Tag Archives: Bunny Named Quwi

Spring bunnies

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Happy Spring (it’s just starting here in Michigan), Easter, Passover, and every other event of family and renewal. All good.

My pair of Karel (twins) by Annita Wilschut made me smile as soon as I saw their limbs taking shape on my needles. It was still bone-chilingly cold, with fierce winds, when I started this pair. And now it’s nearly 60 degrees Fahrenheit and the sun is shining. It was snowing yesterday, but I don’t want to dwell on that. Today we removed the snow-stakes. We took the insulators out of the crawl space vents. We swept up the feisty red squirrel dinner droppings on the decks. He (or she) of the cast-iron stomach brigade has been chewing on red and white PINE CONES all winter long under the protective shelter of our deck table. If you’ve ever dealt with a red squirrel, you know you just have to let them go where they will.

Anyway, back to the Karel twins, knitting them just generally put me in a hopeful and happy mood. I knit my pair’s skins in Schoeller + Stahl Zimba Fix Mexiko. Their ears, tails and overalls are knit in Schachenemayr Merino Extrafine. Both of these yarns are DK weights.

I think maybe their cute round bunny tails might be their most endearing feature.

I am a huge fan of Wilschut’s toy patterns. All the pieces are worked onto one another as you knit. ZERO sewing up of pieces once the knitting is complete. I’ve grown weary of toy patterns that leave you with a giant pile of pieces to sew together. Those often turn out super cute. But the sewing can be a challenge.

Here’s one more of Wilschut’s bunny patterns that I recently completed. It’s the long-legged long-eared Bunny Named Quwi.

Another totally fun knit. I knit my Quwi in Ella Rae’s DK Cozy Soft Prints. OK. It’s a tad garish. But Quwi don’t care. Actually, neither do I. I wouldn’t want a sweater knit in this yarn, but it’s really great bunny yarn.

Brace yourself Quwi. She begged me not to show her to you in a pre-stuffed state. I explained that knitters might get a kick out of seeing how she looked when she was just skin with no fluff stuff inside. I believe she thinks knitters must be a rather perverse bunch. (Hopefully though, she won’t see this post because “hell hath no fury like…”) So here’s Quwi hot off the needles.

Wilschut’s patterns are easy for English speakers to follow. Just carefully read the abbreviation key to learn her idiosyncrasies. Her patterns are amazing! Check them out on Ravelry.

A Bunny Named Quwi

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Once upon a time, three balls of Adrialfil Knitcol, a DK weight yarn, were sitting in a yarn shop. They were in a bin, on a wall of bins, surrounded by their brother Knitcols. They were a diverse bunch of what their maker calls “user friendly jacquard.” There were rainbow balls, pastel balls, autumnal shaded balls. All sorts of balls that, once knit, would clearly be seriously wonderful.

To get to their bin, a visitor first enters at the bakery door. You read right. The bakery door. There are many many non-yarn distractions to be resisted. Breads. Doughnuts. Ice Cream. Cookies. Not just any old cookies either. Coconut macaroons dipped in chocolate. Ginger cookies with raspberry filling. Dare I repeat? Ginger cookies with raspberry filling. Sigh.

After the bakery, comes the little restaurant. It will feed you great soup. Excellent sandwiches. Good coffee. They won’t even mind if you sit down and just eat a ginger cookie with raspberry filling. Or two.

Go to the end of the restaurant counter. One step up. Jog to the right. And the Dutch Oven Bakery turns into the Dutch Oven Yarn Shop. For more than 40 years this unlikely combo has worked well.

Oh. Here’s a sample of those Knitcols I was writing about before I got distracted with thoughts of ginger cookies with raspberry filling.

These three balls traveled home with me. There’s even a little raspberry color in the balls.

The balls probably pined for their brothers. Maybe they pined more for the wonderful non-sheepy smells that wafted into the yarn shop from the bakery and restaurant. Maybe they missed hearing June say “hello, can I help you?” Instead of a nice airy bin, they were confined in a moth-attack-proof blue plastic-covered bin. Instead of other friendly Knitcols, they rubbed elbows with other DK weight yarns, including a few snooty ones like Brooklyn Tweed Arbor and HiKoo Sueno. Especially the Arbor groused about having to share space with the ready-to-use Knitcol balls. I told the Arbor to pipe down and reminded them that I bought them from the sale basket and I’d paid full price for Knitcol. The Arbor and Sueno created enough of a racket that I knitted most of them into hats and doll clothes. I told the Knitcols they must be patient and I’d get to them when a project worthy of their specialness presented.

And then came Annita Wilschutt’s Bunny Named Quwi. The lead photo on this post shows off his cute face, long ears, belly button, and how well Knitcol works in this pattern.

Quwi is about 20 inches from head to toe.

I just let the yarn do the work.

Here’s Quwi from the back, showing off his butt and bunny tail.

Here’s Quwi flopped over, resting, hiding under his ears. As with all bunnies, Quwi believes that if he can’t see you that means you can’t see him.

Here’s Quwi, knitted but unstuffed.

Quwi begged me not to post the photo of him skinned with no insides. I told him to buck up because you might like to see how he was constructed and how there was no sewing at all. Each piece of Quwi is knitted on as you work, from head to toe.

Quwi, apparently in a pensive mood.

Maybe I should have been more sensitive to Quwi’s feelings about that last photo. It’s been quite a journey from those balls in a bin to what he is today.