Shelf Sitting Bunny

Wouldn't it be fun to make a cute little Bunny family for your knitting room shelf?
This little bunny is called a "Shelf Sitting Bunny". She sits on a shelf with her little legs hanging down. I first wrote the pattern in 1992 when I was on Prodigy. One of my old high school school buddies from Spokane, Washington sent me the fabric bunnies below and I liked them so much I decided to see if I could knit one. All the Prodigy girls knitted it and some added a couple enhancements as you can see.

©Roz Porter, 1995
Pictures cortesy of Gloria Hayes, glohayes@toolcity.net

Gloria Hayes has sent me the pictures above. Gloria further enhanced her bunny by adding a little fabric dress. In Gloria's picture with the 3 bunnies side by side, the 2 on the ends are wearing knitted dresses. The red plaid dress is fabric. Thank you Gloria, this adds yet another great idea to the cute little bunny and you know, I guess I'd better get busy and make a few of these for my little granddaughters who weren't even thought of back when I first made this pattern. 

The 0riginal bunnies
 

Bunny Pattern

Materials: MC--any color for dress
CC--any desired for dress trim
Baby pink for bunny head, hands and feet
Use any yarn that is similar to Trenzi or  Trenzado
Small amount of polyester stuffing

Machine: Any standard gauge. (I think it would be bigger and just as cute on the LK 150 midgauge

Tension: Tension 6 on any Brother or Knitking machine. This should be knitted tight
.

Dress: C/O 90 sts with waste yarn and knit a few rows. K 1 row ravel cord.

RC000: With MC knit 36 rows. Weigh well. *Pull every 5th stitch to holding position.
Carriage on hold, with CC work 4 rows. Break CC. Turn carriage off Hold.
With MC K 1 row.*
Repeat from * to * 1 time.
If desired, pick out any small fair isle pattern and place here. (tiny flowers or gingham should look good).
Knit to row 80. Take off on waste yarn.


Head: Rehang on 60 needles, wrong side facing thus: 1 st, 2 sts, 1 st, 2 sts, across.
Now rehang the cast on edge as above, 1 st, 2 sts, 1 st, etc as above.


RC 000. With pink K 30 rows. Transfer every other stitch to needle on right. Leave empty needles out of work. K 1 row. Cut thread 3 X the width of work. (use this to take off with double eye needle). Gather top of head and sew seam with the mattress stitch. Stuff head tightly and run thread through neck to gather neck closed.


Ears: Make 1: C/O 14 sts with waste and work a few rows. Work 1 row with ravel cord.
With pink K 80 rows. Break thread about 1 1/2 x the width of work and take sts off on double eyed needle. Gather just the end and secure and cut thread. Take open cast on sts off on beginning thread, gather, secure and cut. Tie a knot in the middle of ear fabric and sew the knot to the top of the head. Embroider mouth and eyes.


Arms: Make 1. C/O 14 sts in waste yarn and K 1 row with Ravel Cord as above. RC 000 Knit 90 rows. Take off as you did ears. Tie knot in the middle and secure each end to the side--more to the back than front. About half-way between neck and bottom of skirt so the knot sits in the middle front, not loosely, not tightly, knot is the hands.


Legs: Make 2. C/O 14 sts with waste and ravel cord as above. K 50 rows. Take off as above but sew seam for about 1". Stuff lightly for foot and gather at ankle (at top of 1" seam). Tie knot between ankle and top, closer to top (knees). Gather up open sts at cast-on and secure under dress in front. Sit bunny on the edge of a shelf or chair with her legs hanging down.


Variation #1:
You can put a tuft of orange yarn up through the knot in her hands and she'll look like she is eating a carrot (variation thanks to a Prodigy member).


Variation #2:
When making the ears, arms and legs, rather than casting on with scrap and ravel cord, use the pink yarn and the Weaving cast on. Then when you want to gather the ends, just pull the weaving thread and it is all gathered! (variation thanks to a Compuserve member).


Variation #3
Here's a DAK enhancement by a new Compuserve membere: I've made 3 bunnies and using Dak I put (what else?) bunnies on the dress. After reading a discussion of using the lace carriage to transfer stitches for reducing , I did the reductions for the bunny with the lace carriage. I just added a few extra lines to the Dak pattern for the needle selection for the lace carriage. (I was knitting from screen-color pattern only, and I turned it off for the plain parts and turned it on for the tuck, the fairisle, and (now) the transfer of stitches). On Bunny #3, I started the tuck pattern at R 32, hung the hem at R 72 (this was much faster for me than hanging it when you rehang after the decreasing), transferred stitches for the decrease at R 76. Then put the empty needles out of work, and threaded a separate piece of doubled yarn over and under the pairs of needles left in work. With the weaving brushes engaged, k one row. This installs the drawstring to gather the neck. Then scrap off and rehang the live stitches on 60 needles, knit the pink for 30 rows for the head, then transfer every other stitch, knit 1 row, take off and gather.


 

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 ©Rosalind Porter, Piney Mountain Cottage

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 without written permission from Roz Porter