bunny beanie

This weekend past we had a party for the toddler of the family I work for. She turned three. She has quite a few stuffed bunnies and a special one--baby bunny--who usually accompanies her and her blanket when going to sleep. (And at other random times.) So I made her a bunny beanie as a present.
Using Sirdar Crofter Dk Fair Isle effect I crocheted a basic beanie. This yarn is mostly acrylic with some cotton and a bit of wool. Should be warm enough but I hesitate to use super nice wool on children. Especially ones who have heaps of clothes and hats anyway. It's suppose to have a natural fair isle effect without the fair isle work but it doesn't really work with crochet. I like the spread of colours anyway and her favourite colour is pink so it works well. I bought one ball from a discontinued basket and unfortunately one wasn't enough. I resolved the issue by buying the same yarn in smaller ply. With this smaller ply I made earflaps for extra warmth and bunny ears to attach to the top. Using purple (from the wool I dyed for the rainbow ripple baby blanket), instead of pink as I intended simply because I had it already, I crocheted around the entire bottom of the beanie including earflaps. Then I added the ties. Decided to have a go at fishtail plaiting them as I've learnt how to do it recently. I'm glad I did too. I think it looks a little more interesting than a regular plait. I added a mini tassle for a little pizazz without too much fluff.

With the ears I made a tube starting at the top and the purple I added in as I went carrying the other yarn across. First attempt at fair isle really. I also decided to stitch around the purple inner ear to define the edges a bit more as well as stitch the two sides together so it felt less like a tube and more like a thick ear.

I had hoped that this thickening would help the ears stand a bit but they don't. It's a floppy earred bunny hat. I pinched the base together too when I sewed them on because they just look better like that.

Overall I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I'm not sure what the toddler thinks really. You know what toddlers can be like when they are just getting present after present. Her mum liked it though and got her to try it on at least. It's a bit big for her but that's fine as winter here is still months off and it will just fit her for longer.