Little Cotton Rabbits

revised boy and girl bunny patterns

 

 

Just a quick note to mention that on February 9th at 9.15am UK time I published an update to both my boy and girl bunny patterns (if you've purchased since then you will already have an updated copy).

The original patterns are still perfectly usable (there are no pattern errors) and in fact the majority of changes I have made are only cosmetic and to do with the layout and look of the pages rather than the actual pattern instructions.

However I have added two new designs to the head and tweaked the shaping at the back of the head (all row and stitch counts are exactly the same but I've changed it in line with the shaping on all of the other animal patterns). No other patterns have been updated. 

 

 

 

Hopefully if you've previously bought either of the bunny patterns from Ravelry or my website you will already have received an email with a link to download the new file/s from. If you previously purchased a copy of the pattern/s and have not received an email notice about the update but would like a new copy of the pattern please follow the instructions below.

Please note that I decided I'd like to do this update for free rather than at an additional cost for you. Updates are not normally included in the cost of my patterns but at entirely at my discretion, so please bear that in mind before you get antsy with me and email me in annoyance if you've not received an update :)

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If you have not already received an email about the update/s please follow these instructions carefully as I will not be able to search through all of my back-orders to find yours and if you do not supply me with the information that I need, then I'll be unable to send you an update. 

 

1. Ravelry Purchases (from a Ravelry account):

If you have bought through your Ravelry account it is very easy to check for updates. If you have added the purchased patterns to your library there will be an 'update available' sticker on the pattern picture and clicking on that will allow you to download the new file. If you are a Ravelry user then adding all patterns that you've purchased to your library is worth doing for this reason alone.

If you are a Ravelry user and don't use the fantastic library function then you can still download new/updated copies of patterns by going to your purchase history (see image below).

 

Here's an article detailing 5 ways of downloading a new/updated copy of a pattern you've bought via Ravelry.

There is a useful tutorial about the menu options of your notebook on Ravelry here

(please don't email me to ask how Ravelry works, I'm just a Ravelry user like you and they have all the info you'll need over on their site)

 

2. Purchases via Ravelry or my website (without a Ravelry account)

Please send me an email (link over in the column on the right - towards the top). I don't need to know the date that you purchased but I do need to know the email address that you used (this will be your paypal email address). If I cannot verify your purchase (because you've supplied an incorrect email address) I will not be able to forward you an updated pattern.

 

3. Purchases via Etsy

Unfortunately Etsy have no way for me to automatically give you access to any pattern updates (if you are a Ravelry user it is worth buying patterns via ravelry rather than Etsy so that you do automatically receive any future updates).

So if you'd like a copy of the update/s please

• log into your Etsy account,
• go to the little cotton rabbits shop page and
• click 'contact shop owner'

This will bring up a message window and you can type me a message letting me know that you'd like an updated copy of the pattern. Because you are messaging me from within your account I will then be able to see your previous purchases (from my shop only) and I can then verify and email you an update.

 

4. Purchases via Loveknitting

If you've bought on Loveknitting then they tell me that you should be able to download an update from your purchase history on your account there. If you have any difficulty you will need to contact them as I cannot assist with purchases that are not made direct from me.

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If you do contact me by any of the above methods to request an update please be patient with me as it may take me a day or two to process. As long as you've supplied the required information you will receive a reply from me. I am not able to enter into correspondence about the updates or give you any personal instructions other than what is written above.

I really hope that you enjoy the updated patterns. Happy knitting x

 

Oink, the pigs are here

 

 

There are now pigs in the Little Cotton Rabbits pattern range! It is such a relief to sign off on these patterns, it does feel like I've been working on them for a very long time.

 

 

The finished patterns themselves are very straightforward but when I'm pattern writing I do like to try out lots of different ways of doing the same thing with the hopeful aim that the final pattern will be easy to use and give a toy that someone is pleased to have made. Inevitably this means a lot of frogged samples and things in the bin but also leaves me with a lot of heads that now need bodies, so I'll be making lots of finished animals from now until Christmas!

One of the hardest things about writing up the pig patterns has been choosing the yarn to make them in, pink yarn has to be the hardest colour to choose from on-screen pictures. I ordered masses of different worsted, DK and Aran weight pink yarns and was constantly surprised when each batch arrived. I'd sift through 10 balls of what I'd hoped would be perfect piggy pinks only to find some were too salmon-coloured, some were dirty pinks, some too boiled lobster-ish. I finally decided upon Milliamia's Naturally soft Aran in Blush (229) as the main colour for the pigs in the patterns. It's a nice rosy pink (think creamy strawberry milkshake) and the yarn is soft and not too expensive. You can see below some of the other yarns that were on my shortlist - the runner up was definitely Quince and Co Lark in Petal which was probably my personal favourite but being a very pale shell pink didn't show up so well in the photos and maybe harder for people to get hold of.

 

 

 

I've had a lot of fun coming up with some different designs to represent different pig breeds too. I have a real soft spot for Tamworth pigs which have coarse ginger hair all over their bodies and so much character. So there are tips in the pattern for yarns to use to get a similar effect. There's also a pattern for a pig with a patch (a bit like a Gloucester Old Spot pig) and an alternative set of ears if you'd rather make a floppy eared pig. Both patterns include all options.

 

 

The boy pig pattern includes shorts and a sailor sweater (both removable). The shorts can be knitted with stripes all over or in a single colour. The girl pig has short socks and shoes (both attached) and a removable dress and within the pattern there are easier or more complex options for the socks.

The patterns are now available via Ravelry and my pattern shop (I'll be uploading them to Etsy shortly). For a limited time (until midnight on Friday) I am offering a special price on both of the pig patterns bought together (buy one of them, get the other for half price, so £6 for both instead of £4 each). To take advantage of the discount all you need to do is add both patterns to your basket before checking out and then a message and the discount should pop up at the bottom of the basket window and you can proceed to the payment once you're sure the discounted price is showing.

(Please note that the discount is only available on Ravelry and my pattern shop as Etsy doesn't have very sophisticated facilities for promotions)

As always, I'd love your feedback on these patterns and I'm eagerly awaiting the uploading of the first projects over on Ravelry. The Little Cotton Rabbits Ravelry group is full of lovely people who like sharing projects they've made, so if you do give any of the patterns a go please come and join in, we'd love to admire what you've made.

Happy knitting xxx

 

 

A little flock

 

 

So as you can see I have been busy and at last have finished my new patterns. Wooohooo! It's such a nice feeling of relief! There has been a lot of tweaking and trying out different arrangements of stitches and shaping and I have gone slightly stir crazy knitting sheep heads (over 40 to date). So now I am really looking forward to knitting something different - maybe I will reward myself with a bit of scarf or sock knitting and as soon as I've finished this post I'm popping over to Loop's website for a little restorative yarn shopping :)

 

 

There are two sheep patterns; a boy ram and a girl lamb. They both include options for 2 types of horns; a big curly pair and a narrower pointy pair. They also both have lots of suggestions for yarn colourways and although the animal pattern is written for knitting in 2 colours (one for the woolly part of the head and body and another for the smoother face, arms, legs, ears and tail) it can be knitted in a single colour if preferred.

 

 

The girl lamb pattern has plain coloured tights and knitted on shoes and comes with 2 dress patterns; one is worked in 2 colours with a Fair Isle/stranded technique and the other is knitted in a single colour with an arrangement of knit and purl stitches which give a textured pattern. Both are based on a honeycomb design (see below: the first 2 dresses are made from the Fair Isle pattern, one has the lighter colour as the accent colour defining the pattern and the other is reversed; the third lamb is wearing a dress from the textured pattern and has the pointy horns).

 

 

The boy ram pattern comes with a pattern for shorts and a sweater that uses a slipped stitch pattern to give an interesting nubby texture. The sweater is written for knitting in 2 colours but these are never used at the same time across the same row, instead it's worked in alternate 2 row stripes with the slipped stitches giving the appearance of a more complex pattern. If preferred it can be worked in a single colour (see below: the first sheep with no horns is wearing the sweater made in a single colour, the other two are wearing sweaters knitted in 2 colours).

 

 

Both patterns are now available as instant downloads on Ravelry and my website. Buying any two of my animal patterns together gives an automatic discount of £1.25 (to apply the discount you'll need to use the 'add to basket' rather than buying one at a  time)

If you give either of them a go, I really hope that you enjoy them. As always I'm here to answer any questions that arise and there will be a knit along over on the Little Cotton Rabbits Ravelry group so that's a really good place to pop in and leave a message if you need help with any aspect.

Thanks x

 

 

...and bears, oh my!

It feels like I've been working on these latest patterns forever. In truth I think it's just over a year but there have been a lot of distractions that have required I spend my time on other things and so it feels a very long and drawn out affair. Still, I am pleased to announce that I now have boy and girl bear patterns available.

 

 

 

 

Part of the complication with this pattern was that I wanted to incorporate different kinds of bear: a brown bear, a black bear with a light muzzle, a Polar bear and a Panda. The tweaks to make each of these are simple enough but laying it out within the pattern without the whole thing becoming too complicated was fiddly and more time-consuming than usual.

 

 

 

The boy pattern includes shorts and a Fair Isle sweater which is worked flat from the neck down to the shoulders and then in the round for the body and arms. Because I know that there are those who really don't like stranded knitting or working in the round I've also included a pattern for a top down striped sweater that is knitted completely flat and then seamed. You can also combine elements from the 2 different sweaters so that you can make the Fair Isle design flat if you prefer and vice versa.

The girl pattern comes with a plaid dress that is worked flat to the waist and then in the round for the skirt part. Again, I've included a simpler striped dress for those who don't like stranded knitting and/or knitting in the round.

Both patterns include the options for making all of the different bear types.

At the same time as working on the bear patterns I've been finishing off the shoes supplement pattern that I've been fiddling around with for ages too. This has different feet options that you can substitute for the feet in any of the animal patterns. There's a pair of bunny slipper clad feet and 2 options for the trainers/sneakers: a simplish one and a more fiddly one.

 

 

For a limited time (until the 15th of May) I'm giving away the shoes pattern free with either of the bear patterns (don't add it to your basket if you are buying a bear pattern as it will be sent anyway and if you add it to your basket you'll be charged) or you can buy a copy of the shoes pattern alone for £1.95

All of the patterns are uploaded to Ravelry where they're supplied as instant digital downloads or you can purchase via Etsy where you'll have to wait a short while for me to email the digital files to you.

Now comes the fun part for me as I always look forward to the first finished animals popping up in people's Ravelry project pages. It's always such a pleasure to know that the patterns are being enjoyed. I hope that if you give any of them a go you'll let me know how you got on.

Thanks so much. I'm off now to do some gardening in the spring sunshine, it'll be nice to be spending more time outside. See you soon x

 

Miaow

Working on this new pattern on and off over the last year has been an exciting and slightly novel thing for me. It's the first time I've made a pattern from scratch with the intention of it being a pattern, if you see what I mean. All of the other animal patterns have come about because I wanted to knit them as finished items rather than with the original intention of sharing them in pattern form and so for most of them I had years of tweaking and lots of knittings before arriving at the final patterns.

This time I started off with a basic idea sketched out and then knitted up some trial runs (the earliest of which did not go well). But I've persevered and after lots of rejected test samples I arrived at one that I was pretty happy with. Then it was just down to playing around with ear placement, head length, tail tip and a few more little bits of fiddling and tweaking. Anyway, I'm satisfied enough to now release the patterns, so here is my little cat boy and girl, both clad in plaid :)

 

 

 

It was hard to decide exactly what sort of cat should be in the pattern - after all there are so many different breeds, from refined pure-bred Persians to lowly but loveable moggies. So because I couldn't decide I've included in the pattern 4 extra head designs which are interchangeable, so you can make either a plain coloured cat, or a cat with a white blaze, a cat with an eye patch, a Siamese cat or a tabby. There are little bits that you can combine from these different designs to make your own unique looking cat, a bit like a selection box (sorry I couldn't resist taking this photo - hope it's not too creepy!)

 

 

Here are some of the heads I've made so far from the pattern (all instructions and details of yarns used for these are included with both patterns)...

 

 

As usual with a new pattern release I'm on tenterhooks, waiting for the first projects to appear on Ravelry. It's so exciting to see what other people have made from the patterns so please come and add yours to the group if you give any of the patterns a try.

The new patterns are now live on both Ravelry and Etsy and on my pattern page here on the blog. I so hope that if you give any of them a go you have fun knitting from them x