Cottontail Felted Wool Basket

A rabbit sitting very still, with her ears straight up and a heart for a nose.

The nose is the decision that makes her. A felted animal's nose is almost always a triangle — it is the quick, obvious shape. Hers is a small pink heart worked in satin stitch, with a line dropping from its point into a wide, gentle smile. It takes longer and it changes the whole face.

Her ears are the other piece of real work. They stand a full hand high and they stay up, which means they have to be felted dense enough to hold their own weight without a wire inside them. A floppy ear would have been easier and it would have been a different rabbit.

Two paws rest on the front rim with their claws stitched in black, and there is a round tail bobble round the back that you find later. Her fleece is left undyed, the natural cream of the wool, with only the ear linings dyed.

At Easter she is the basket — deep enough for a serious haul, light enough for a toddler to carry, and a great deal better in a photograph than anything plastic. The rest of the year she holds hair clips, small toys, bath things, or sits on a shelf doing nothing in particular. The handle is firm enough to hang her from a hook or a doorknob.

Open at the top and unlined, the same soft wool inside as out. Made from New Zealand wool.