Little Cotton Rabbits

Koalas :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello again, we're getting comfy with new routines here and I'm very happy to say that Toby has exceeded all of our expectations and has settled well at his new college. He's now had 2 full weeks and has already started to get used to the rhythm of the days. All of which is such a huge relief, I was so very nervous about this big step for him and based on previous experience I'd really not expected it to go as well as it has.

With Toby sorted, I'm starting to get myself sorted out too and into work time routines and I've just finished off 3 new patterns that have been in my workbasket for most of this year.

There are 2 patterns for Koalas:

• one which comes with a naked body and a removable outfit that includes 2 sweaters and a pair of shorts;
• and the other which comes with knitted on shoes and knickers and a choice of 2 removable dresses.

I’ve also got a new sweater pattern that has one basic shape (with plain stocking stitch back and sleeves) and has 6 different options for the front design. They're available now on both

Ravelry and Etsy

 

Finally, because I’m celebrating my 15th anniversary of starting my blog, I’m offering a 25% discount on all of my patterns from today until the end of September - this is available on all patterns on both (sorry it's now expired)

To keep the 15th anniversary celebration of starting my blog going I will also be having an animal giveaway soonish, but I need to take some photos for that, so I'll keep you posted with details when those are done.

 

Little Cotton Rabbits Dogs Patterns

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are my new patterns for 9 inch (23cms) tall knitted dogs, and I cannot tell you how delighted and relieved I am to be pressing 'publish' on these today. This has been one of the most challenging projects that I've ever worked on. The patterns themselves are not difficult to knit but my part,  putting everything together with the layout and ordering of all the different options that I've included, has been a complete headache. Still, I am happy at last with the outcome and now I will be having some down-time to celebrate finishing. I've still not made it out to the orchard and the bluebell wood this year so those are top of my list of things to do next week.

So, as usual there are 2 versions (available on Ravelry, Etsy and later today also on Lovecrafts);

• a dog in a dress which has knitted on panties, socks and shoes and the choice of 2 dresses, one knitted with a cabled chain texture in a single colour and another knitted in two colours with a simple, stranded swag design.
• a dog in a sweater and shorts, which has a bare body and legs and comes with removable shorts and a choice of 2 sweaters, one knitted with a mock cable texture and the other in a simple 2 colour texture which is a lot easier to knit than it looks.

Both of these options contain the same multiple options for different dog breeds, so there's no need to purchase both unless you really want to. As usual you can combine body parts from my other patterns, as they are the same size as my regular animal patterns (9 inches, 23cms tall) so clothes from my other existing regular sized animal patterns and the extra clothing sets will also fit these.

The patterns contain a single basic head shape with 8 different colour-work treatments and this combined with 7 different styles of ear gives you a lot of options to make different breeds of dogs.

So far I have made the following breeds and I still have a few ideas to play with that I'll post here in the future; Labrador, Beagle, Spaniel, Dalmatian, Alsatian, Dobermann, Rottweiler, Dachshund, Pug, Boston Terrier, French Bulldog, Border Collie, Husky, Jack Russell, West Highland White Terrier, and quite a few of mixed parentage :)

In short it's a very comprehensive set of instructions that will enable you to make many different types of dog.

If you give it a go I hope you'll come and share your project on Ravelry or the Facebook group or perhaps on both - it would be lovely to see what you make from the pattern, and I'm so looking forward to seeing the first projects emerge.

And as always, I hope the new patterns give a little pleasure and enjoyment, happy knitting, J xxx

 

The badgers

 

 

 

 

Back in 2008 I knitted started playing around with some ideas for a knitted badger. I knew what sort of shaping I wanted in the head and that it would be a slightly fiddly knit because of all of the colour changes needed to get the distinctive badgery stripes. At the time I was relatively pleased with the outcome but knew there were things about it that I wasn't happy with, so it needed more work.

Since then I've gone back to the pattern notes several times and then become distracted by ideas for other animals and so the poor badger has languished at the very bottom of the work basket for all these years. I'm happy to say that I now feel they're at last ready and so today I'm releasing the patterns, as usual one with removable sweater and shorts and bare body and feet; and the other with knitted on knickers/panties and shoes and a removable dress. They both have a change of outfit, so the first has 2 sweaters and the second has 2 dresses (both with one in stranded colorwork and one textured in a single colour). They're both live now on Ravelry and will be shortly on Etsy too.

The timing for a pattern release is daft I know, everyone is far to busy over the next week to be sitting knitting badgers and I'm sorry it's taken me longer than the autumn release that I had planned. Maybe there will be the chance for a little badger knitting in the lull of the new year and if you do give either of the patterns a go, I hope that you have fun with them - as usual I am excited at the prospect of seeing the first projects emerge over on the Little Cotton Rabbits facebook group and on Ravelry :)

I hope the next week is a good one for you, despite the rapidly wosening situations we all seem to be finding ourselves in again. I'll pop back with a proper seasonal greeting next week, 'til then stay safe and well xx

 

Removable shoes, new patterns

 

Regular sized to fit any of the 9 inch tall animals

(rabbits, bears, mice, foxes, monkeys, pigs, cats, elephants, sheep, deer and lions)

 

Small sized, to fit the 7 inch rabbits pattern

 

 

 

 

 

 

When my daughter was little she was quite good a loosing little bits of toys (sorry to tell tales on you Amy), and I spent lots of time hunting for lost things under sofas, down the back of seat cushions and poking through the contents of the vacuum cleaner cylinder. So when I designed the little cotton rabbits I chose to knit the shoes as part of the feet and so avoid having to spend time hunting down or re-knitting lost shoes. It's become apparent though that some people who knit my animal patterns would like to have shoes that do come off and so can be changed to match an outfit, so over the last few months I've been working on these patterns for removable shoes.

There's a pattern to fit the regular (9 inch sized animals) and one for the smaller 7 inch rabbits (please check you have the right one in your basket before you check out).

Both patterns contain 5 pairs of shoes: 3 pairs of Mary-Jane style with a functional buttoning strap; a pair of laced up trainers and a mules- style slipper. There are also options for knitting feet and legs with knitted on socks, either with a simple garter stitch cuff or a folded over ribbed cuff.

I've designed the shoes and trainers to be close fitting and to be shaped around the foot with some short-rows and decreases and the slippers, whilst easy to take on and off are held in place on the foot by a knitted on trim. Hopefully they'll fit your animals foot well and you'll not need to be knitting replacements for any lost shoes anytime soon :)

You can find the patterns in the usual places, either on Ravelry or on Etsy

If you give either pattern a go please come and share your projects over on Ravelry or on the facebook group, it gives me so much pleasure to see what you make from my patterns.

Happy knitting, J xx

 

Lions free supplement pattern

 

 

 

 

 

Everything seems to be taking much longer than usual at the moment and since Toby went back to school it has felt like I've been really busy but not actually getting anything done. I have however managed to finish off the free Lions supplement pattern and have just uploaded it to the Facebook group and Ravelry:

New Lions supplement pattern

This pattern is a free one and therefore only gives basic instructions on converting the existing 9 inch bear patterns - you'll need either of the Boy Bear or Girl bear patterns in order to knit a complete Lion or Lioness.

If I had to guess, I expect that the boy Lion is going to be the more popular make of the two and I have had fun making a few myself during the process of working out the pattern. There should be a health warning attached though - that mane really tests the patience and is not something to tackle if you're in a hurry ;)

As always, I hope that this pattern helps spread a little pleasure and enjoyment out there, things that seem harder than ever to find and hang on to right now. Hope you're finding a little of each in your days. I'm finding mine out in the peace and tranquility of the quiet woods and have a few pictures to share in the next post.

'Til next time xxx