Arrivederci Cardboard Play House

We will miss you, Up House. You have served us well.

Over three years ago Husband and I constructed a playhouse out of cardboard in our basement [original blog post HERE]. It has weathered three years of the cardboard door swinging open and shut, kids crawling in and out of the windows (no, this was not allowed, but it doesn't mean I didn't catch it happening a time or two...) and the every day wear and tear of getting jostled and bumped into by doll strollers and shopping carts. Ten months ago we moved to our new home. We cut the cardboard into manageable pieces and took it with us, trying to splice it back together in our new basement. But alas, it is finally time to say farewell to our well-loved cardboard house. I am really sad to see it go... but I must say, three years is an impressive lifetime of cardboard fun!

Bunny Parade

I started knitting a few weeks ago. I have a tendency to really jump all-in with things. And I am apparently itching for Spring weather, because I have bunnies on the mind!

The first bunny pattern I used was for the bunny on the right, the one in the yellow dress. The (free) pattern can be found HERE on Ravelry, and the dress pattern can be found HERE.  I loved the dress, but was not satisfied with the bunny.

So I moved onto a quick little project, the small striped bunny. The (free) pattern, "Anything Animals" can be found HERE. This was a really fun pattern which also has pattern details for bear ears or pigtails for the knitted critter to become a plethora of little knit friends.

When that project was complete, I thought I would try my hand at making a pattern for a bunny, which is the big striped bunny in the middle.

Finally, I knitted the Belles and Beaus Knitted Hare pattern for the bunny on the left (pattern HERE). So far, she is my favorite. Not only is she super cute, but the pattern was awesome. The ears, head, body and legs are all knitted together, I didn't need to knit separate parts to sew together at the end. (Even though I sew, I detest hand sewing. I will go out of my way to machine-sew a project to avoid the hand sewing.) The Knitted Hare pattern includes a knitting pattern for the sweater, a sewing pattern for the dress, and a knitting pattern for some miniature carrots for her to carry along. My only criticism of the pattern is that the dress is WAY too big on my bunny. I will need to alter the pattern or make my own in the future.

Now that we are entering Spring, I am getting anxious to start seeds and gardening. Hopefully bunnies of the knitted kind will be the only ones I will contend with this season!