Little Cotton Rabbits

An upside down week

This week is one of the strangest in our family's year. It's the week of Toby's school play which means all routines are stood on their head. From tomorrow he'll go to school from 4pm til 9pm instead of the usual 9am - 3pm and he'll take part in the annual school play each evening. It's challenging to him to say the least but last year he coped pretty well (fingers crossed for this year being the same!) and the play that the school put on is amazing especially when you consider the diverse and very severe disabilities of all the students. Everyone takes part from the youngest in the nursery at 3-4 years to the oldest at 18 -  19 years old and they all do their best according to their abilities. I'll take my tissues as usual and be prepared for the stinging hands that follow all the clapping!

I'm hoping that the sunny weather that joined us for the weekend will continue so that Toby can happily play out in the garden during the daytime and I can sit and watch him while finishing off my crochet bag - just the straps and trim to go now.

I'm pretty happy with it although it's going to need lining and my join is very scrappy - still crochet seems to be more forgiving than knitting in that sense and it doesn't really notice (from a distance at least!)

True to form I've also kicked off another crochet project (on the basis that you can't be a proper crochet-er without having a few granny squares under your belt) I hope to add to these from this pattern and make a cushion somewhere down the line.

I'm really enjoying getting to grips with crochet but my first love will always be my knitting! Talking of which I'm off to make the most of the last quiet day of the week and finish off a bunny or two. Enjoy your week wherever you are.

playing hooky

For the longest time I've been meaning to learn to crochet. I've looked at courses but it always seems difficult to fit them in around family life. Anyway for some reason on Saturday the vague desire to have a little crochet in my life became a pressing need and so I turned to the internet. Ravelry is fabulous as a resource and I found tutorials, free patterns, videos and advice. On saturday evening I made a little sample strip to get me started and give me a feel for the hook but I really wanted to actually have something to show for the effort so I started on this great free pattern from Attic24.

My first ever crochet project is riddled with errors and I've used the wrong stitch (double instead of treble english - all that terminology is still a foreign language to me). I also wish I'd not started in that dark purple as I like the muted gentle tones of the rest of it. But all of that is outweighed by a childlike pleasure in learning something new. I'm having a lot of fun although my hands are hurting more than with knitting - I must be awakening some new muscles!

Anyway, it feels good to have made a start and this old dog is happy to be learning new tricks!

bank holiday knitting

Well, as expected the bank holiday was a rather wet and windy one. There were a few sunny spells to tempt us outside but we were soon running back in again as yet another April shower swept over.

Still, it left plenty of time for knitting and I had a sudden urge to try out this wonderful free strawberry pattern.

It proved very addictive and soon I had quite a few. On some of them I kept going on the i-cord and added a leaf and flower at the other end to make bookmarks (not my idea - inspired by many of the creative adaptations over on ravelry).

I have a little bowl of knitted strawberries now sitting on the table and they're making me smile and think of the summer to come. I hope it arrives soon!

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The flower pattern is here and the adaptations that I made, yarn used etc can be found on ravelry.

flitting knitting (again)

I've done it again. Got all over excited about new yarns and new colours and ended up in a muddle of unfinished projects.

Waiting for me to get my act together are a little batch of nautical animals,

some in bright colours,

and some new dutch bunnies.

  

All of which adds up to rather a lot of things to finish off!

I'm getting there though and will try and have a little update over on etsy soon!

all tooled up

When you knit 365 days of the year you deserve some special tools for the job - at least that's what I'm currently telling myself in order to justify spending a small fortune on rosewood knitting needles.

They are worth it though. Over the years I've knitted with metal needles, then bamboo, birch, casein and finally found the pinnacle of needles (in my opinion) - rosewood. I still love my swallow casein needles when knitting with wool / alpaca because their rounded smooth tips deal excellently with any loosely plied yarn (whereas a sharp pointed tip tends to encourage yarn splitting and lots of cursing!). The rosewood needles on the other hand are perfect when knitting tightly plied yarns, especially 4 ply cottons. They're light, strong and pointy tipped - everything I need to get neat, even stitches, and because the wood is dense and strong they come in the really slim sizes that I like - every increment between 2mm and 3mm. I'm a tight knitter and so have had my fair share of snapped needles and frayed tips in the past but so far these rosewoods are standing up to the job beautifully.

Whilst I was adding the needles to my basket over at Purlescence I thought I might as well go the whole hog and throw in a beautifully made Sunflower swift and a superbly useful Namaste bag buddy. The bag buddy has magnetic sides and so keeps all your wool needles and scissors safe and the swift - well, I'm wondering how I ever managed to do without one. It's beautiful and works like a dream. Amy is quite pleased too as it means that she's let off skein holding duties!

It really felt like christmas the day this lot arrived!

By the way, do you like my knitting needle holder? Made by my friend Kate as a pencil roll for Amy and pinched by me when the pencils were reduced to stubs. It makes a change for me to liberate something of Amy's - usually it's the other way round!