Year: 2019

crafts & knitting · new patterns

Doughnuts!

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)18 Comments

A new free pattern for tiny doughnuts 🙂 link to download is here.

The original idea for this doughnut pattern was to make something small enough to fit into the pocket of my dungarees pattern, and although it is a little tight, it does just fit. I tried so many prototypes, trying to reduce the size further but they didn’t work out as circular, so this was as small as I could go and therefore the pattern is recommended to be worked with very thin needles 2.25mm (US 1) in order that the doughnut made fits into the dungaree pocket.

If you prefer you can use the doughnut as a stand-alone item, size is then less important and you can knit it in DK weight yarn with 3mm needles to give a larger size.

I hope you have fun with the pattern, it knits up quickly and infact the thing that took the most time and patience was sewing those tiny, fiddly, easy-to-drop-and-stab-your-finger-with-the-needle beads on! If you give it a go please come and share your project pictures over in our Ravelry group so everyone can admire them – I’m looking forward to seeing what you make.

See you soon x

 

 

autism · general stuff

routines

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)17 Comments

Monday morning. It’s nicely quiet and calm here and I’ve just finished my favourite breakfast of poached egg (thankyou Mrs chickens) on hot buttered toast with a pot of tea – a good start to any day. I had planned to be back here on the blog sooner but it has taken a little longer than expected to get Toby settled back at school and Amy moved into her new uni digs. At last though we are back into familiar routines – to some that might sound boringly monotonous but here routines are a welcomed necessity and help our little family function.

Toby is now in the sixth form at school and so doesn’t wear uniform. As someone who takes great comfort in the visual clues that different outfits bring to his life, he has had a little difficulty adjusting but we’ve settled on familiar school shoes and black jogging bottoms paired with a colourful T shirt (previously strictly weekend wear) and a new grey hoodie, and he’s now adapting. Amy has had some challenges with settling into her new digs after a summer of living at hotel mum & dad but is now (I think and hope) happy to be back at uni and ready for year 2.

Now that I have time to myself again I’ve been tidying the house and sorting out paperwork relating to Toby’s transition from child to adult social services – lots of reading and research to do and a lot of planning too. Once I’m on top of the paperwork and have caught up with emails I’ll be joyfully turning my full day-time attention back to knitting and pattern writing – I can’t wait! I have so many ideas bouncing around my head and hastily scribbled in notebooks over the last 3 months and I’m looking forward to sharing them with you. A sneak peek of one of the free patterns I’m planning on sharing is above.

I’ll be back soon with more knitting news, ’til then thanks for dropping in to visit with me,

J x

 

countryside · crafts & knitting · garden stuff · general stuff · wildlife

Scenes of Summer

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)17 Comments

Hello! And sorry it’s been so long. I just wanted to pop in briefly and say I am still here – it’s just that here the school summer break is full on Toby time, and he remains my focus until school starts up again on September 4th. Even so I have had my camera handy and have captured some favourite moments from the last month…

  • countryside walking – finding breathtakingly fabulous fields of jewel-bright poppies;
  • sky watching – for clouds, techni-colour sunsets, vintage planes and the red kites that have recently moved into the area;
  • bug finding – newly emerged ladybirds, hoverflies and swallow-tail moths;
  • knitting – mostly socks because they are undemanding, but there are a few more things on my needles that I’ll share soon;
  • pic-nicing with Amy, revisiting Hatfield house (after our first visit this time last year) for a lovely day together;

Today it’s pouring with much needed rain, so Toby and I are having a lazy day – he’s watching cbeebies shows on tv and I’m writing this. If the weather is better tomorrow we’ll be off on a welly-boot woodland adventure – it’s good to get him out and about but overall he’s coping pretty well with the lack of routine. I do think though that we’ll both be ready for when school starts up again 3 weeks and once he’s back into routines I’ll have time to call mine again so I’ll see you then with some updates on what I’ve been working on. Hope the rest of August is good for you xxx