Bunny ears crochet pattern

I had the opportunity to make a fuzzy bunny hat for a photographer recently. I found some really great bulky fuzzy yarn (Yarn Bee Cameo) - it's soft, it has fluff and fuzz - it's great except...it's super bulky (6)...I love sport weight yarn and often use it (with a size larger hook) when worsted weight is called for. It's light and lacy. But bulky and then some? Yes, it works up faster but it's just so big! No problem though, I'll have to find a pattern that calls for bulky yarn. um... yeah... so...

Well, a beanie hat isn't hard to make. I loosely followed Red Heart's Bunny Hat pattern for the beanie - I love the dc row amid the primarily sc rows. Granted, the pattern was written for a worsted weight (4) so I had to make modifications - I switched to my largest hook (M) and cut down on number of rows. but even then the ears didn't really work - they were too stiff with the bulky yarn.

I went looking for another pattern. I couldn't really find one that would work with bulky yarn or gave me the look I was going for so I made up my own!

Inner ear (crochet 2)
with sport or worsted weight yarn (I did white with the pink hat and cream with the tan hat) and a I hook, leave a longer tail and ch 21.
R1: sc in the second ch from hook, sc 18; in the last ch, 5sc. working on the other side of the ch, sc 19 to the end, do not join, ch1 turn (43)
R2: sc in the same sc as the ch1, sc 18, 2sc in each of the 5 turning stitches, sc 19, ch1 turn (48)
R3: sc in the same sc as the ch1, sc 7, hdc 3, dc 10, hdc, 2sc, sc-ch-sc, 2sc, hdc, dc 10, hdc 3, sc 9, ch1 turn (52 including sc-ch-sc)
R4: slst in the first stitch, slst 5, sc 19, in the ch1 space, sc-ch-sc, ,sc 19, slst 6, bind off leaving long tail (53 inclusing sc-ch-sc).
using the longer starting tail, sew up any gap made by crocheting on both sides of the ch.

Fuzzy Outer Ear (crochet 2)
using the super bulky yarn and the M hook, ch 13.
R1: sc in the second ch from the hook, sc 10, sc 5 in the last ch, working on the other side of the ch, sc 11, ch1 turn (27)
R2: sc in the same stitch as the ch 1, sc 10, 2sc in each of the 5 turning stitches, sc 11, ch1 turn (32)
R3: sc in the same stitch as the ch 1, sc 10, hdc, dc, 2dc, dc, 2dc, dc-ch1-dc, 2dc, dc, 2dc, dc, hdc, sc 10, ch turn (38 including dc-ch-dc) do not bind off
weave in the starting tail

*here come the tricky part - joining the inner and outer ears together. You'll notice that they aren't the same size and don't have the same number of finishing stitches and that the M hook will not fit in the I hook space. I switch to a J hook. I use 3 removable stitch markers (safety pins) to hold them together temporarily. The first one is placed in the ch space at the turn for both inner and outer ear. The other 2 attach to the top of the ear for both parts of the ears. As the next row is worked, there's a bit of "easing in" that goes on - the stitches with stitch markers are the only ones that have to match up.
R4: holding both part of the ear together, insert the hook with the fuzzy working yarn still looped under the first slst of the inner ear and thru the same stitch as the ch1 of the outer ear, draw a loop through both pieces and make a sc. Do the same for the rest of the slst and the sc on the inner ear (24 st) to the next stitch marker - some of the outer ear stitches will have 2 stitches in each stitch but not all of them (this is the easing in part). In the ch spaces, sc-ch-sc. sc in each of the inner ear sc attaching it to the outer ear - remember, some of the outer ear stitches will hold 2 of the sc - use your best judgement. bind off leaving a long tail.

tuck the starting tail of the inner ear between the layers and use the long tail of the inner ear to sew the top closed with a whip stitch, I knot it and weave in ends. Using long tail of the fuzzy yarn, sew the ears on the hat where and how you like them. Weave in the ends of the fuzzy yarn, put hat on a baby - adorable!

Hopping Down The Bunny Trail fuzzy bunny hat at hamburke.com

Thanksgiving Spread

Thought I'd let you all know that I successfully cooked Thanksgiving Day dinner according the "the plan". We were a 1/2 hour later than I planned to eat but that's exactly how long it takes to burn off a small piece of the plastic turkey bag that hit the top oven burner... That was the only mishap besides the fact that I didn't leave enough time to cook the green beans (they just got served later). I'm very excited that I also got to use my china and crystal for the first time ever!

Remember to use coupon code Black12 through Monday when checking out in my shop!

I HEART Pinterest

So I started on Pinterest, what? 2 months ago and I'm totally in love with the creativity and access to creativity that I find on there!  So, back to Handmade Holiday (I promise this ties in), I found a project on there that I just knew if I did, my kids would love, love, love!  Etsy seller and blogger Haddy-Grace (probably better known as RuthAnn Zimmerman) lives in Iowa which is apparently really cold in the winter so she made FLEECE fitted sheets for her kids!  Look at this picture of one of her girls on their bed:

Okay - it doesn't get that cold here in the mid-Atlantic to warrant fleece sheets but my kids don't like their comforters on their beds - they prefer to sleep with a throw blanket (can you see where I'm going with this?) and then complain that it's too small or that their feet poke out. Soooo - I took RuthAnn's design and made a fitted top sheet like I had for their toddler bed! I'm calling it a "stay-put blanket".

I made a matching pillow case too although it's really just so I can use it as wrapping...

So the features of this "Stay-Put Blanket", a fitted bottom portion of the sheet

and that 3" fold-over portion that I don't really understand the purpose of on regular sheets.

Also coming along, Pixiebell Elfinwear hats for my sisters and Tangled scarf for my mom

(the dark one is purple and yes, they are cast on to the same round needles - why read directions twice??)

Not that I need to add anything to my Handmade Holiday but I did - another Pinterest find (again, I <3 Pinterest - if you want to stick with my Handmade Holiday theme, you can screen print me a shirt that says that, wrap it up in what I'm about to tell you about and mail it to me) - cloth gift bags! Reusable, ecofriendly, fun!  How Does She talks about them here. The Christmas Bags seemed perfect - but I'm low on funds and don't have lots of Christmas-themed fabric just sitting around so I tore through my collection of fat quarters (okay, so this may be considered almost cheating but what really is cheating is that I left the selvage edge at the opening - also, most of my fat quarters are flowers and spring...). Wanna know what I learned? a) not all fat quarters are the same size; b) I don't use that many fat quarters and should probably stop buying them except they came in handy tonight.  Anyway, I put fabrics together and had a good time sewing up a bunch of wrapping bags. They don't look as good as the photos from the blog but for a quickie craft where I didn't have to buy anything that I didn't have already, they turned out great! here's my favorite - Owls on Orange. It fits a shoe box and notice the tag (it's the only right side up owl and it has chalkboard fabric on the back - that marker on the right is ChalkInk)?

Okay, the count down to Christmas is heating up - we're getting close!  Too bad I don't have an Advent Calendar - actually may have worked out by not putting too much pressure on us since someone in our house has been sick since the week before Thanksgiving, myself included.  Oh! We did finally get the tree up:

See the tree skirt I was talking about a couple of posts ago? I added the angel this year and will add shepherd next year (another Pinterest project pinned by Missy again - plain as plain tree skirt and fabric paint your kids handprints on each year).

And made melting snowmen cookies from another Pinterest pin.

What's new in my Etsy shop? Not much - I've been busy and not feeling well - but, new booties!!

Handmade Holiday con't, con't...

So the whole family is getting into a handmade holiday which is great!
A (age 9) is making scarves for her friends -

E (age 6 1/2) has just learned to sew and made this neck pillow cover (I made the muslin bag inside - no way was I trusting a 6 year old with sewing a bag that will be holding 5 cups of rice) -


M (age 3 3/4) is making paper diapers for his sister's stuffed animals (so that's where the spare roll of paper towels and bag of safety pins that I had set aside for pinning dance costumes went!)

I finished and delivered the chalkboard placemats for E's teacher and rice neck wraps and Coconut Body Scrub (Aunt Katie's Body Scrub recipe with coconut oil instead of honey) for A's teacher and both girl's RE teachers and my book club/knitting night friends. And I was cold so I made a neck pillow for our family as well and added flax filled eye pillows too! On both, one side is fleece and the other side is VSSS (shh! Victoria's Secret stretch satin - that's right, underwear!) that I purchased as a group buy from Kathy's Lace and Elastic Outlet



Hubby C, well, he was out of character this weekend and got all of our butts in gear as we, the unwilling, led by he, the uncharacteristicly tidy, did the impossible and now have an unmessy (although not yet clean, ie vacuumed, scrubbed and disinfected - well, except for the laundry room where I was...) that is nearly ready for Christmas! And tomorrow, 2 out of 3 kids go to school for several hours and C is home with me to continue the trend!

Nutcracker on Tuesday night and then the non-stressful holiday festivities can begin!