Little Cotton Rabbits

Hedgie winners

Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to enter and for all of the kind comments about the hedgehogs. The random number generator has been invaluable again and has come up with the following numbers for the 2 winners of the knitted hedgies:

190: Posted by: D. | June 30, 2009 at 10:15 PM
213: Posted by: Sally | July 01, 2009 at 12:10 AM

And the following 20 winners of patterns:

22: Posted by: Jo|June 30, 2009 at 01:20 PM
33: Posted by: Mari | June 30, 2009 at 01:38 PM
38: Posted by: sheila | June 30, 2009 at 01:45 PM
45: Posted by: Ewa Evans | June 30, 2009 at 02:01 PM
63: Posted by: Mama Urchin | June 30, 2009 at 02:33 PM
84: Posted by: Anna G | June 30, 2009 at 03:40 PM
87: Posted by: adrienne | June 30, 2009 at 03:45 PM
135: Posted by: Lone | June 30, 2009 at 06:38 PM
143: Posted by: annette | June 30, 2009 at 07:03 PM
148: Posted by: Janet | June 30, 2009 at 07:41 PM
160: Posted by: Carolyn | June 30, 2009 at 08:35 PM
191: Posted by: rc | June 30, 2009 at 10:19 PM
222: Posted by: Nell Ward | July 01, 2009 at 01:01 AM
228: Posted by: Lesley | July 01, 2009 at 02:04 AM
277: Posted by: Sheri Watson | July 01, 2009 at 01:31 PM
287: Posted by: Matilda | July 01, 2009 at 04:02 PM
319: Posted by: J Andrews | July 01, 2009 at 10:48 PM
333: Posted by: Kate | July 02, 2009 at 01:42 AM
335: Posted by: Mama T | July 02, 2009 at 02:25 AM
341: Posted by: suesue | July 02, 2009 at 03:19 AM

Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to enter and thanks too to everyone who has bought a copy of the pattern - I'll be making the first donation to the hedgehog preservation society based on the pattern sales at the end of this week.

Hedgehog pattern

Thanks so much for all of the kind comments about the knitted hedgehogs. The little pattern is all finished and I'll pop some copies into my etsy shop and on to Lulu shortly. I thought I'd give away *20 copies of the pattern and also 2 of the finished hedgies at random - so please leave a comment below if you'd like to be entered into the draw.

The pattern can be made from leftover yarn and is very simple and with just 1 seam - the little feet are optional if you're in a hurry or don't like fiddly! They can be used as toys or make useful little pincushions.

 

I've decided to donate a portion of the profits to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society who were so helpful when we were hand-rearing Herbert Hogwart 2 years ago. Hedgehogs are in decline in many areas of the UK and if you'd like to encourage them in your own garden they have some great tips and advice on their website. They're lovely little creatures - very entertaining to watch and great to have around the garden as they hoover up all those pesky slugs and snails!

* sorry, I've just ammended the draw from being first 20 comments to a random draw (in order to give everyone in different time zones an equal chance!) I'll draw winners on Thursday morning (2nd July)

Comments are now closed (Thursday July 2nd 9.59am) Thanks x

garden stuff

Thanks to a spell of wet weather followed by lots of warm sunshine everything here in the garden has exploded!

and we're starting to reap the rewards from all of our hard work - here's our first homegrown courgette - yum!

Hope it's good growing weather with you!

hedgehogs

At last I have a picture of the hedgehogs in our garden!

OK, so I cheated - but the truth is that I feel really mean blasting the real ones with the camera flash while they're eating!

So here are the knitted hodgers that I made over the weekend. I'm still playing around with shaping but am hoping to write up this hedgehog pattern to share very soon.

chicken antics!

I topped up the chicken's dust bath yesterday.

At first it was an orderly affair

then there were 2 in on the act

and eventually all three were crammed into the pot

Daft creatures they are at times, but great entertainment!

Garden friends

Amy and I have really been enjoying watching Springwatch on tv this last week. We've been following the progress of all the baby birds and badgers and we've been looking round our own patch to see what we can see. There is a family of dunnocks nesting in the clematis and in our nest box we've had great tits who have just fledged. This little chap wasn't sure about flying to begin with but by the end of the day he joined his brothers and sisters up in the tree.

We also spotted a lovely big fat frog and there's definite evidence that the hedgehogs are very busy at night in the undergrowth. I don't yet have any pictures but they've been eating the food we've left out each night and our new hedgehog box has had lots of leaves pulled into it.

Lastly, there was this little chap.

I've been thinking about a mole for ages and he's my prototype. I have a few tweaks planned but hope to have some moles ready for Etsy soonish.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend

Lazy sunny Sunday

It's the last day of the school half term break and the weather here is glorious! Toby is splashing in the paddling pool, Amy is in the shade of the tree playing on her nintendo DS, H is watching the Giro d'Italia cycling and I am happily trying out some ideas for a knitted cat motif.

Don't you just love lazy Sundays?

A walk in the woods

 

A notable achievement for Toby who, despite being somewhere new and unexpected, surprised and delighted me by walking for 15 minutes without fussing or tantrums - 15 minutes I will treasure and remember for a long time!

still here...

...looking after the two 'C's in my life (children and chickens). The big C's are at school so here's a picture of the little mucky-clucky C's.

...knitting (mostly in the mood for purple at the moment)

 

...gardening (and learning lots)

...just run out of words for a bit (although I now have new glasses which have happily passed the Toby test!)

Oculus Reparo!

Over the weekend Toby had a bit of a melt down that resulted in him knocking off my glasses and snapping the frame. I'm really shortsighted so while my husband was doing his best to fix them temporarily with the superglue I had to resort to wearing a very old pair (I only get around to changing them around once a decade!)

You should have seen Toby's face - the biggest scowl you ever did see! Then he made a lunge for them and pulled them off my face in disgust. It seems he's not overly impressed by my changed appearance. I'm off to the optician later in the hope of getting a very similar pair - either that or it will be a very gradual de-sensitising operation to get him to accept a new look for me!