Monday, May 11, 2009

Looming the Bunny Wabbit










It was all the fault of the Lion Yarn catalog. The cover photograph was filled with adorable knit and crochet animals. My youngest took one look at it, and asked if Mommy would make her the bunny. Well, the Lion pattern was not something that could be loomed.

Luckily, a search of the Provo Craft site gave me "Bunny Wabbit". Bunny Wabbit could be made on a small Knifty Knitter, and it looked like the perfect solution.

I did make the bunny, but also discovered some of the challenges presented by this project:

1. The flat knit stitch: Since I have MS, the flat stitch was a challenge for my hands. It is a tighter stitch when knit, so it was hard to work the yarn, unlike the looser bulky options. On the other hand, it solved the problem of loose stitches on the Knifty Knitter.

2. Seaming: seaming, I had thought, would be no problem, since I would be threading yarn into an embroidery needle that came with the loom. Not so fast - the plastic needle from the KK loom was too flexible, and didn't like to "push" through the yarn. Poor Bunny! Did I ever puncture him. I realized that not being able to see between my stitches was making my needlework a real challenge. I solved it by basting with a contrasting yarn to provide a guideline. This was not perfect, but it helped.

3. The button eyes - I didn't think ahead on this one. The button holes were too small for the embroidery needle, and I had to use a standard needle and thread. This took a very long time, and first chance I get, I will have someone pre-thread some needles for me to have at the ready. Poor Bunny's eyes are falling off already.

4. The ears - the pattern called for fabric to make the pink inside of the ears. I modified this part, and instead loomed the ears using a strand of pink fuzzy yarn along with the main color (grey). I added the pink randomly to the ears, to create a spotted effect, and used the standard e -wrap loom stitch, to save my poor hands. This gave Bunny nice, soft ears, without anymore sewing.

Bunny Wabbit was a hit :)

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please leave me a comment.