In Which the Pirate Likes Bunnies.

In the spring when I was two years old, my dad came home one day with a stuffed rabbit for me. I named her “Bunny” – creative, no? – and she became my all-time favourite stuffed animal. Bunny was strictly an indoor rabbit, except when we traveled on airplanes. She’s accompanied me on most of my flights, sitting in my hands and looking out of the plane window whenever possible. All these years later, she still sits in a place of pride on my dresser. Much loved, a little worn, but still my Bunny. Amusingly, my nieceling also has a stuffed rabbit – whose name is also “Bunny” – her constant companion without whom she cannot eat, sleep, or play.

I started thinking about making little toys for friends’ babies instead of sweaters or blankets. Who knows, the toy I make could become a kid’s absolute favourite toy ever! That would be something that lasts a lot longer than a sweater.

I’m partial to rabbits, so maybe this One Skein Bunny would be fun to work up. Then I started considering the other things I liked when I was a kid. Dragons, definitely. I loved dragons. And unicorns – maybe it was just because it was the 1980s, but do little girls still love unicorns? Snoopy and Woodstock have always been favourites, and of course Hobbes.

In my pattern searching, I even found one that would be perfect for my sister the Ninja… a lemur!

The really cool thing is that almost all of these patterns, except Woodstock, are available for free. (There actually were a couple of free Woodstock patterns, but I liked the shape of this one best.) I think the ease of sharing patterns, and the willingness to share them for free, is a wonderful development for the crafting community. I can’t imagine being able to find so many free designs so easily without a site like Ravelry. Whatever did people do before the internet?