Little Cotton Rabbits

new homes

This post has been languishing as a draft for over a week but it's been school half term break here so I've not had time to sit down and finish it. At this moment though Toby is having a little quiet time, sitting happily watching Balamory (his current favourite show) and stimming with his lego, so I'm hoping to get this done and posted before he decides he wants a bath or a snack or a different Balamory dvd on.

He would have quite happily sat and watched his Balamory dvd collection on a loop all this last week and I swear I'm still hearing the theme tune in my sleep. I've tried to get him out as much as possible though, so there's been wood walks and trips out too. Of course while Toby has wanted to watch dvds I've had a little knitting time but I'll show you more of what I've been making next week. For now I just wanted to pop in and post some pictures of the final two prizes from my 10th anniversary giveaway, as they've now arrived in their new homes.

 

 

 

 

 

I've so enjoyed making these and hearing that their new owners are pleased with them.

Well, that's it from me until next week, when peace and order will once more return here and I'll have time to write up our half term adventures, until then have a great weekend and a happy Halloween x

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Thanks to all for the kind compliments, the little suitcase and tea cups are made by Maileg. I bought mine from Bijou, I think that this particular style might be sold out but there are lots of other pretty designs.

September days

With the autumn equinox yesterday the balance of the year has tipped and now we're heading towards shorter days, from warmth to cold and from light to dark but for now it still feels like summer is hanging on here. I've been trying to get out a little more often while the good weather lingers. We have such great countryside around us and I always feel relaxed and peaceful after a walk but it seems hard to fit one regularly into my days, there's always something that needs doing isn't there.

Still, I've been making good progress on knitting projects. The first prize in my 10th anniversary giveaway competition has been sent off and has safely arrived in her new home. I really enjoyed making her and putting together all of the little bits and pieces (I always loved dolls houses when I was little and that's obviously still with me). The little suitcase and tea-set are from Maileg who have retailers all over the world and I made the little iced bun from my teeny tiny bear pattern (scroll down to the bottom for the bun).

 

 

 

Towards the end of summer I'm always tempted by patterns for scarves and shawls and mittens so I'm also working on a couple of cosy projects for myself and my family. This one is from a pattern from 'Flora' the first Issue of Making (which I believe has now sold out). It's the Flora cowl but I'm making it into a long rectangular scarf which will wrap round and round and be snuggly. The yarn is the very beautiful Blend No 1 from Ysolda which happily is back in stock (probably not for very long as it's rather in demand due to it's softness, lovely marled grey tones and it's excellent provenance). I bought 2 skeins and am just coming to the end of the first one so I'm hoping that I'll be able to finish this in time for the arrival of colder weather.

 

 

 

I don't know if it's the time of year but I feel like I'm struggling to fit everything into my days at the moment. Nothing has really changed here, so I think it's me more than anything else, but I just can't seem to settle or get myself properly organised. I'm good at making lists but the power to get on with tasks seems to have deserted me at the moment. Maybe it is the time of year and hopefully I'll feel more settled once autumn has got going. How about you, are you faffing about or organised and together at the moment? If you are organised do you have any tips to share?

Well, I'm rambling so it's time to go and add some things to my list of to do's and then promptly ignore them by making a cup of tea and picking up my knitting! 'Til next time I'll leave you with some pictures from my equinox walk up Widbury Hill yesterday. Thanks for dropping in x

 

 

 

 

Ten years and a giveaway

Ten years ago today, on September 3rd 2006 my four year old son Toby was about to start school. It was a big deal for me because not only is he severely autistic but I was ending a six year period of being a constant stay-at-home mum and I wasn't entirely sure what to do with my days.

To counter my anxiety at whether he'd cope with the dramatic change and to keep my mind occupied I wrote my very first blog post and so embarked on a journey which has meandered and rambled over the last decade to arrive at this very point here.

When I began I had no plan or any real aims. I was simply looking for a little online companionship and something to keep me from feeling isolated and anxious about Toby and all of the challenges he continues to face. Well, I found that and so very much more. I've made friends both near and far, both online and in person. I've been on the receiving end of the most wonderful encouragement and compliments for my knitted makes and over the years have been lucky to have sold and sent off many of my knitted animals to all corners of the world. And more recently I've had a fabulous reception for my range of knitting patterns. In short I feel so incredibly blessed and lucky to have stumbled in here and found such a wonderfully supportive community.

 

 

To celebrate my anniversary I am having a giveaway of two animals. The 2 winners can choose an animal each from the batch I have almost finished which will also come with a change of clothes and a little suitcase to keep them in. To be in with a chance of winning one of the two animals in the giveaway please just leave me a comment on this post. The giveaway will close on September 12th and I'll use a random number generator to pick the two winners on September 13th.

 

 

 

As a thank you to all the knitters who visit with me I also have a special discount code which for the next 3 days (ending on September 5th) will get you 25% off any of my patterns:

TEN25

So if you've been meaning to try one of my patterns or if there's one you'd like to add to your collection then please just enter the above code at the checkout either on Ravelry or on Etsy (please note that you will have to enter the code in order for the discount to be applied). If you want to use the coupon code here on my shop please note that you will have to use the 'add to cart' function and not the 'buy now' in order to enter the coupon code.    Sorry, the offer has now expired

I've covered a lot of blogging ground over the last 10 years and had planned to show you some of my favourite moments and pictures but there are too many to know where to start. So instead here are some of the changes of look my blog has had and a few stats...

2006

2010

2012

 

 

10 years of blog stats:  7,832,269 total page hits, 703 posts and 36,917 comments

When I think about ten years passing it seems to have gone so very quickly. But when I look back at the photo taken on the morning of Toby's first school day (September 4th 2006) and how tiny Amy and Toby were, it feels like such a long time ago and really shows how much has changed.

 

So, as I start my second decade of blogging I'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone who visits me here, especially those of you who take the time to leave a comment and those of you who buy my patterns and finished work. It means so very much to have your kind support, thank you xxx

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Please leave a comment below to be entered into the giveaway draw. Comments will be closed on the morning of September 13th and two winners will be drawn by random number selection.

Thanks so much for all the comments! The competition draw is now closed and the winning numbers are 107 which is Justpootling and 2018 which is Maggie Richardson.

Because there were so many comments I decided to give an extra animal away and the random number generator picked 1703 which is modestine.

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

 

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

 

June days

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's been a fair bit of wet and stormy weather around lately but that's been good news for the garden where everything now has that early summer vibrancy and is growing vigorously. In some cases a little to vigorously as my little veg patch is getting swamped by the herb edging. This year I'm growing beetroot, broccoli, kale, french beans, peas, courgettes and lettuce and I'm looking forward to a green feast in another month or so.

Happily we've had a taste of summer too with a few days that have been warm and sunny enough to sit outside. There's something so very calming and relaxing about an afternoon outside with something nice to eat and drink, a little knitting and a good book (Knitlandia by Clara Parkes is a great read if you are a knitter, though my copy has already lost it's pretty dust-jacket to Toby's paper tearing obsession). Hopefully there are more sun-filled summer days to come.

My knitting has been very influenced by the colours of a summer garden too. I was so thrilled when I managed to buy this wonderful skein from Maya at The Wool Barn. Her yarns are exquisitely hand dyed so it's not surprising that they sell out so very quickly. This colour-way is called Rose Garden and I'm knitting a crescent shawl from it, Helen Stewart's Spindrift Shawl. I'm almost finished now and just need to choose between pink and green for the edge, as I fancy a contrasting border.

There have been some happy days working on this in the summer sunshine and it's been lovely to escape some of the stresses of exam time (Amy's GCSE's have spanned most of the last month) with a little gentle and undemanding knitting. We're all looking forward to next Tuesday when Amy has her last exam. She will be so relieved and it will be nice to have a more relaxed atmosphere here. It's been a bit exhausting trying to keep Toby quiet in his middle-of-the-night-awake periods but essential in order to make sure that Amy has had the sleep she needs to do well in her exams.

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry that I've not been around much recently, I've not felt like I've had much of interest to say or to share. Life has been full of ordinary family stuff with it's ups and downs and we live day to day, which is the best way to approach life with Toby, but so often the day seems to whizz by without much getting done. I do try to take photos when something interesting presents itself (like this wonderfully tender swan family encountered on a walk a few weeks back), but I seem to have lost my blog voice a little. Hopefully I'm just a little hoarse rather than completely voice-less and I'll be back soon with more words. 'Til then thanks for visiting x