Aren't they lovely?! (on how to make your toys move arms and legs)

First, I have to admit that I haven't been knitting for a loooooong time and if it wasn't for this pattern, I would possibly never have started again. These are the two toys that I fell in love with the first time I saw this knitting pattern available on By Small Means: https://bysmallmeans.wordpress.com/free-patterns-and-tutorials/ and it was there FOR FREE!!! I just had to try it!

They're also a great example of how our interpretations and executions of patterns can influence the final shape of our work, so I hope these two have at least a little bit of me in them too ;)

The two bigger changes I chose to introduce is using the stockinette stitch for bunny ears and then finishing them off with a flowery fabric. I think it really gave them a nice touch. To do that all you need to do is use the woolen ears as a pattern to cut out the fabric and just sew it by hand with white or beige thread.

I also decided that both my toys will be able to move their arms and legs. In order to do that, I attached transparent buttons to the top or the arms and legs (in the middle of the area you'd normally attach to the body) and pushed them through a hole between two stitches. You'd be surprised how flexible these are and that you can easily do that with a button of 1 cm diameter without leaving any trace. To make sure that the arms stay together, I used the same yarn to attach the first button, pulled it again through one of the button holes and through the part of the body between the two arms. Then I continued by attaching the second button and the second arm and finally pushing the second button through the stitch so that both remain hidden in the body. Finally, I did the same with the legs. This technique not only allows you to attach the body parts, but you can also decide on how close they'd stay to each other by pulling the yarn that joins the two body parts, the same way you'd normally do it with the eyes.