Happy Hooker Backwards Project #34: Bedfellows

I started this particular project on my second night in hospital.  It took me nearly two hours to get beyond the first round of stitches - no matter what I did I just couldn't get it to work.  The old lady in the bed opposite, Joyce, kept encouraging me though.  She kept saying "don't give up girl!" So I didn't...I just changed things a bit, altered the slip stitches to become single stitches, changed from an 8mm to a 4.5mm hook, and kind of winged it.

Nearly everything I did was wrong.  The size, the yarn, the stitch, the hook, the technique, the increases and decreases.  This project was doomed from the very start.

But somewhere along the way....

...a new friend began to take shape...

...and what should have been a disaster....

....actually turned into....Topsee :)

Named by Lillia (the spelling is hers too) Topsee is a new firm favourite in our house.

I made her arms and legs longer than the pattern, and her head is bigger, her ears are floppier.  Her eyes are beadier and her nose is wonkier.  But Topsee is our beautiful bunny friend...

She is already to be found mingling amongst the toys...

...helping with morning spelling practice...

...and I had a little smile to myself when I found her abandoned in the reclining position in Lillia's bed...

Lillia says she is "nimble and flexible", a Ballerina Bunny, which then led to the request for Topsee to have her own wardrobe.  We love Strictly Come Dancing in this house and we always watch it together on Saturday nights.  We decided that Topsee's first dress should be just like Holly Valance's salsa dress.

Here's the original...

And here's Topsee's very own crochet and sequinn version...

  

Yes, we do love Topsee :)

And here's the usual summary of the project:

• Cost - about £6 - I used less than a ball of each colour to make topsee, plus a little extra for her dress. 
• Yarn -  The purple is Patons Cottom Twist Aran (55% cotton, 45% acrylic) and is delightfully soft and tactile.  The light pink is Patons Smoothie DK.
• Hook - 4.5mm and 3mm.
• Difficulty - Goodness I struggled with this one!  I just couldn't get the hang of the slip stitches, but once I changed to single stitiches instead I got along better, but I had to make a lot of adjustments along the way.
• Overall happiness with finished object - Oh very happy!!  But not as happy as Lillia and her new best friend :)