Little Cotton Rabbits

Almost finished fluffies

This week I've been having fun mixing mohair with wool and alpaca and I'm really pleased with the results (although I have to say that I admire Lisa even more because I found the mohair very fiddly to knit with and kept snagging it!). I'm also not as brave as her as the thought of popping them into the washing machine to felt them is too scary for me!

These two just need some clothes, which will keep me busy over the weekend. Incidentally Sunday (oops - it's Saturday, thanks Roo!) is world-wide knit in public day - you can check out events in your area or just go out and do it on your own!

Whatever you do this weekend, have fun!

tagged...

I'm not a well-behaved blogger when it comes to being tagged as it takes me much too long to rustle up my answers. So, I'll start by apologising to Flibbertygibbet, Linaloo and Dragonfly for the fact it's taken me ages! I'm also going to cheat and mash two of the tags together. Flib tagged me for 7 random/weird facts and Lina for 6 unspectacular quirks, so I give you 13 quirkily unspectacular and weirdly random facts:

I like waking up before anyone else in the house
I don't like wearing orange or yellow
I like the smell of farmyards
I don't like cleaning the oven
I like having my feet massaged
I don't like the fact that I seem to be growing a moustache (even Amy commented on it the other day - I must get it waxed!)
I like wide, open country spaces
I don’t like chewed lego that is difficult to snap together (courtesy of Toby)
I like driving on my own and singing along to loud music (Amy tells me off if I do this when she's in the car!)
I don’t like getting caught in the rain
I like wearing pyjamas (all day)
I don’t like bling
I like lying with Toby at bedtime and feeling the rhythm of his heart as he dozes off

Dragonfly tagged me with this:

I have to answer 6 questions about myself. At the end of the post I then tag 6 people and post their names, then go to their blogs and leave them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read my blog. Then, I must let the person who tagged me know when I’ve posted my answers.

What was I doing 10 years ago

10 years ago actually seems like a different lifetime (I’m amazed at how much having children has changed who I am and my values). H & I had just moved from a small flat to this house and were in a frenzy of stripping dodgy 80’s wallpaper, sanding orange-varnished parquet floors and painting over violent turquoise paintwork. Every room needed re-decorating but then with no children around we had the time to tackle it. By day I was working in London as a Marketing Manager and apart from the DIY our evenings were filled with eating out and enjoying each other’s company. We’d also just started pondering whether or not to start a family!

5 things on my to do list for today

Reply to emails
Make 28 ribbon bows for Amy's upcoming ballet show
Make bread
Write cheques for school meals that should have been sent in last week
Make a PECs card for wee wee

Snacks I enjoy

Cheese
Pistachios
Thorntons Viennese truffles
Nutella and peanut butter on a spoon (an instant pick-me-up! And it seems I‘m not the only one!)

Things I would do if I was a billionaire

It’s funny because I’ve always quite liked to play this game. When I was little one of my favourite rainy day games was to draw ‘Julie town’ which included  all the things I liked (it always had a paper mill so I‘d never run out of drawing paper).

Anyway, if I really came into a billion quid I’d build a special needs play complex with indoor and outdoor play areas, sensory rooms and swimming pools. The kind of place that families with special needs children could go in the school holidays when everywhere else is so busy that it’s not an option. There is a great place here that I’ve taken Toby to twice but it’s a bit far to go to regularly.

Places I have lived

Guildford
Hull
Southampton
Cardiff
Blackpool

6 people I'd like to know more about:

Lizzie Jane

Nutty Irishman knits

Kittens lost her mittens

Ninny Noodle Noo

Rachel Rabbit

and you too - if you fancy it?

warm and fluffy inspiration

Thanks for all of the good wishes, I am feeling a little better now although still have to shake this throat thing fully. Still, lolling about last week meant I had more time for browsing blogs and flicking through flickr. There are some wonderfully creative people out there doing all kinds of gorgeous things with fabric and yarn. Although there are plenty of fabric softies that I fall in love with, yarn is my first love so I suppose that's why I'm drawn to knitted and crocheted softies. I have a particular penchant for the work of Wholelottalisa who makes the most lovely fluffy creatures which I think are beautifully shaped and quite special.

Until seeing her toys it had never occurred to me that you could mix two strands of different yarn and create a new and wonderful hybrid.

So, when I saw this baby mohair boucle I knew I just had to make it mine, all mine and give her technique a go by marrying it up with a lone ball from my stash. It's horribly fiddly stuff to knit with but I'll let you know how I get on later in the week!

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Footnote:

I'm going to start answering questions at the bottom of each post - I'm woefully behind with emails and hopefully this will help!

A couple of people asked about the knitted heart in the last post. It's going to be a jumper for a big toy and the pattern for the heart lace panel came from an old Rowan book - Kim's White Book, published in 1989 (one of Kim Hargreaves first pattern books).

I suppose it's out of print now but I had a search on ravelry and you can find a very similar lace heart pattern here for free.

All done.

Well my finished memorial patch is far from perfect but I'm still rather pleased with it and it's pretty close to what I had in mind. I've added my initials and the date (thanks Jill and Caroline for the suggestion) and it might need a few more stitches to hold it in place but I'll take it for a test snuggle first.

Thanks for all the kind comments about it on the previous posts. And to those of you who asked, all I did was type up the text on the computer and fiddle about with placement and fonts. I printed it out (black text on white paper), pinned to an old linen dinner napkin, held it up to the window and traced the letters with a coloured pencil. Then I stitched (back stitch I think). Pretty low tech stuff!

Anyway, I've really enjoyed my small foray into stitching but I'll not be giving up my day job! Now, I'm off to resume my knitting and rest my poor throat before the children get home (I've got a nasty throat infection from the cold of last week) a nice cup of tea wouldn't go amiss either!

getting there!

After two false starts thanks to indecision about typefaces and inexperience with thread thickness I now feel that I'm getting somewhere.

Now I'm off to find somewhere bright to stitch, so I don't end up with a squint!