Little Cotton Rabbits

November remembered

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

<

 

 

 

 

 

November days seem to have sped past me here, and although I've been busy with lots of different things I don't seem to have much to show for them, though I have managed to snap a few pictures along the way. Autumn has peaked, with all it's golden glory and the trees have seemed particularly spectacular this year. Our November highlights have included misty mornings; sudden storms; golden leaves and golden skies; wood walks; sock and mitten knitting; comfort food casseroles and the first fire lighting of the season.

Yesterday was the start of meteorological winter and it does feel like autumn is now over. Most of the leaves now lay strewn across the lawns, and the winds have turned chilly and persistent. It's a good time for curling up in a cosy spot and knitting warm things and I have been mostly knitting socks and mittens. I was so taken with this 'golden praline' colour that I'm using it in two separate projects and knitting from either end of the skein at the same time, not something to be recommended as it does lead to lots of bad words being uttered at the terrible tangles that develop. The pattern for the socks is 'Lucky me socks' by Pia Kammeborn and the mitten pattern is 'Alfredo gloves' by Suzanne Stallard. The yarns are all The Uncommon Thread tough sock, and I've paired the 'golden praline' with creamy 'manuscript' and dark, moody 'cobble'.

My thoughts are now turning to celebrations of the winter solstice and Christmas and I'm looking forward to having our family all together again when Amy comes back in a couple of weeks. I've felt a little quiet and melancholy of late, so all of the sparkle, warmth and fun of late December and the New Year will be very welcome. I hope to be around here a little more over December days, so hope to see you again soon. Thanks as always for dropping in to visit with me.

 

Finishing touches

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you again for all of the amazing, inspiring, smile-evoking, heartwarming and generally all round lovely comments on the giveaway post. It's been such a joy to read them and to hear about all of the things, whether big and momentous or small and personal, that make you happy. Thanks for taking the time to share, I think I'll be dipping back in to read those comments whenever I'm feeling blue as they certainly lift my spirits.

I've now updated the giveaway post to include the 2 winners and I've been in touch with both Nina and Linda and have had lovely excited replies from them both. I'm looking forward to seeing which of these animals they're going to choose. Once they've chosen their prizes I'll be finishing off all the rest of those above, who at the moment are each needing some finishing touches like buttons or tails and then (along with one more poor left-out girl lamb who is waiting to be sewn together) I'll be listing them for sale. As next week is half term break here I'll not get much work done but as soon as they are ready to list I will send out an email to my mailing list with specifics on times etc. There's a sign up sheet over on the right there if you'd like to be notified.

Well, thank you again for taking the time to enter my anniversary giveaway and for your interest in my makes, I still love knitting them after all of these years and I have lots of ideas for the future too, so will be making them for a long while yet :)

 

Time for a giveaway

 

 

 

Back on September 3rd it was my 12th anniversary of starting this blog, and in keeping with tradition (which admittedly lapsed a bit last year) I'm going to celebrate (a little belatedly) with a giveaway.

In this crate are fourteen little animals that have been patiently waiting for me to finish them for most of this year and I am now nearing the point of completing them all. I will be putting them up for sale soon, but before I do I'm going to pick 2 comments at random from any comments left on this blog post, and those 2 people can each pick their favourite one as their prize. The draw is open to anyone and I'm happy to post for free anywhere in the world. If you'd like to be included just leave a comment below. You can write anything you like, it really doesn't matter, but if you have time I'd love for you to tell me about anything that has made you happy this week.

Please can I just ask:

A. Just one comment per person, and

B. Make sure you fill out you email address in the space provided (not in the actual comment field as there it will be displayed for all to see) so that I can contact you if yours is the comment picked.

This post will be open for comments until 12 noon on Friday 26th October (a week from now). At that point I will close the comments and use an online random number generator to pick 2 comments, the first drawn will have 1st choice of the available animals and the second drawn will have 2nd choice. Oh, and please don't leave a comment on bloglovin or any other blog following service, as those will not be counted - only comments left right here on this post will be eligible for the draw.

Thanks so much for following me here, I know some of you have been popping in almost since the beginning of my adventures in blog land and some of you are new visitors. Whoever and wherever you are, please know that I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to stop by and I love reading your comments when you have time to leave them. This blog is such a source of support and friendship to me and I hope to keep it going for a long time yet. I hope you'll continue to join me when you can,

J x

 

....................................

Thanks so much to everyone who has taken the time to leave a comment here, together all of the comments are a wonderful collection of diverse, heartwarming, moving and personal accounts of what happiness can be. Thanks for sharing xxx

Here are the winners:

The first number that has been generated is 498, which is Nina Chester

498

Nina Chester said...

Please put me in your fabulous hat x

October 19, 2018 at 05:34 PM

And second number picked is 1624, which is Linda from Boston

 

1624

Linda from Boston said...

Congratulations on 12 years!! I've been with you from the beginning. Throw my name into the contest pool!!!

October 22, 2018 at 11:02 PM

Thanks again to all who entered, J xxx

cosying on a windy day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our 'new normal' is beginning to feel familiar now, with returns to comfortable routines for the three of us here and Amy settling in well and having a great time away at Uni.

For most of the last week I've been sorting my tangled mess of knitting projects and tidying the house, but on Thursday I headed off for a peaceful autumn walk. The leaves have yet to fully change colour, so the woods are not yet at their most photogenic and I forgot to take my waking boots (yet another indication of my lack of concentration skills right now) so I didn't end up walking as far as planned. I had hoped to find lots of fungi, but it's been so dry that there was very little around and what I did find was shrivelled and sad looking.

Friday was really windy here, so although I had actually remembered to put my walking boots back in the car, I decided to stay home. Happily I was browsing Ravelry and saw Alicia Plummer's newly released ParkTrail sock pattern, so I snuggled up, cast on and enjoyed a little quiet and cosy knitting time in the warm afternoon sunlight shimmering through the wind-whipped trees outside the window. The notes on the yarn I'm using etc. are on my Ravelry project page.

My list of things to do this coming week includes finally finishing off the batch of animals that I started earlier this year. I'll pop back with some pictures in a few days or so and hopefully will have some news of when they'll be available for those interested soon. Maybe we'll have a little giveaway too - it was my 12th blogging anniversary at the beginning of September, so I think a giveaway would be in order.

Hope you're enjoying the weekend where you are. I'm off to knit more rows of my socks - they're going to make great walking socks for more autumn walks. See you soon, J x

 

A parting and some subsequent faffing

 

 

 

 

Well, as expected this weekend has been odd. Amy and I set off with a fully laden car at 8ish yesterday morning and by 9.30 were carrying the bags and boxes containing all of her worldly goods up the 2 flights of stairs to her room on the top floor. We unpacked everything and made her room cosy and nice; sorted out all of the necessary admin; picked up her wristband for Fresher's week events; topped up her student card with her first weeks worth of money; had some lunch, and by 2pm she was all sorted and ready for me to leave. There were big hugs but no tears, because this is the start of an exciting adventure for her rather than a sad parting of the ways, and then I was on my way back home again. It wasn't until I was driving back up our road that the tears came for me - I think arriving back home without her brought things into focus. It's feeling odd here today - I keep expecting her to come skipping down the stairs in search of a snack and, as expected, it will take a lot of getting used to. We've been texting lots and will no doubt continue to do so, and the odd feeling will slip away as we adjust to the new normal. Fresher's week sounds like a lot of fun so hopefully she'll have a great time and settle in well.

There are so many things that I should be doing at this moment, most of them involving tidying up the house after the long summer months of not really bothering, but I am not quite sure where to start. The long list of tasks in my head, all vying for equal importance status, are tangled like the yarn in my workbasket and refuse to form an orderly queue and be committed to paper. So instead I'm procrastinating and knitting simple cabled pink wrist-warmers with beautifully soft Shalimar breathless in 'velvet slippers' and flipping through the new issue of Creative Countryside.

Perhaps, after a few days of faffing around and allowing myself to get reacquainted with being able to choose how to spend my own time, a plan for tackling my chores will come into focus. There are bunnies waiting to be finished too, all dressed up for spring, as I had planned to list them in time for Easter earlier this year. That's rather indicative of how this year has been; time ticking and trickling through my fingers; plans made and not realised - I need to give myself a stiff talking to - but not until I've knitted a few more rows and had another cup of tea. 

Each time I glance at my left hand I think of my girl, and what she's doing at this moment. We've had these matching rings for a couple of years now (bought from the lovely Wild Fawn jewellery) - though mine is no longer a perfect circle as I occasionally catch it on the freezer drawer! And I like the fact that it reminds me of her and makes her feel close at hand still. 

 

New Patterns

 

 

 

 

 

Hello from the middle of the school summer holidays! This is a flying visit because free time is currently in short supply for me here but things are generally going well. Toby is being kept busy and the weather has been glorious, though a little hotter than we are used to. The reason I'm popping in today is to mention the two new patterns that I've released this morning. It has taken me so very long to finish these off - I've been working on them off and on for over 18 months. Originally I had designed the dungarees to go into the boy sheep pattern, but for various reasons decided against that. Then I was planning to dress the upcoming badgers in the dungarees and pinafore with T-shirts but decided against that too. It seems better that these clothes are stand alone patterns, as they will fit any of my animals. I had planned to launch them before the summer holidays started, but before they were completely finished life got in the way, as it is often apt to. Anyway, they are done at last, so here they are.

The first pattern includes a pair of dungarees (overalls), a pinafore dress and a little toy which fits perfectly into the pocket (bunny or bear). The garments are knitted flat in 5ply or 4ply yarn on 2.75mm (US 2) needles and the little toy is knitted flat in 4ply yarn on 2.25mm (US 1) needles.

The second pattern is a set of 3 sweaters. All are knitted top down with raglan sleeves and follow the same basic pattern with tweaks. The T shirt has narrow stripes, the long sleeve sweater has wider stripes and the cardigan is flared and knitted in one colour but you can switch those around if you prefer. There are instructions included for knitting them all flat with seams or in the round if preferred. 

Here are links to the patterns on Ravelry:

Ravelry dungarees pattern, Ravelry trio of sweaters pattern

If you do give any of the patterns a go and use Ravelry please upload your pictures to the little cotton rabbits group so we can all admire them. It's so exciting to see what others make from my patterns and I do hope you enjoy knitting them.

I hope to pop back soon with news of other knitting stuff and some pictures of what we've been up to here but in truth it might be another few weeks before I get the chance to, I look forward to catching up with you then.