Little Cotton Rabbits

Indian summers and aran jumpers

Am feeling all relaxed today, having had a better than expected weekend. I did expect Toby to have difficulty as he'd been up and out of the house at school all week but happily he was quite content to potter and have lazy days in the garden. We even got the paddling pool out yesterday afternoon - I love indian summers, and obviously so does Amy.

On the knitting front I've been busy knitting up that nice ball of Rowan felted tweed and here is the result - Aran boy. It's quite fiddly cabling on 2 and a quarter mm needles but I'm pleased with the result. More new rabbits later in the week as I have more new wool in 100% baby alpaca - soooo soft.

wool, glorious wool

What is it about a new ball of wool that excites me? Am I a bit of a saddo, an anorak of knitting? I love buying new wool, it's full of promise and potential, for with two long sticks and a bit of patience it can be transformed into just about anything you can imagine. I once came accross a website from New Zealand where a group of elderly people had knitted an entire spread for tea including the teapot, loaf of bread with board and bread knife, sandwiches, cakes etc. It was quite accomplished, if a wee bit redundant and just goes to show what you can do with a humble ball of wool.

I've enjoyed having time to myself this week and beginning to catch up with all the things I've not had a chance to do whilst being full-time carer to Toby. I'm really pleased with this shade card. Because I knit with a range of yarns (Rowan, Jaeger, Sirdar and Patons) I often find it difficult to imagine which different colour combinations will work together and so I decided to make a shade card incorporating all the cotton 4ply yarn that I have in stock. I think it's almost worthy of being framed and I'm enjoying looking at it propped in the corner. Well I'm off to enjoy the rest of the day. Funny to think I was dreading this week - wasn't so bad afterall! Have a great weekend all.

On autism & shopping

One of the most frustrating things about autism is the lack of communication. I can't tell Toby stuff as he doesn't comprehend language. I couldn't tell him that he was going to school, how long he'd be there and that I'd be missing him every second that he was gone. Toby is at distance from the world we know - this picture pretty much sums it up

Having said that he is coping very well with starting school this week. He's been a little blotchy around the eyes on his arrival home each afternoon (a sure sign of tears during the day) and he was bitten by one of the other children but on the whole he's pretty relaxed considering how monumentally upended his secure little world has been.

Toby & I do have an wonderful non-verbal language of our own involving touch, hugs, kisses and giggles. He gives big cuddles and fat, wet kisses as soon as he gets home and snuggles into my lap with a contentment that clearly communicates he's pleased to see me. He can communicate his basic needs through PECS where he brings a picture of the thing he wants to me. As you can imagine though this is pretty limited (mostly to food and toys) but I hope as he grows he'll be able to expand his vocabulary and communicate more about how he feels, maybe one day he may even learn to speak. For now I'm just happy that he's managed the big step of starting school so well. The old chestnut 'Live one day at a time' is the motto in our house.

on a lighter note:

I love this time of year as it heralds the arrival of lots of fat glossy mail order catalogues. I am addicted - much to Huw's disgust as he spends 10 mins searching through the stacks for his mail. There are so many beautiful things out there and I like to browse and pick out what I'd buy if money were no object. Sometimes I actually order stuff!! In fact I have just treated myself to a beautiful new knitting bag

(courtesy of Cath Kidston)

and a wonderful pair of gardening shoes from the fabulous Plantstuff.

Am now off to enjoying perusing the selection of catalogues that arrived today.

fairy cake T-shirt

Toby seemed to cope well yesterday and was pretty calm amd happy after arriving home on the minibus. It's so strange not having him around in the day and I'm like a butterfly - just flitting from one thing to another. As usual knitting is keeping me sane! I've been playing around with ideas and considering that knitted corsages are 'all that' right now I thought I'd vary the theme. The result is a knitted badge / T shirt decoration on my favourite theme of fairy cakes. Modelled here by the lovely Amy:

Will try some more of these and perfect the design - also like the idea of ice-cream cones.

This one's for you Hazel

Well, here I am, trying not to think about how Toby's getting on. It's his first day at school and because he's autistic I wasn't able to prepare him as well as I'd have liked. Still he should like today - they're swimming this morning, PE this afternoon and half an hour of soft play at the end of the day (because it's a severe learning difficulty school they do lots of pyhsical activity and have their own bouncy castle and soft play room!). Tomorrow he's got his first horse-riding lesson - still can't imagine what he'll make of that. Anyway, the point of posting is to take my mind of worrying about him - so I should move on. Back to Hazel...

My new friend Hazel (mum to Madeline and Jack who is also autistic) invited me over to her house last friday evening. She'd organised a charity fund raising evening (Hazel - where do you get your energy?!) selling beautiful handmade cards, children's clothes, Tibetan furniture and accessories, knitted corsages and more. Well, what a great evening - everyone had a fab time drinking, eating cakes (Hazel's chocolate cake is legendary) and shopping (what a heavenly combination). I was chuffed to bits as I sold 10 rabbits and 5 cakes so a big thank you to the lovely ladies of Townshend and West Streets who were so complimentary about my work. These are some of the cakes that I sold for the charity:

walking on sunshine

Hi, at last I am posting!

Today is a real turning point for me and my family - my autistic son starts school tomorrow. It's a real emotional conundrum for whilst I'm a wreck with worrying how he'll cope I'm also brimming with excitement at the prospect of a daily  6 hours of free time for me - weeeeheeee! Anyway, on balance it is a positive - he's so ready for the challenge and has been so bored and restless over the summer hols and I am full of so many creative impulses which need to be put into action before I  burst!

I've been so inspired by reading various weblogs, particulary Hillary Lang's fabulous Wee Wonderfuls that I've been itching to start my own weblog. So here it is.

Basically I'm a non-stop knitter. I created a design for a rabbit around 3 years ago as an easter pressie for my daughter Amy. Pink cotton rabbit was so fun to make that I just carried on and made some for everyone I know - including my daughters playgroup. I always try to make each one different so whilst some jumper designs crop up time and again they are always in different colourways or on differently coloured rabbits. I love the yarns I use - Rowan, Jaeger and Debbie Bliss - pre-dominantly cotton and wool mixes with a dash of cashmere and silk thrown in for good measure. Anyway, enough chitchat - here are some pics of bunnies I've made so far...