Whenever I go to agricultural shows, one of my favourite things is the bunnies. I always like the idea of having one of those Dutch rabbits but, sadly, so does my cat, although for very different reasons. So, inspired by some of the previous versions of Henry’s rabbit, I decided to have a go at making my own (hopefully) cat-proof bunny. Imagine my surprise when Roy turned out so insanely CUTE that he’s (probably) visible from space!

Breaking the habit of a lifetime, I read the pattern before starting Roy and, anticipating the picking up of stitches to come, I used a crochet cast on. I changed to ginger on row 25 of the body and then carried on as per the pattern. When I got to the head, I picked up and knitted 48 stitches in ginger wool, pausing only to give myself a quick thumbs-up for remembering to do that crochet cast on!

I then knitted one round to keep the pick up nice and smooth before doing K2tog (8 times) on needle one, K16 on needle two and K2tog (8 times) on needle three. (I’ve put that I used three needles but I actually used a single circular needle, some stitch markers and the magic loop method. I’ve just described it over three needles because that’s what the pattern does!) After that, I continued as per the pattern until I got to the tail…

I did rounds one to six as per the pattern but then added in my own round. Shall we call it round seven? Why not?! Anyway, it’s not very exciting, it was just K2tog to the end of the round. After that, I cut the working yarn, leaving a nice long tail. I then threaded that tail through the stitches on the needle, pulled them up tight to cover Roy’s modesty and fastened off the wool in the usual manner. We shall return to Roy’s bottom in due course, don’t worry!

Next, I added four legs. The pattern only calls for two but I thought Roy might like four, just like a real bunny, so I made him two ginger ones and two white ones. For the nose, I cable cast on seven stitches, knitted a row, did P1 P2tog P1 P2tog P1 (five stitches), knitted a row, purled a row before cutting the wool and threading it through the five stitches and fastening them off tightly. I then spent FOREVER sewing the nose on and adding a little smile.

After that, all I had to do was locate the pom-pom maker I gave myself for my birthday and crown Roy’s bottom with a big, squishy pom-pom. Whee!