Little Cotton Rabbits

more etsy goodies!

Being a knitter myself I don't often buy things that have been knitted by someone else but then it's not every day that you come across such gorgeousness as these

Beautifully knitted by Knithappens in the most fabulous yarn from Skein Queen, they are wonderful and my hands are very happy (a nice reward for all of the hard work they've been doing recently!).

PS. apologies to everyone who has emailed me in the last few weeks and not had a reply - I've got a big email backlog and hope to reply to you next week. Thanks for your patience.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

lovely pressies

Around this time of year there Amy seems to get a lot of party invitations and as I'm not keen on a deluge of plastic dolls on her birthday I always try and give her friends presents that have a use or are fun to do. I'm always on the look out for good present ideas and this year I'm really pleased to have found these which definitely tick all the boxes for me...

The most beautiful hand-carved personalised stamps from the very talented and lovely Magda at Craft Pudding. I know that Amy is thrilled with hers (she's been stamping all of her books and making cards too) and she's really excited to be giving something special to her best friends too.

RedBubble

Thanks so much to everyone who has emailed me and left comments about the calendar fiasco over at Lulu. I'm really pleased that the people who ordered a copy are pleased with their calendar but also sorry to those of you who wanted a copy and missed out. A couple of people have been kind enough to email me links to other 'print on demand' companies and after looking into a couple of different ones I've started uploading some images to Redbubble who look brilliant!

The best thing about their service is that they also offer greetings cards so since yesterday tea-time I've been busy on photoshop brushing up my rusty design skills! Luckily the photographs that my husband takes are really good quality (it helps being married to a professional photographer!) and so I've kept the designs simple. Unlike Lulu (who had insane postage prices) RedBubble are very reasonable and you can pay in a range of currencies. I'm trying to put together another calendar but some of my images need re-processing at a larger size so it's not yet ready.

I'm really pleased that I can now offer greetings cards and if anyone would like a particular image or salutation on a card (not personalised though) please let me know and I'll see if I can help.

You can check out the range of cards I've done so far here and I'll be slowly adding more over the next few weeks.

tick, tock, tick, tock...

Time is ticking on. The shops are heaving with baubles and tinsel. Little children everywhere are already on page 3 of their christmas lists. Turkeys and crates of wine are being ordered. And I am running out of time to finish this lot!

It doesn't matter how far in advance I start, it always feels like a rush to get the christmas batch of animals ready. They're almost there, now I must fly and get those needles clicking again. Happy weekend all!

A little cotton rabbits calendar

I've been keen on doing a calendar since last year but the thought of being stuck with boxes full of printed calendars that hadn't sold put me off a bit. Then I came across Lulu. They make it easy for you to create your own calendar - you just upload your images and completely customise the design from the templates provided (even down to memorable personal dates). It's a very nifty bit of software and well worth a look, as making a calendar with your own pictures could make great christmas pressies for relatives and you can make any number that you like - even just one. You could even do as I have and make them available for anyone to buy with your own little store front (though Lulu take a 20% commission on top of their manufacturing cost). With their set-up I'm able to offer a calendar for sale without the hassle and expense of large print runs so if only 3 people buy a copy it doesn't matter! 

I've published 2 versions of the same calendar design, a standard version or a premium version (they both have the same images but are just different sizes and paper stock - the premium one is larger with thicker paper). I've also done a standard pink version with the same images. You can preview all three here in my Lulu shop (please be patient as the previews take a while to load) and if you like what you see you can click to buy and pay via credit card or paypal. Lulu then print off a copy and send it out to you. They're based in the USA so if you're in the UK allow around 10 days for postage. Mine arrived yesterday very well protected in stong packaging and I'm really pleased with the quality. Mum, I hope you're not reading this as you'll be getting one for christmas!!

Edited on November 7th to add quick note about Lulu.

Hmm, maybe Lulu wasn't such a good idea? My order has come through fine and so did a couple of others that I've heard from but some people have experienced problems with postage. Also a week after I listed the calendars I noticed that the original price I had set was increased by around £4 each as Lulu had almost doubled their production costs overnight (my cut on the calendars is around £2.80 each). I wasn't sure whether to keep them in print but I will keep them live for now as I don't have any other available options at the moment. I will however scout around before doing something like this again.

Further edited, November 8th: I've decided to take my calendars off the market, the postage costs are now around £50 per item to the UK!! Lulu has really messed this up and I won't be using them again! It's a shame as I was really pleased with my copies and I'm sorry to everyone for the inconvenience!

I'm yours!

I often think about how incredibly lucky I am to be able to knit and to make a little money from it too, which means that I can do it each and every day. It's really not exagerating to say that making the toys helps keep me sane. If you live with a special needs child you'll know how little time you get to yourself and how hard it can be at times to keep positive. That's why I was so pleased to be involved in Yours magazine's article about the positive benefits of knitting. It talks a little about me and how knitting helps me cope with Toby and about another lady who has found that knitting helps alieviate her fibromyalgia pain. It also talks of Betsan Corkill and her wonderful work in promoting knitting as therapy - she has a website full of information. If you get a chance, pick up a copy - Yours magazine, issue 48 (oct 21st-Nov 3rd) page 36.

I'm chuffed to have been featured and it would be nice to think that my story might encourage someone else with stressful circumstances to take up knitting and find a bit of peace and relaxation. It's also nice to lay claim to being between the sheets with 007 Daniel Craig, though admittedly they're sheets of paper as opposed to the slippery satin kind and he is 16 pages away from me, but let's face it - that's the closest I'm going to get!