Little Cotton Rabbits

a little more grey and a lot more colour

It was school half term break here last week, so there were a lot of wood walks in our schedule and not much knitting going on. Today however with the children back at school I'm happily playing with wool again and carrying on working on the next couple of patterns to share. I mentioned the elephants in the previous post so you know that the patterns for those are coming up but I thought I'd give you a glimpse of a little part of the other pattern I'm currently working on.

 

 

Back in Autumn I began to pull together my various sweater designs with the idea that they will form a collection along the same lines as the 'seasonal dresses' pattern. My plan is to include plenty of different options for the animals to wear throughout the year and most will be based on the designs that you might have seen on the finished animals that I make (skull, pumpkin, aran sweater etc.). I also wanted to play around with a little reversible sweater/cardigan.

When I'm trying something new I like to experiment with a variety of increase methods and I try out different stitch and row counts and various arrangements of stitches for front, back and sleeves etc. all of which means that I build up quite a collection of samples...

 

 

The samples that I knitted up last year are all in left-over sock yarns and the Rowan wool cotton 4ply that I've used on the bunny and fox patterns but I couldn't wait to try out that lovely Jamieson and Smith yarn that I showed you in January and I really like how it works up and the lovely range of colours. There is also a basket full of other sweater designs that I'm working on but I'll show you that another time.

So that's what will be coming up soonish on the pattern front. I'm still knitting samples to photograph and test knitting the final versions of everything so it will be a few weeks yet before the patterns will be finished but I'll keep you all posted when they are ready to share.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying having my own little colourful rainbow of sweaters to look at. Mind you there is a lot more colour in the days just lately. It seems spring has arrived as our plum tree is beginning to blossom.

 

 

It's lovely to see the blue sky again and we even had some sunny garden time over the half term break which made Toby a very happy boy. And speaking of happy, I am because my butterfly has flown from the open window, hopefully out into a spring that is here to stay.

What's colourful and happy with you at the moment, do please share :)

grey mostly

I think February must be the greyest month of all and the one in which summer seems most distant. Like most of the UK we've had far too many grey skies of late, sometimes a light silvery grey but mostly dark, brooding and full of rain. We have been very lucky though and are not affected by the flooding but I know some who are and I hope for all those affected that we see a big change in the weather very soon.

Here inside is warm and bright but I've still been drawn to greyness and have been working on lots of February coloured woolly things... 

... a recently started shawl

Pattern: Dream Stripes, by Cailliau Berangere

Yarn: SofTrope soft singles in 'netsuke' and 'raku' bought from Meadow Yarn

 

... a finished scarf

(details of pattern and yarn here) It really needs a proper blocking to bring out the delicacy of the pattern but I've been a bit too lazy and am already wearing it. It's like a soft cloud and despite my numerous mistakes (mis-counting stitches etc) I'm really pleased with it.

 

I have also been quietly but industriously working on a new pattern for a grey animal, I'm sure you can guess which one ;)

I'll keep the blog updated with details as soon as it's ready to share

 

At least the mood here is no longer greyish and I'm feeling far more positive than I did at the start of the year - thank you all so much for your good wishes and kind messages about my eyes. At the moment they are stable and I'm just waiting for an appointment to have some further inner eye images taken. Hopefully the results will be fine and I can just go onto regular monitoring appointments and no further problems will develop.

There is also happiness at finding colour in unexpected places. This beautiful small tortoiseshell butterfly is currently hibernating in the corner of my windowsill. On the greyest days he looks lifeless and still but when the sun comes out he crawls up the window for a spot of sunbathing.

 

Hopefully he can make it through the rest of the winter and when the weather turns warmer I'll be able to open up the window for him to fly away.

 

I hope there is a little colour and happiness in your days right now, will you be pleased to see the back of this winter?

wishing you all the best for Valentines day, see you soon, J xxx

 

merry Christmas x

Well, December days have dashed by and Christmas is upon us, which I shouldn't really be surprised about seeing as this year has fairly whooshed by. Are you ready? I'm not far off being so and I have today and tomorrow to catch up with everything that needs to be done. My deadline is 3pm tomorrow when the children get home from the last day of school and the tree and decorations will go up, signalling the start of seasonal celebrations here. I always feel a bit guilty that out of all Amy's friends our family is the very last to get into the Christmas spirit but I think she understands as once the decorations are up we have a constant surveillance job to make sure Toby doesn't pull the tree over or eat non-edibles!

 

 

Today I am putting the finishing touches to teacher and therapist pressies. I'm finishing off some knitted stockings and the christmas tree bears above. I'm also making bags of peppermint bark which has become a Christmas tradition that I really enjoy - it is so easy to make and is always well received.

 

 

Talking of presents, if you have bought any of my girl animal or dress patterns this year there is a little freebie pattern supplement that you can download from ravelry. It's a small thank you for your support of my pattern writing in 2013. I hope to have lots more patterns next year and look forward to sharing them with you.

 

 

Well, I'm off to chop and bag up the chocolate (and nibble the off-cuts!). I hope that you and those you love have a very merry Christmas time and a happy, healthy start to 2014. See you in the New Year and thanks as always for dropping by xxx

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blanket making

Earlier in the year I started on a new blanket project with the aim of making one square a day, but what with one thing and another it has ended up being more like one square a week! Today it is cold and windy outside so I've dug out my basket of blankety squares and I'm enjoying snuggling here by the fire and sewing them together.

 

 

I wanted to make a geometric blanket inspired by the colours of oriental carpets and I think I am now happy with the pattern the squares are making - I've gone for 4 squares of blue/brown/grey with ochre centres surrounded by a row of red/brown/rust squares with ochre centres and one square of ochre/yellow with a red centre at the point where the lines of reddish squares cross each other.

 

There is a long way to go before this is big enough to be worthy of being called a blanket but now it's beginning to take shape I'm feeling enthused again and will go back to the plan of making a square a day. I do like working on something different at the end of each day (I'm spending my daytimes working on a small batch of Christmassy bunnies) and something like a blanket that requires lots of little bits is perfect. It's a good way of making me sit quietly, concentrate on the good bits of the day and relax before bedtime.

Things have been a little heavy going here of late because Toby has been struggling to cope with daily life. This term has been a very hard one for him due to lots of changes at school - he's had a new bus driver and escort on the school bus (for the first time in 7 years), a new teacher, classroom and classmates and a completely different school routine. All of which have unsettled him greatly and caused him to be much more prone to self harming, meltdowns and long periods of wakefulness and upset during the nights. Unfortunately things will probably get worse before they get better as on the horizon is the upheaval of Christmas which brings more change to the school routine and of course the dreaded school holidays and we've just heard his new teacher will be leaving at the end of this month. I'm confident things will become more manageable for him as he gets used to everything but I'm not feeling very excited about the thought of Christmas.

Anyway, things are peaceful, calm and relaxing here right now so I'm going back to make the most of my square sewing before the school bus brings my unhappy boy home.

Thanks for dropping in to visit. I'll keep the mailing list updated with news of the little batch of Christmas rabbits which I hope to have ready by the end of the month and I'll pop back soon with some pictures of some other christmassy knitting x

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PS: yarn and hook details for the blanket are on Ravelry

a prickle of hedgehogs

The half term holiday has come and gone and what a wet and windy week it was too, starting off as it did with the St Jude's day storm. We woke at dawn on the Monday to feel the house vibrating with the force of the winds and just in time to hear and see a huge branch snap from the very large willow tree next to the house. Amazingly there was no damage (apart from the poor tree itself) so we were lucky.

This week we've returned to welcome term time routines again and I've been really drawn to hedgehog knitting. In fact I've found myself just a little obsessed with trying to make the biggest one possible. I normally make them in the second from smallest size here but have got out my fattest needles and some super bulky yarn.

 

All of these are made from my little oddment hedgehog pattern the only difference is the needle size and type of yarn (Details about yarns used are listed below)

 

 

I do think it would be rather fun to make and even more humongous hedgehog as a footstool / pouffe but have not yet managed to track down any thicker wool. Roving has been suggested but I've not yet found any that would suit. Still the largest chap so far is rather useful as a doorstop (I stuffed him with a stocking full of rice surrounded by toy stuffing so he has a nice weight to him).

 

 

I always think of hedgehogs when the leaves start falling and especially around Bonfire night. We regularly have hedgehogs around in our garden, though whether Herbert is still among them is probably unlikely given the hazards that hedgehogs encounter each day. We don't often see them but we sometimes hear them. They take the food that we leave out and often leave a little hedgehog calling card (hedgehog poo is quite distinctive!). We also have a hedgehog house under a bush in our garden and a hedgehog hole in our fence so that they can get in and out of the garden easily.

Sadly, our poor native hedgehogs are in decline and really need all the help they can get. I've registered as a Hedgehog Champion over on Hedgehog Street, it's a nice thing to involve children with and there's a great pack that they send out which gives plenty of advice and ideas of how to help. If you're a fan of our sweetest native mammal please come and join.

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Yarns and needle sizes for hedgehogs in the topmost pictures above:

From largest to smallest:

1. 10mm needles with Bergere de France Chambery yarn for the body and 6mm needles with Katia Peru yarn held double for the face and feet. 26cm long

2. 8mm needles with J C Brett Rustic yarn for the body and 4mm needles with Katia Peru yarn for the face and feet. 18cm long

3. 8mm needles with Bergere de France Highlands yarn for the body and 4mm needles with Katia Peru yarn for the face and feet. 18cm long

4. 6mm needles with Rowan Drift yarn for the body and 3.25mm needles with Rowan Tweed Aran yarn for the face and feet. 15cm long

5. 3mm needles with Rowan tweed DK yarn for the body and 2.75mm needles with Rowan Felted Tweed DK yarn for the face and feet. 9cm long

6. 2.75mm needles with Rowan Fine Tweed yarn for the body and 2.25mm needles with Rowan Fine Tweed yarn for the face and feet. 6cm long

autumnal animals, photo contest

 

 

Photo and graphics copyright & courtesy of Tausigma

Just popping in quickly to say that over on the Little Cotton Rabbits Ravelry group the second photo contest has begun. If you'd like to enter a picture of an animal that you've made from any little cotton rabbits pattern then pop over and take a look, there are prizes to be won and friendly fun to be had. All the details are here.

 

These are the super winning entries from the last photo contest which ran in the summer and had the theme of "bunnies on vacation"...

Bunny camping trip by helenbun2005  

Bunny Baking vacation by Barleymo

Bunny Family seaside getaway by meow0628

 

We'd love to see your photos in the current contest and we hope to run more in future

Now I'm off back to my school holiday duties, see you soon

J x

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