Ballerina Bunny, hand knit doll

Beth Lasch Ballerina Bunny c. 2000.jpeg
Beth Lasch Ballerina Bunny c. 2000 side.jpeg

Identifier

2019.014

Title

Ballerina Bunny, hand knit doll

Creator

Beth Lasch

Date

2003

Format

10" x 5"

Description

This Ballerina Bunny was created in celebration of many important apects of my life. I was raised in a household where giving and receiving handmade dolls was a very big part of our family culture.  The joy of making them has never gone away and only increased with time.

The project of the Ballerina Bunny was created from a pattern I had found (but no longer retain).  It spoke to me because it encompassed a lot of my favorite things all at once: my love of ballet; my work as a ballet teacher; my love of animals, knitting, and dolls. I was especially smitten with the tutu and the faux-toe shoes. It was also a good project for learning different knitting techniques and to be able to see results quickly.

Most importantly, I knew it would make my mom happy.  She had been my knitting teacher and I wanted to show her how much she had taught me.  At the time, my mother was battling the final stages of her illness. I had caught a cold and for 3 weeks it was unsafe for me to visit with her, so I was seeking a way that we could still do something together that made us both feel useful and happy.  Making a knitted doll, with so much personal resonance, seemed like a good solution.  We talked over the phone regularly about how to approach different parts and fix issues and share pictures of our progress.

When I was finallly able to present it to Mom, her excitement was beyond what I had imagined.  She loved it, for so many reasons, and certainly for more than just the accomplishment of knitting.  That's what makes it a treasure - because it's an everlasting, irreplaceable, shared experience of the heart captured in each and every stitch.

Provenance

Beth Lasch

Citation

Anonymous, “Ballerina Bunny, hand knit doll,” Center for Knit and Crochet Digital Repository, accessed March 19, 2024, http://digital.centerforknitandcrochet.org/items/show/15790.

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