Little Cotton Rabbits

High summer

The last few days have been bathed in the kinds of temperatures that we don't often see here, 32c by day and hot sweaty nights of 24c. I know that's nothing to many of you living in warmer climes but it's a notably rare occurrence for those of us living in a land of cool mists and plentiful rain :)

It's been a bit too hot for my liking if I'm honest. I like it in the low to mid 20's when I still feel like I can comfortably knit - working with wool when you're all hot and sweaty and swollen fingered from the heat is not a relaxing activity. I have however managed to take pictures of the shawl I finished a week or so ago.

 

 

 

 

 

It definitely benefited from blocking and is the perfect summer shawl in that wonderful yarn 'rose garden' luxury sock yarn by Maya at The Wool Barn. I had the perfect amount for Helen Stewart's Spindrift shawl, working the picot cast off row in Oakworth 4ply 'Geum' a beautiful pale peony pink by Victoria at Eden Cottage Yarns and now the temperatures are set to return to a summer norm I expect I'll be throwing it around my shoulders come evening time.

The weather has been great for the garden and the herbs have really taken over everything. I've had to give up on home grown beetroot this year as the poor plants have been crowded out but the beans, peas, raspberries, broccoli and kale are all now harvesting well. I've been building muscles by ferrying the watering can to and from the water butt to keep everything from wilting in the heat. I love growing herbs as they're such a magnet to bees and butterflies and they're good for cooking too.

 

 

 

 

To stop myself from wilting on the hottest day I spent time under the tree in our garden with plenty of cool water and a good book. Meadowland by John Lewis-Stempel is a lovely gentle read, a homage to the small and intimate delights of an English country field and well worth a read if you like that kind of thing, which I do.

 

 

Well, summer is racing by and the start of the long school break is here. We'll be spending it close to home having decided once again that a holiday away is just too complicated for Toby, but hopefully we'll have lots of days out and I hope to share some of our small adventures here. 'Til then keep well and happy x

PS: Thanks so very much for all of the kind comments on the previous post. I am planning to sit down tomorrow and reply to each of them properly but wanted to say a general thank you now. x

 

An evening walk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since finishing her GCSEs 3 weeks ago Amy has been at a bit of a loose end and it's been nice to spend a little more time with her. On Thursday evening we went for a long walk together, exploring some of our local countryside around Great Amwell nature reserve and walking the Amwell walkway which follows the course of a dismantled railway branch line. It was a lovely evening and we saw and heard lots of wildlife including rabbits, butterflies, dragonflies, some huge Roman snails (Helix pomatia which was exciting as they are quite rare and endangered here in the UK), a green woodpecker and lots of water birds. I was really hoping to see a barn owl but we weren't that lucky.

Along the path that runs through farmland we had an uncomfortably close encounter with a herd of cows, young bullocks I think they were. When we first walked through their field they were laying down but on the way back they were drinking and grazing, stopping when we walked past and becoming very curious about us. Disconcertingly they followed us all the way down the field, getting closer all the while and we were relieved to reach the stile and climb over, leaving them on the other side.

Before returning to the canal we climbed Widbury Hill and enjoyed the views across Ware and the Lea Valley. On the way back down, with the rich evening sunlight warming our backs we could hear bells pealing out across the fields as the ringers practiced at the church and it felt like a perfect moment in time.

It's not easy to remain connected to your child as they navigate their teenage years. Often I feel that my words and advice are not welcome and mostly actively ignored. Spending time with me is often pretty low on her list of priorities, so sharing moments like these with her is a precious thing and I treasure them all the more because of their comparative rarity. It fills my heart with pleasure that despite her usual preference for spending time immersed in the technology of computers and digital communication she can still enjoy and access the simple and rewarding pleasure of being quiet, observant and appreciative in a beautiful place.

 

knitting constancy

Throughout all the ups and downs that life can bring, knitting is always there as a comforting part of my days. Though I might have temporarily misplaced my blog voice I can always find something knitted to share with you, so I thought I'd pop in and show you what has been occupying my needles lately.

 

 

As always there have been bunnies. This pair are mostly knitted from a discontinued ball of Rowan Scottish Tweed in 'porridge' that I had stashed. I love the little brown neps peppered throughout and am feeling rather sad that this is now all used up. Here I paired it with a strand of cream Rowan Kidsilk Haze for fuzziness and used a brown alpaca yarn for contrast.

Yarns do come and go and it's always a bit disappointing when a favourite is discontinued. My favourite yarn for knitting animal clothing has always been Rowan 4ply cotton (which was discontinued years ago) and although I still have a fair amount of it stashed I have been hunting around for a good replacement ever since. Happily I've now found it in BC Garn's Alba. This is a soft, matt, organic cotton yarn (not mercerised) and comes in a beautiful range of colours, some and bright and jewel-like and some muted, subtle tones (which are the ones I like the best). The knitted fabric drapes beautifully and I'm having fun playing with ideas for new dresses in this lovely palette of colours (the blue swatch below is a discontinued Rowan 4ply).

 

 

I bought the colours above from Loop and Love knitting stock some of the colour range.

 

 

There's also been excitement recently at the arrival of the morning post which in the last two weeks has brought me two wonderful magazines kindly mentioning my work. The first was the June edition of Australian Homespun which had a lovely write up about the cat patterns and the sweaters.

 

 

The second is the current Issue 148 of Simply Knitting which has an interesting article on blogging, featuring interviews with 4 knitting bloggers (of which I was one). It's always a lovely feeling (and a little surreal) to see yourself in print and I'm hugely flattered to have been included in both of these publications.

Well, I'm off to make some breakfast and rouse the rest of the family, who are all still snoozing. See you soon and until then best wishes for a very happy 4th July to all my friends in the USA x