have. And Bunny's got to have that quilt.

Fingers crossed that Dr. B. can come through on this one.

Bunny needs a blanket

Because I've apparently lost my mind, and because I don't feel like fixing that raglan sweater yet, I'm making a doll-sized quilt for Bunny Friedan*.

Here's Bunny posing with the quilt-in-progress:


Close-up of the machine-quilted quilt top:


Another shot of the top. (This one really showcases the design features of this quilt.) :


Because it's for the rabbit, I cut all kinds of corners on this thing. I really did. Think of a corner. Chances are good that I cut it. So when I say design features, I'm actually talking about WTFs. Puckers, distortions, and other imperfections. (If I were ever to write a quilting book, that would most certainly be its title.) But you know what? Bunny doesn't care. She's just happy to have a face.

I'm going to try to remember how to put a binding around the edge, and then I plan on making a little pillow and pillowcase to complete the set.

If the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior (and I'm not completely sold on that idea), I should be cranking out a nice collection of well-intentioned but poorly-executed bunny items here in the next few days: quilt, pillow, pillowcase, maybe a few more clothing items. But then I've gotta walk away. I've got knitting to do!

*Thanks to Kim for Bunny's name!

Be-holed! I'm putting the "rag" back in "raglan".

Allow me to share what it sounded like inside my head yesterday.

I'm gonna knit that little raglan sweater for my Purl Rabbit! I've really zipped through the other clothing items. Dress? Check. Pants? Yes. Top? Yups. All that's left is that little raglan sweater! Let's do this thing!

I've never made a raglan sweater, but how hard can it be? It looks pretty straightforward.

I'll use the yarn that sweet Kristy sent me, because it's kind of bright and eye-catching. It seems like the right weight, so I'm not gonna bother swatching. It's a tiny sweater. If I jack it up, I'll just do it over. Right? Right.

OK. Now let's see here. Sleeves? Very easy. Knit, knit, knit.

Oh, shit. When you bind off stitches do you count the first one you knit or the first one you bind off? I can't remember. I could look it up, but I'll just figure it out. I'm sure it's fine. Bind off three stitches.

Two sleeves? Check!

Back of sweater. Yes. Easy easy. Let's watch some TV while we do this. Garter stitch la la la. Goldie Hawn really did look like Kate Hudson when she was younger! Oh shit, I think I purled when I was supposed to have knitted. Eh. It's fine.

Doo-dee-doo. Stockinette stitch. La dee dah.

What's next? Armholes! Attaching sleeves! Ok, great! Oh. We're back to that bind-off question again. I really should look it up. Ah, screw it. It's fine. I'll just do it this way. Bind off six stitches.

Huh. Maybe it's not fine. Well. I'll do the second sleeve the other way and see which one looks right. Let's keep this thing moving, people. Attaching... sleeves.

Wow. That's a really big hole right there. Yeah. Right next to the really big hole that's supposed to be there.

So, yeah. One bind-off way was the right way, and one was the wrong way. OK. So? And? We knew that. That's what we knew. We knew it already. So.

I'll just sew it up at the end, and who's gonna know the difference?

Oh. Right. You all will.

OK.

I thank you not to point while you laugh. It only reflects badly on you.

I shall finish the little rag and we'll all see who's laughing then. (Put your money on you.)

Purple pants and politics

I was going to write all about the hilarious mishaps involved in sewing these clothes for the adorable Purl Rabbit (and, believe me, there were mishaps).


I was also toying with the idea of writing a bit about my concerns about the skinniness of this rabbit.

I was all set to write a witty piece on the complexities of blogging and feminism and the making of cute crafts, and then I read the Yarn Harlot's post for today. And then there was no more funny. Please go read it right this second if you haven't already.

(I am beginning to worry that the Purl Rabbit, while very cute, may be the Kryptonite to my super-hilariousness. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.)

Oh, hi there.

Well, hello. How lovely to see you.

My rabbit was all dress and no face long enough. I held my breath and crossed my fingers and spent yesterday afternoon embroidering the face...


...and attaching the ears.

Perfectly acceptable.

Is it wrong that I can't wait to make more clothes for her? The sweaters, the pants, the tops. All of it.

And can you believe how this post has not a single ounce of hilarious in it? Turns out it's impossible to have razor-sharp wit in the face of a cute stuffed rabbit. Everything just turns into goo and rainbows. And goo and rainbows aren't as funny as you'd think they'd be. Goo, maybe. Rainbows? Not funny.

There's more funny around the corner. For now, let's just all enjoy the cute.

Chickens make dresses

As it turns out, when the tough gets going, Dr. B. does something else.


Rather than attaching the ears and embroidering the face of this rabbit yesterday, I made a dress instead.

Look, I got scared. Real scared. I wasn't ready to ruin my beloved rabbit with some bad embroidery. I did manage to draw a face on very lightly, but after that, it was all chicken all the time.

What's ridiculous is that I don't think I've ever sewn an item of clothing before (except for that Holly Hobby bathing suit I've mentioned). But suddenly, sewing a small dress with pleats seemed like the perfect thing to do to calm my nerves.

If you'd been here while I was making it, I think you would've been impressed with the number of flaws there were in the process. And the number of times I spoke out loud to myself about the whole thing.

"Oh, I'll just make this the back piece. No one will notice."

"Well. I guess I'll just slice this whole part off. Then it will line up, and everything will be fine. FINE!"

"Mmm. Well. It is what it is."

I am not in the running for Miss Rabbit Dress 2007 . But you know what? That's really OK.

I think I'll be OK, everyone.

All my people and a rabbit

ME: I think I'm gonna make this Purl rabbit.
SIDEKICK: Really?
ME: Yeah. It's really cute, and you can make lots of clothes for it, like a dress and some pants and a little top.
SIDEKICK: Uh huh.
ME: Also? You can knit a little sweater for it. It's super cute.
SIDEKICK: You'd better blog about it first.
ME: What? Why?
SIDEKICK: Last time.
ME: What "last time"?
SIDEKICK: Just two seconds ago, when you were gonna make that $300 blanket -- all your people gave you shit.
ME: Right.
SIDEKICK: Right?
ME: Not all of them. They were all really sweet and totally right.
SIDEKICK: I'm just saying. They know what's what. Maybe they'll know something about this rabbit.
ME: But it doesn't look that hard.
SIDEKICK: Uh huh.
ME: And I want to try out my new stuffing!
SIDEKICK: Sure.
ME: I'm just gonna make it.
SIDEKICK: {Has a nice little laugh about my foolishness and goes on about his business.}


Here's how far I got on the rabbit yesterday. Oh, but the ears aren't actually sewn on yet.

It would've gone quicker, but my first set of legs and ears were sewn way too narrow, so I couldn't turn them inside out. When I say "couldn't" I mean I tried for about an hour and a half using all manner of tools, including a pencil, a corner turner, my widdle fingers, and a chopstick. You can't say I don't try.

Up next: Ear attachment. Face and feet embroidery. And then making those adorable clothes.

(Let's not yet rule out the possibility that my embroidery could turn this super-cute rabbit into a scary-faced creature, not suitable for viewing. For the next day or so if you're looking for me, I'll be teetering on the fine line between cute and scary. Wish me luck.)