Mary Lou Norton of Washington state is another of many Friends of HeartStrings who are so kind in sharing what they are knitting with HeartStrings patterns. She also contributed instructions and photos of ear and tail variations for the bunnies she made from the Knitted Bunny pattern.
She wrote:
Hi JackieI have made 6 of your bunnies and here is how I did my ears and tails.
Also I use a knitting machine so hope these hand directions are good enough to understand what I did. LOVE your bunny.
I am providing here the instructions from Mary Lou exactly as I received them, i.e. they have not been edited for completeness, accuracy and consistency as would normally be done for my officially published HeartStrings patterns. But I think her instructions look reasonable ; so wanted to pass them along on behalf of Mary Lou for your enjoyment and use as you see fit.
EARS
cast on 6 stitches on a small double pointed needle, leaving enough yarn to sew this side to the body of the bunny
FIRST ROW
Row #1 Knit 1, P1, K2, P1, K1 TURN WORK
Row #2 P 1, K1, P2, K1, P1
Repeat these 2 rows for a total of 12 rows
decrease – K2 together, K 2, K2 together. You should have 4 stitches left
decrease in the same manor again leaving 2 stitches
Last row knit the last two stitches together, cut yarn (leaving a small tail) and pull through the last stitch… using a darning needle tack this loose end down at the top of the ear. Tight
Gather the cast on row a little bit and sew to bunny.
TAIL
Make a idiot cord …….. co 3 stitches on small double pointed needle
knit across these 3 stitches… Push stitches to the beginning side of the needle (this is a slip row) and knit across these same stitches again. Continue the knit row, slip row 10 times total.. Pick up one of the CO stitches and knit it along with the first stitch on the needle. Continuing to have 3 stitches on your needles.
Knit/Slip 10 rows, pick up a stitch in the same space, knit 10 R. Repeat 5 times so you have 5 little loops/bumps, cut yarn. Fasten off….
Pull the yarn through the center so both tail ends are on the same side and sew to bunny bottom.
Mary Lou Norton
Walla Walla, WA
Interested in trying some other variations? I had posted some other ear and tail variations on the official Knitted Bunny pattern page at the HeartStringsFiberArts.com website (I didn’t have this blog yet, at the time, I don’t believe). Thanks for Nicole Huau, Barbara White and Mary Lou Norton for their contributions to bunny happiness.