Little Cotton Rabbits

shoots

I really enjoyed reading everyone's nostalgia on the last post - thanks so much to everyone who took the time to reminisce with me.

 

Here things have been hotting up in the garden and all my veggies are getting ready for planting out.

I love growing things from seed - it's like magic really, especially with something prolific like a courgette.

You take a tiny wizened seed, poke it into some damp compost and after a week or so you have the most perfect little seedling - looking just like a child would draw one. After a little watering and tending for a couple of months you have a huge bushy plant popping out fat and delicious courgettes.

Lettuce and leaves are quick to reap rewards from too. I sowed some rainbow chard and oak leaf lettuce around 8 weeks ago...

and look at them now!

My little courgette seedlings have me feeling all inspired and so I've been playing around with charts and have knitted a new seedling dress design...

I hope to have a bunny to wear this along with a few friends ready by the end of the month.

one a day update

I'm rather pleased to have turned the page of my calendar over to May. Not that April wasn't lovely, with unseasonably warm weather and the real start of spring but it did only contain 7 school days for Toby and he does find the lack of term time routine very hard. And, when he's around I am not able to be a person in my own right.

I was thinking about this over the long 4 day weekend that has just gone, I live a double life of sorts. When Toby's at school I can potter around and do housework and some of the things that I enjoy, like reading and knitting and just sitting peacefully with some music. When Toby is in the house I am constantly watching over him, keeping him from harm and doing everything for him that he can't do himself - I am more of an extension of him, bound by his needs and whims to do his bidding or face the consequences of huge outbursts and violent behaviour. I suppose it may sound a bit harsh to an outsider for me to wish the school holidays over with, but I am relieved none the less to have a little peaceful time on my calendar again!

Despite full days, I have still found a little time at the end of them to carry on with my one-a-day squares.

 At the start of the Easter break I had this...

and at the end, this...

It's pleasing that there are people out there with a much better handle on maths than me, as I now know that I can make 210 absolutely different squares from my 7 chosen colours. Though now I'm rather wishing that there had been a nice orange to include - the only orange in the same yarn (Amy Butler Belle Organic wool cotton DK) was a little too violent for my liking, but overall I'm pretty pleased with how it's coming along.

I'm off now to sneak in a few extra squares, just because I can!

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The lovely pattern for this blanket is a free one by Solveig and can be found here.

finished

  A little batch in time for Easter...

 1. rowan, 2. mona louise, 3. finty, 4. piper, 5. warren, 6. wren, 7. april, 8. fuchsia, 9. frannie, 10. taisie, 11. malden, 12. mariko, 13. beryl, 14. munrow, 15. penn

Easter bunnies and foxes and monkeys...

Back again, feeling all weepy (in a good way) after seeing Amy's school assembly with the children showing their paintings and saying what's best about their mums. Anyway, March has whizzed by with not enough knitting time for my liking but I am almost finished on a batch of animals.

I know I'm cutting it a bit fine to get them all rehomed in time for Easter but hopefully they'll be ready to travel to new homes next week and I'll email the mailing list with details soon. If you'd like your email address to be added please just leave a comment below.

Happy Mother's day on Sunday to all mummies out there x

one a day, part two

My one a day blanket is coming along nicely.

So far I have made more rounds than I've joined because I have been trying to work out how many completely different squares I could make from the 7 colours I've chosen but my brain just isn't up to the maths! Though I have managed to work out that for any group of 3 colours there are 6 possible combinations...

...but that's as far as my brain can compute and so I'll just have to work out the rest as I go along! The plan for happy-thought-thinking is working out well too and blankety thoughts this week have centred on confirmation that Amy has a place at the senior school she and we were hoping for - she's so excited! I've also been lazily mulling over seed planting and daydreaming about summer picnics inspired by a book I got from the library this week. It feels good to have set a little corner of the day aside for hooking and happy thoughts!

Hope there are some happy thoughts happening with you too.