Little Cotton Rabbits

knitting time again

Sorry to have stayed away for so long. Unfortunately blogging is one of the first things to fall by the wayside when things get busy, and things have been far too busy for my liking recently. First there was Toby's school play week (which was an upheaval for Toby and a tough time for us but happily in the past now) and then there was the half term break, which again Toby found difficult because of the change in routine.  He and I went to stay with my Mum and Dad for a few days and playing with his cousin Zoe really helped him get through the week.

Happily we are now settling back into the term-time routine which is nicely predictable for Toby and brings me a calmer pace with some lovely knitting time. To celebrate my reunion with my pointy sticks and yarn I have cast on a new project...

 

 

I'm using an ancient ball of stashed yarn that has no ball band but I think it's Jaeger and the pattern is the lovely 'catching butterflies' by Tiny Owl Knits.

 

I think these will be the perfect mittens for wearing on a cool summer evening, or even the cold summer days that we've been having rather a lot of recently.

 

There are also bunnies and foxes slowly emerging from my knitting bag and I'm still plodding along on my one-a-day misty afghan which is now getting big enough to sit under as I work on it - a bonus at the moment due to this cold, wet and windy start to June.

Hopefully the sun will rediscover our little patch soon. The newly-fledged birds would certainly benefit from better weather - like this little blue-tit who came out of the nest last week with a big chunk of it caught around his leg and wasn't able to fly. I carefully caught him and managed to cut it off - thank goodness for the tiny points on embroidery scissors. He fluttered off into the shrubs and hopefully he's doing fine now.

 

Well, it's nice to be back again and I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone, see you soon x

 

 

twenty five

 

Yesterday evening I hit twenty five squares on the misty afghan (I have got a little ahead of the one-a-day schedule thanks to some wakeful nights with Toby who sleeps less well than usual in the heat)

 

 

 

But I cannot decide whether the two squares with the dark brown in them stand out like a sore thumb or are quirky features. For now I will keep on making centres and will mull this over carefully before sewing more squares together, any opinions on the brown gratefully received.

 

 

There's a difficult week ahead for us here as Toby's routine is turned upside down because of his annual school play. His school 'day' for the next 3 days will be 4-9pm and so he'll be arriving home at 9.30pm tired and confused and in a grump no doubt. Not happy days so I hope the good weather holds and he can play out in the garden during the daytime which will help cheer him up. As a result I expect I'll be more tardy than usual in replying to emails etc. Apologies in advance x

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PS: thanks so much for all of the lovely comments about Amorette. I really enjoyed making her dress and as I have some Quince & Co. sparrow left I'll no doubt be making some more linen lace clad bunnies. Amorette and her friends are still patiently waiting for me to finish writing their descriptions and print their labels. I will update facebook and send advance emails as soon as they are ready.

Also the pattern for the little seed pouch is nearing the top of my to-do list, thanks for being patient with me.

newbies

Remember that batch of new yarn that I was trying so hard to resist dipping into? Well, I didn't last long before casting on a bunny in that lovely creamy Shilasdair (I have a will of butter when it comes to yarn). And the Quince and Co organic linen was just crying out to be turned into a little lace-edged dress...

 

 

I'm going to have quite a hard time letting this particular bunny go. I've called her Amorette (meaning little love) and, if I can bring myself to do it, she (and some of her friends) will be up for sale sometime next week. In the meantime I've included her in my new blog header above to help me remember her. It's about time I had a change because the last banner has been up since 2007!

Off now to sew on some tails, write some descriptions and do a spot of bunny cuddling while I still can. See you soon.

 

falling in love again

I hadn't planned to make another crochet blanket, although recently I have been missing the pleasures of a little evening crochet time, but when I came across Minna's fabulous fleamarket find I fell in love.

 

I adore the colour scheme of her blanket so I'm trying to replicate the smoky, misty feel of it and I have spent the last 2 weeks trawling the yarn shops looking for heathered aran yarns. I've settled on using mostly Cascade 220 yarn as their colour range is vast and it is a very good price (I bought most of mine from Get Knitted).

 

Despite the big range Cascade didn't have all of the colours that I had in mind and so I'm also mixing in some yarn from my stash - some vintage Magpie Aran by Rowan, some 'Willow' by texere and some mystery pink yarn (I think it's Rowan) in exactly the shade I wanted. Luckily I find that crochet is very forgiving when you use yarns of slightly different weights and thicknesses. I've posted full details to my Ravelry project page.

 

 

Now I have made a start, I'm happily settling down into a gentle rythm of working on this after the children are in bed at night. That last hour of the day is perfect for a little sleepy and undemanding crochet time and I'm really enjoying working on this. Hopefully it will turn out as beautifully as Minna's blanket and in honour of her beautiful styling and photography I'm going to call this the 'misty morning in autumn afghan'. Hopefully I'll have it finished by the time those first misty mornings arrive!

 

old mossy wall shawl, finished

I have finished the old mossy wall shawl.

 

Although those lovely ripples make a beautiful pattern and I do love the mossy, woodland tones of the yarns, I don't feel quite right in it.

 

 

 

Maybe I'm not a shawl wearing kind of girl afterall. I think I'll be wrapping this one around and wearing it like a scarf and that will probably be the end of my shawl knitting days.

 

Still, now it's finished I'm free to take up my crochet hook again for a spot of evening time 'one a day' grannying because after saying that I was all blanketed out, something has caught my eye. In fact it's been a bit of an obsession over the last two weeks and I've been trawling the yarn shops looking for the right yarns. Now I have my cast of yarns gathered and I'm ready to start but I will tell you all about it next time!

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PS: I didn't use both the tones of Koigu as I had originally planned. I felt the dark green one didn't work, so I substituted some Madeline Tosh sock yarn that I had left over from some gloves. Details are on ravelry if you're interested x