Little Cotton Rabbits

longest day

Can you believe the longest day of this year has already been and gone?

My Summer solstice was a quiet one with Toby in respite for the day, Amy out with friends and H off cycling. I made the most of the peace by settling myself in the shady spot at the end of the garden with my knitting, notes and computer and I worked on getting the seasonal sweaters pattern finished.

 

It's pretty much done but later today I need to take a cover photo and give it all a final check through and then it should be ready to share. I'll tell you more about what is in the collection later in the week.

 

 

Being outside feels so good and the weekend weather gave plenty of opportunity to do just that. There were some pretty interesting skies too, with perfect conditions for contrails which took ages to disperse, the sky above our house soon becoming criss-crossed with them.

 

 

Yesterday was also a garden day. Toby had lots of fun on the trampoline while H and I pottered around, tidying up some of the shrubs that have become overgrown and weeding out the chicken run. A few months back we lost Butterscotch, the last of our 3 original chickens to a mystery illness and we thought we'd wait a while before getting ourselves a new flock - just incase there were still some germs lurking around. I think enough time has passed now so we've tidied up the run and I'm hoping we'll have some new clucky friends very soon.

The garden is very green and fresh looking at the moment. We've not had intense summer heat yet and although there's not been much rain of late the water butts are still quite full and I've been diligently watering each night. I love all of the different shades of green in the various corners of the garden...

 

 

 

 

Well, I'm off to get everyone ready for their respective day and then I'm going to try and take that cover photo for the sweaters pattern. I hope to be back later in the week with news of that, so until then have a good week x

 

Déjà vu

 

 

If you've been reading my blog for a while you may have a slight feeling of déjà vu in seeing this post. Don't worry, it's not you it's me - I have made a virtually identical blanket in the past.

I'm not by nature an obsessive person, in fact ask H and he'll tell you I'm a natural slob when it comes to housework and there's always a small pile of discarded clothes next to my bed rather than neatly folded in drawers and cupboards. But when it comes to making woolly things it seems I do have compulsive leanings. I've been fighting this particular urge for a while but a few weeks back I began to wonder what harm there would be in giving in to something that is going to give me pleasure and contentment and so I have started work on a second misty blanket.

 

 

I'm essentially using the same colour palette as before - I had quite a bit of yarn left over from the first which helps and there is something about this combination of colours which I find peaceful and that makes me rather happy. This time though I'm making some changes:

• adding an extra round to each square
• being more structured with the coloured centres
• using more subtle shades in the beiges and greys
• only chaining 4 at the corners instead of 5
• working groups of 3 stitches into the corners on all rounds (previously I'd used 2 stitches on the first few rounds)

 So, this is how the Misty Mark 2 currently looks

 

 

And this was the mark 1 about the same stage:

 

 

It's not that I don't like the first one but there are a few bits of it that do niggle me. In particular my misguided use of a dark brown yarn (which I remember being unsure of at the time) and I now notice leaps out in a very inharmonious way. Also, whilst I'm feeling critical, the gaps at the corners are just a bit too gappy if you ask me.

See, gappy corners and standy-out dark brown bits...

 

 

The first misty will still be loved as a snuggly throw in the garden room and the second misty will be for our bed. All in all I'm much happier with how the new version is starting to look and it's nice to be crocheting again in the evenings when the lights are low and I feel sleepy. I just have to deal with telling H that there's going to be yet another blanket in the house - he's not actually noticed it yet :)

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PS: if you want any yarn/hook details I've added this to my ravelry project page and will keep that updated as I work on this.

re-purposing

If you've visited with me before you may remember the tiled blanket that I started back at the beginning of 2013.

 

 

I had plans for it to become a throw for the ugly sofa but things had stalled a bit and by the end of last year it was only this big...

 

 

Well it has now been given a new purpose in life and after a few weeks of intense hooking I've finished it and I'm so pleased that it is no longer a throw but something more practical. Before I show it to you though, I'll tell you the story of how it came to be the way it is now...

For quite some time now I have been in denial about the enormity of my woolly stash and it has been getting increasingly hard to tuck it all away out of sight and keep it tidy. A few weeks back it had reached critical mass and after tripping over one of my yarn-stuffed bags one too many times (and once he'd stopped swearing) H decided that something had to be done.

Thankfully he appreciates how happy wool and knitting makes me so he'd never give me a hard time for buying more, though he does roll his eyes every-time the postman delivers a squishy packet. Instead, being a very practical chap, he got out his tape measure, work bench and tools and after a couple of trips to the DIY store he had drawn up plans and assembled materials for a storage bench and some extra wall shelves.

After a week of sawing, hammering, painting and generally making sure everything was robust enough to withstand Toby jumping and climbing on it, he had finished and I had a lovely new storage bench that doubles as a seat at our table. There's loads of room within and I've vacuum bagged all of my intact skeins and balls so that they're safe and take up less space but even so it's already pretty full!

 

The question then arose of what to put on the top to make it comfy. We ordered a made-to-measure foam pad and I was looking at fabric to make a cover but nothing inspired me until I spotted the tiled throw languishing in a basket. I thought it would make the perfect cover and now it's finished, it does!

 

 

All of which leaves me a clear conscience in buying some lovely new yarn, so I have...

 

 

Little Grey Sheep colour work skeins which are truly beautiful and just perfect for the little cotton rabbit jumpers that I'm pattern writing for.

And of course I've had to start another throw to cover the ugly sofa which I'm determind will one day be pretty, but more of that another time x

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PS: Ooops, I forgot to say in the previous post that I'm only at the Creative Sanctuary from 1 - 3pm this saturday (yarn shop day). I've now updated the details

 

Yarn shop day

I do love days which are designated as national woolly celebration days and happily we have a lovely one coming up later this week. It's part of the 'Love Your Yarn Shop' campaign from Let's Knit and Let's Get Crafting magazines.

 

Yarn Shop Day is on Saturday May 3rd and up and down the country a multitude of local yarn shops are putting on lots of different events. You can find out more on the Let's Knit website where there is a map of yarn shops that have signed up. Lots of designers are involved too, popping into their local yarn shops to do demos and workshops. I'm thrilled to have been asked to be an ambassador and I'm going to be celebrating yarn shop day in my local - The Creative Sanctuary in Hertford (see above, this is the fabric side but there's plenty of yarn too) where I'll be demonstrating mattress stitch from 1pm - 3pm. I'll have lots of knitted bits that people can practice on and I'll also have some bunnies, foxes and elephants with me (the 'stars' of my patterns) so you can prod and poke them to see how they're stuffed and sewn and I'm happy to give advice on any aspect of my patterns or general tips on neatly finishing off knitted projects. If you're able to, do pop along and say Hello.

Whilst I've got you thinking woolly thoughts I'll also mention the Deramores Blog awards 2014 which is open until May 14th. There are 2 awards, one for the best undiscovered crochet blogger and one for the best undiscovered knitting blogger and there's a great array of prizes to be handed out by the talented panel of judges.

 

 

Here is what you need to do in words from the Deramores website

"Wherever you are, you’re eligible to enter. Taking part is easy! Be yourself and write a blog post that teaches a knitting or crochet related skill, or shares a top knitting or crochet related crafting tip to meet the theme of the awards; ‘Pass it on’. So if you have a skill, share it, and if you swear by a particular way of doing things, pass on that knowledge through your blog."

If you have time pop over and take a look at the entries already submitted, there are some great posts to read through and some lovely tips (I especially like the idea from Kate at Just pootling and I now have luggage labels on my shopping list).

I'm really flattered to be included in Deramores list of blogs they love, especially as I'm in such estimable company.

 

Wishing you a happy yarn shop day on Saturday, I hope you have the chance to support your local yarn shop as we need to preserve our high street woolly treasures as well as enjoying the range that larger online suppliers can offer x

 

Elephants

Hello and sorry to have been away for so long.

There has been rather a lot going on here recently in between the day-to-dayness of family life. Of course I've been knitting lots and have finished off a few animals which I'm hoping I have time to re-home before easter. But I've also been busy writing, tweaking and compiling patterns and at last have 2 elephant patterns to share - a girl in a frondy frock and a boy in a textured sweater.

 

 

I've uploaded them to both Etsy and Ravelry if you are interested.

Whilst on the subject of patterns I've also published a new  free supplement to the existing animal patterns - this time for a little peter pan collar which you can attach to any of the dresses. It's my plan to release plenty of free supplements to my patterns, so if you've bought any it's worth taking a look on Ravelry to see what else there is to download. At present there are 2 extra dress designs and the collar but more will be coming.

It's the school Easter break here at the moment, so I don't have much time to chat but after Easter I'll be back properly and now that the latest pattern writing is out of the way I hope to have some more regular posts.

I hope all is well in your corner of the world, see you soon x

 

definitely spring

Yep, Spring has definitely arrived, hooray!

We have spent the whole weekend out in the garden, sorting out the lawn (which is now mostly mud thanks to the very wet winter), tidying the beds ready for veg planting and just soaking up the wonderful warmth of the sun. It seems that we aren't the only ones sunbathing either as the plum tree is a magnet for Peacock butterflies emerging from hibernation. We often find them hibernating in the wood pile - they make the most alarming sound with their wings when disturbed and we're always careful to rebuild a shelter for them when we take wood away to burn on the stove. At one point this morning I counted six of them fluttering around and feeding from the tree blossom (which must be one of the earliest and most abundant food sources available to them), it was a truly magical sight.

 

Despite the closed wings I love this picture below because you can see that lovely spiralled proboscis

 

There must be a feast of nectar up there because there have also been loads of bees buzzing around the thousands of blossoms that are open on the tree at the moment.

 

 

 

It's so nice to have warm, bright days here again and to be able to be outside without getting soaked or shivering! Everything feels more manageable when the sun is shining :)

I've also taken advantage of the brighter weather to take some pictures of my finished Dream Stripes shawl (details of pattern and yarn here).

 

 

 

 

I'm really pleased with how it has turned out and with how blocking really accentuates those lovely points - I've never actually been bothered to wet block anything before - a quick steam block under a damp cloth is usually the best my projects can expect, but that wasn't going to cut the mustard here so I'm glad I took the time to wet block this time.

 

 

Now I just have to work out how to wear it - Amy tells me I look like a granny with the way I'm currently wearing it (you can always rely on a teenager for brutal honesty, thanks my lovely for your kind words). So, any tips on cool shawl wearing would be gratefully received!