Little Cotton Rabbits

New Patterns: the squirrels

 

 

It makes me very happy today to pop in here with news that my latest 9 inch animal pattern is ready to share. This is a pattern for a squirrel, which you can either make as a red squirrel with little tufty ears, or a grey squirrel without tufts.

As usual with my patterns there are 2 options:

one for a squirrel in a removable dress with knitted on shoes and tights;

and one for a squirrel in a removable sweater and shorts.

 

The squirrel in a dress pattern comes with these 3 dress options:

There is one that is worked in a single colour and has an openwork textured design, reminiscent of acorns. And two colour-work dresses, one with a bold acorn and oakleaf design that wraps around the lower skirt and the other that has a contrast coloured border dotted with small acorns.

 

 

 

 

The squirrel in a sweater pattern comes with these 3 sweater options.

There's a plain stocking stitch sweater, knitted in a single colour and then a large acorn colour-work design is added in duplicate stitch afterwards. There is a chart for this in the pattern, and if you prefer you could choose to follow this and use the intarsia method to knit in the acorn design as you go.

There are also two textured sweaters, one a very simple knit and purl textured pattern, and the other a little more complex and with a bolder texture created by a combination of double increases and decreases.

Also included are a pair of shorts that have a functional button closure at the waist in order to accommodate the large tail.

 

 

 

 

Both patterns are now live on Ravelry and Etsy and because I recently had a small price increase (the first in 12 years) I've also increased the discount for buying any 2 or more LCR patterns in the same transaction to a 20% discount on the basket total. Mentioning it in case you wanted to get any of my other patterns at the same time in order to get the 20% off.

As always I am really excited to see what other people make with these new patterns, so if you do give either of them a go please do consider sharing a picture on social media or on either the Little Cotton Rabbits Facebook Group or the Ravelry group, I'd love to see what you've made.

Well I'm off to finish a couple of grey squirrels, because only their heads made it in to the pattern so I'm feeling a bit sorry for them, 'til next time keep well and happy, J x

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A little note on purchasing:

Ravelry have a really efficient and easy to use email delivery system of the download links and it is very rare that customers have any issues, (the vast majority of the issues that do occur are down to buyer input errors of email addresses). In the unlikely event that there is a problem I can very easily help.

If you choose to purchase via Ravelry I will actually get to keep a little more of the money that you pay for the pattern (Etsy seller fees are much higher and they keep at least a quarter of every single sale, and almost double that if you click on an Etsy ad for my shop on google or pinterest, as they will then also charge me an advertising fee on anything you purchase from my Etsy shop anytime in the next month, even if you are an existing customer of mine).

If you do choose to use Etsy then please, please, please don't check out as a guest, because if you do not receive the emailed link that they automatically send it is almost impossible for me to help you. Instead log in to an Etsy account first, and that way it is very easy for me to help if you have any problems as the files will be stored forever for you in your Etsy purchase history. And remember that Etsy do not allow you to download any digital purchases via the app, so you will need to log into your account via your browser to access files.

 

sweater dresses, new patterns

 

For the 9 inch animals...

 

 

 

 

 

 

And for the 7 inch animals...

 

 

Hello there, I'm just emerging from my cosy little corner, where I've been ensconced for the last few weeks knitting away every spare moment in my days, and I'm happy to let you know that I have a couple of new patterns ready to share.

This is an animal outfit that I've wanted to work on for a while and I think my teenage self would approve, because in the 1980's sweater dresses were the height of fashion. I had a maroon machine knitted one with a white Fair Isle design, probably from C&A or Top Shop, worn with maroon tights and maroon suede pixie boots and I thought myself most sophisticated when wearing this to go into town on a Saturday morning!

So this pattern is for sweater dresses/sweaters, worked from the top down, with 4 different yoke designs, each of which can be worked either as a longer length flared dress or a shorter and narrower sweater.

There are instructions for working the lower body and sleeves either flat and then seamed, or seamlessly in the round if preferred. The yoke for each design is always knitted flat in order to accommodate an opening at the back of the neck, making it easy to dress your animal, and there's a functional button fastening at the back.

Also included is a single colour version with a simple textured yoke.

There is a version to fit the 9 inch animals and one for the smaller 7 inch animals too, if you'd like a copy of either pattern they're now available on Ravelry and Etsy.

I'm so thankful to the people who have helped me test out the pattern, they've already made some lovely sweaters, and I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else makes from these patterns. If you do give the patterns a go, please do share your makes on Ravelry or the Facebook group.

I am still working on a Coats and Cardigans pattern for the small 7 inch sized animals, and some new 7 inch animal patterns too, so those will be coming up once I've had a little more time in my cosy knitting corner.

Well, that's my news for today. The weather is turning colder here this week and winter is arriving out in the countryside, so Toby and I will be bundling up on our walks from now on. I'll hopefully be back soon with some pictures from our walks over this autumn.

So 'til next time thank you as always for visiting with me here, and for supporting me and my family by buying my patterns, and for the kind words you send my way in your messages and comments. I hope life is treating you kindly in these unsettling times,

J x

 

Horses, Donkeys & Unicorns

 

 

Thanks so much for all of the kind words about the sneak preview of my latest pattern, it's so lovely to think that these patterns are going to be enjoyed, I truly hope they are anyway :)

They are now ready and I've uploaded the files to Ravelry and Etsy and hopefully in the next few days I'll also have them on Lovecrafts and on my blog pattern shop (which, by the way, uses Ravelry as a supply).

There are lots of options in the patterns. Firstly there are 2 main versions:

the first comes with knitted on tights/pantyhose and shoes and has two removable dresses included, one which is worked in two colours with a stranded loops and flowers design, and the other which is worked in a single colour and has a traditional Shetland lace pattern called Horseshoe lace (well, it did seem apt).

 

and the other comes with a bare body and legs and has removable shorts and a choice of two removable sweaters, one worked in a two-colour geometric design of triangles and the other is a single coloured sweater using a textured 'cob nut' design.

 

Both of these versions have the same multiple options to make a horse, a donkey and a unicorn

 

The horse also has multiple options with a design for a plain face with a different coloured nose, a blaze on the face and a forehead star.

 

You can really go to town with choosing the yarns for the manes (especially the unicorns) and there are lots of yarn suggestions within the pattern.

 

I'll be trying my best to give each of these heads a body, though it may take me a while! So many of them remind me of horses I have loved during my life, long gone now but hopefully galloping happily across meadows somewhere in horsey heaven, miss you Amazon, Trigger, Caspian, Danny, William, Katie, Rusty and Sweep xxx

 

New small mice and bears patterns

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello and wow! I am completely humbled by the response to the first giveaway of my anniversary year. Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments and outpouring of kindness on the previous post. I admit that I've not yet managed to read all of the comments and hope to do so by the end of this week, though with 2,179 of them I hope you can understand why I'll not be replying.

Yesterday evening I used the random number generator to pick the winning numbers and these are now posted on the previous post. I've emailed each of the winners and will be sending over the first of the pattern prizes shortly.

My three newest patterns are all ready so I've just uploaded them to Ravelry and Etsy.

There is a small (7 inch) bear/panda, a small (7 inch) mouse and some small sweaters with panel designs on the front. Both the bear/ panda and the mouse come with a variety of outfits including dresses, sweaters and shorts and the existing extra patterns for the small size animals (dresses, sweaters and removable shoes) will fit them too.

I really hope that everyone has fun with these new patterns and as always I'm so excited to see what everyone makes. If you do give any of them a go it would be lovely to see your project uploaded to either the Ravelry or Facebook groups.

Thanks again for all the wonderfully kind comments. I look forward to sharing more give-aways with you as the year progresses and am off now to finish a couple of wintery themed regular-sized mice ready for my next giveaway, hopefully sometime in February if all goes to plan,

J x

New pattern news

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello again, I still have to edit photos and write a post about how beautiful the bluebells have been this year but today I have news of three new patterns. These have been keeping me very busy all year and I've been very indecisive about almost every aspect, which is why they've taken me much longer than expected, though cramming my concentration time into the few hours that Toby is at college hasn't helped with speedy pattern writing progress. Still, they are at last done and as always I'm deeply grateful to my wonderful team of eagle-eyed test knitters who have helped me error check and test these out.

As always there are 2 versions of the animal:

• There's a mole with knitted on tights/pantyhose and shoes, who has a removable dress. This pattern has 3 options for the dress, a colour-work design worked in stranded knitting technique with 2 colours and 2 options for a textured dress with a pattern made of small knitted knots.
• And a mole with a naked body and feet who has removable shorts and a sweater. The pattern has 2 options for the sweater, either a sweater knitted in stocking stitch with 3 bands of colour or a textured sweater with a pattern made of small knitted knots.

There's also a new pattern for clothing to fit any of my 9 inch (23cm) tall animals and this contains 3 basic cardigan/jacket/coat shapes, a short waist length cardigan/jacket, a short waist length V neck cardigan and a longer length A line coat. The short cardigan/jacket and the longer A line coat can both be made with either a round neckline, a little ribbed collar or a hood. The hood will fit over the head of the animals with smaller ears such as the mole, monkey, cat and bear and for the animals with taller ears it looks nice just folded at the back and I've designed it with a curved bottom edge when it's worn in this way.

As always the patterns are available on Ravelry and Etsy and I'll be adding them to Lovecrafts , my facebook shop (which links you back to Etsy) and my blog shop shortly. I think Lucylocketland will soon have some of her sweet kits that include yarn and a printed copy of the pattern and if your local yarn shop is signed up to the Ravelry local yarn shop service then you can buy a copy from them and ask them to print it off for you.

Please remember that the above listed places are the only legitimate places that you can obtain copies of my patterns. In the last year pattern piracy has become a lot more common and me and my fellow pattern designers are noticing the impact, please don't support theft and pattern piracy by either uploading or downloading copies of patterns to/from websites that offer them in exchange for tokens. Thank you so much for supporting independent designers and allowing us to make a small living from our own work  xxx