Irish Bunny

When I have the chance I try to add a few holiday decorations to my house. I try to keep them small as even small ones take up ever increasing space over time. I'm also an avid collector of out of print crochet leaflets and books. This bunny pattern is from an American School of Needlework leaflet Birthday Bunnies in Thread Crochet #1156. It was written by Jennie Black and published in 1993 for those of you who might be interested in the patterns.

While the title of the leaflet is Birthday Bunnies they are more holiday or monthly themed rather than what I have seen in other pattern books for birthday patterns. I have a pattern of doll outfits where each month has a different outfit dedicated to the birthday girl but not any specific holiday that occurs during that month. These seem much more holiday or event themed. June is a wedding dress and August has a bathing suit so not specific to a holiday but not what you'd normally think of as birthday either. That worked for me when I saw this at a second hand pattern site as I was looking for holiday themed amigurumi's rather than birthday outfits. I actually bought it with the November Pilgrim bunny pattern in mind but here I am making the March Irish bunny first.

The pattern calls for off white for the bunnies. I went with white as I wasn't sure how much thread I'd need and I have a giant size 10 white but only a standard off white partial. Having made one I think I will work the Easter one in off white should I get to that with all the other holiday projects I need to finish. I'm planning on making the May dress for the Easter outfit instead of the suggested Easter dress. I rather like the May dress for Easter and I'm planning on using the July dress for my Memorial Day through the end of summer decorations so it works out well. I'm hoping to have a bunny for each of the holidays. I'm even thinking of using January's for my ornament project for this year. We will have to see what happens.

Notes:

I used size 10 thread I had on hand with a 1.8mm Tulip Etimo thread hook.

I added a row to the hat and changed the black head band to yellow as I wanted a bit more color. I also had to add more chains to the band as the hat was wider.

The pattern calls for a single sided ear. I used the pattern to make an inner and outer ear one pink, one white and then crocheted them together before sewing to the head. I liked the added shaping and color.

Lil Cutesies Irish Lass

Last year I dressed two Lots to Love 8-inch dolls to decorate my house for St. Patrick's Day. This year I returned to Amy Carrico's pattern which you can find as a Crochet World free bonus pattern here to make a dress for the Lil Cutesies Baby Doll St. Patrick's day project.

Since the pattern was adjusted from a 5-inch doll pattern changes were made.

I used worsted weight yarn acrylic yarn for the top and sport weight acrylic yarn for the rest of the project.

I finally finished off a skein of my Red Heart Sport yarn. While part of me is sad to see it go as it is a great size for these doll projects it also makes me feel good to realize I am using yarn I buy it isn't becoming part of a museum exhibit. I've used Hobby Lobby's I Love this Sport yarn and it will fill the gap once my Red Heart ancient supply runs out.

Notes:

I used a D hook with white worsted acrylic for the top. At some point it might be worth trying with white acrylic sport yarn and a larger hook to see if it would have a softer feel. The D hook with the worsted makes it a bit hard. However the white I have for this project is I believe Mary Maxim baby yarn and not suited to a larger hook.

In order to adjust this pattern I needed to add two rows prior to the arm hole row 3 to give the bodice the length required.

The panties and the skirt were both done in suggested colors and available sport/baby yarn with a D hook.

I used a B hook and sport and Baby yarn for the shoes.

For the hat I also used the sport yarn and D hook. However due to the hard plastic bow on the Lil Cutesies doll head I added an extra row of DC to make the hat fit better on the rim.

I prefer not to repeat patterns in the same cycle so I'm thinking of adapting a Valentine holiday dress I made for the 8-inch baby dolls using perhaps the hat from this pattern. That remains to be seen. I do need to get both finished and mailed.