Dressmaking

 WHAT I'M WORKING ON TODAY

I'm really working on two things at once for one finished project that's part of a bunch of similar animal toys. I'm making the dress for a black and white rabbit. I've got the rabbit done and will be putting her together after I get the arms and legs stuffed.

I'm color working a polka dot dress pattern. I haven't done that much color work before but I'm getting a workout with these cute patterns. Now I love to knit patterns too and these little dresses go really fast. 

I like each animal in this series more than the previous one that I make and so far I've done only three of them. I am so in love with the patterns from Little Cotton Rabbits. They not only got me knitting again but also inspired this web site to show them off.

FUTURE ANIMALS

Oh, I've got more of these I want to make and what better way to spend the winter than making toys. And I've learned so much from these patterns. Julie Williams is the creative genius behind these knitting patterns. She not only writes them well but gives you directions for finishing them.

I've learned how to execute a better mattress stitch from working on these. And I also learned how to cast on with cable stitch to keep my first rows from curling. You would think I would already know this from previous years of knitting but it's really important to do these well with her patterns and not so much with things I knitted before.

I may do an elephant next... or a badger... or another bunny. There are so many to choose from and they are all so darn cute and fun to make. There's even a pattern for a cat. I could make dolls of my pets. I am wishing for her to come up with patterns in the future for dog, squirrel, beaver, the possibilities are really endless.

I had to get some longer 14" needles for the dresses but I knitted the first one on regular 10" needles even though I had to keep it crumpled up and the stitches wanted to fall off the edge of the needle. It's much better to use the longer needles for making the dresses.