Three Bunnies Knit Kit

In Praise of Kits

There is something so satisfying about kits, whether for knitting or sewing. Everything comes in one neat little package and you know you have all the material to do the job.

I was at Woolfest in Cumbria on Saturday, which was an amazing day out featuring some cute alpacas and a very grumpy sheep (I never knew what a hacked off sheep sounded like - now I do). I was pleased to snare three new knitting kits and a felt brooch kit during my shopping spree, although you'll have to wait for a bit to see the finished results.

What I have for you today is the Three Bunnies Knit Kit from Gift Horse Knit Kits who sell via Not On The High Street.com. The kit cost £20 including free postage. For your kit, you choose two colours of wool from which you make three bunnies; one in each colour and then one striped.

I went for the humbug variegated yarn and plain tan. The kit is very comprehensive in terms of its contents: yarn, knitting needles, felt for the facial features, buttons, thread, stuffing, needle and of course the pattern. I liked it that the kit included some extra yarn in case you ran out.

The yarn is a chunky weight but knitted on 3mm needles. I didn't use the bamboo needles provided but turned to my trusty Signature needles. I did find that I had to watch my tension as you can make the knitting too tight with the yarn being so thick.

Each bunny is knitted as two pieces, with a separation for the ears. The ears are pretty easy though, even, for a beginner as you leave the one you're not working on on the needle.

I decided to use safety eyes rather than embroidered ones so I put the eyes in before making up. I also glued on the felt nose and, for the plain bunny, added the cute little heart button provided.

To make up the bunnies, you sewed wrong sides together apart from the base and then stuffed with toy filling before sewing up the gap. The instructions suggested tying a length of yarn around each ear for additional definition but liked the ears just as they were.

As a finishing touch, the kit provided beautiful wooden buttons to use as the bunny's tail. If you position these correctly, they enable the bunny to stand up without support, which is pretty cool.

My personal addition was to glue on a cute fabric bow on each bunny's ear.

I really loved this kit and, for once, was quite happy to knit three of the same thing. You may at this stage be wondering what happened to bunny number three? I actually gave that one to my mum as a gift so she's not available for photographs this week :)

Melx