February blues

February 6, 2019November 5, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)31 Comments

February might be the shortest month but it always feels to me like time runs much more slowly in February than in any other month. To be honest I’m tired of grey, dreary, overcast days and I’m so looking forward to feeling the days lengthen out and seeing brighter colours emerging in the countryside. I’ll be off on a snowdrop hunt sometime later this week because those delicate little bell shaped flowers are always the first signal of a change in the seasons. In the meantime I’m cosying indoors and knitting February away. For some reason I seem to have been mostly knitting in blue for the last few months. Do you find that you get drawn to a particular colour at a particular time? I was knitting mostly in warm tones of gold, pink and mustard throughout last year but blue seems to be the colour of the moment for me, though I think I might be hitting saturation point as I have been finding myself looking at lots of lovely brown speckley yarns on Etsy.

Anyway, two pairs of socks have been finished, the top ones are Fair Isle Flower Sock by Candice DeWitt knitted mostly in Eden Cottage Hayton ‘tarn’ and below are a pair knitted from Helen Stewart’s Fragment sock pattern in Madeline Tosh twist light yarn ‘well water’ (I’ve added both as projects to ravelry if you wanted links to yarns etc.)

The pair I’m currently making are from the Kia sock pattern by Dawn Henderson. It’s a lovely rhythmic and relaxing pattern, perfect for knitting when you just want something undemanding to occupy your hands and soothe your mind from a busy day, and it’s generously shared for free (though if you use the pattern you could buy Dawn a ko-fi to thank her).

In other news I’ve had some interesting visitors in the garden. With the weather being colder last week, and there being less food out in the countryside towards this end of winter, we’ve had flocks of finches swooping in to the bird feeders (mostly gold and green finches); the squirrel has been doing his best acrobatics in his attempts to loot some of the bounty and we’ve also had a few rather exotic visitors moving into the area from London. This is a ring necked parakeet – and she’s not alone as one morning a flock of 12 or so flew over and I’m now regularly hearing their raucous calls echoing around the neighbourhood. My favourite garden visitor though has been this cheeky fox. I always know when he’s around (usually appearing in the hour before sunset) as the chickens go berserk with squawking and when I look out there he is running up and down outside of the run trying to get in. As soon as I go out he runs down the side of our house and leaps through a narrow gap in the fence to our neighbours garden and there he stays in the hope I’ll go back inside, every now and then popping his head through the gap to check if I’m still there. I’m very happy to have him in come and visit because he’s beautiful and such a character but I’m not sure my chickens are as pleased the have him around!

countryside · in the woods

the wintry woods

January 23, 2019November 5, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)23 Comments

It’s not often that I get up voluntarily at 4am but on Monday morning I’d set my alarm in the hopes of watching the lunar eclipse. Sadly there was thick cloud cover so I rolled back into bed. But yesterday when I got up at my usual 7am there was the beautiful almost-full moon and a bright clear day behind the curtains and so after getting Toby sorted out and off to school I packed my camera and set off for a walk. Winter hasn’t really been that cold here yet but there was an icy wind and in the shadowy places the crystals of overnight frost lingered. The landscape at this time of year is skeletal and stark, all angles and exposed structure and there’s not much vibrant colour. Instead everything seems muted to grey or brown, the tired and dormant colours of mid-winter. The only greens to be seen are in the thorny tangles of brambles or the lichen and mosses that decorate tree trunks. Even at midday the sun is low and casts long-shanked shadows across the ground, drawing out rich colours from the underfoot leaves and stands of dead bracken, and making me look tall and thin instead of my actual short and dumpy (woo-hoo!)

But, if you look closely, you will find tiny shoots of new growth – small signs that even when things can be perceived as stagnant and lifeless there can be the beginnings of bright, fresh hope x

crafts & knitting

Some thoughts…

January 21, 2019November 5, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)19 Comments

Since I was last here there has been a lot going on in the knitting community; a lot of discussion, a lot of confusion and a huge amount of emotion – all of it centered around racism. There have been a growing number of voices who have had the courage to speak and share personal experiences and who have really fuelled discussions with their raw honesty. They must now be exhausted by the amount of focus that this has brought them – both in dealing with negative comments/abuse and with the volume of people wanting to talk further, ask for advice or to just show support.

If you’re a regular ravelry user or use instagram to follow other knitters or designers then you will no doubt have already come across this on-going exploration of racism in the knitting world. I have nothing insightful to add to the discussion, I am still grappling with my own uncomfortable feelings that a community that I receive warmth, friendship and support from, and am an active part of, can make others feel unwelcome, excluded or persecuted merely on the basis of their skin colour.

I’m not writing here in order to instruct you on your own choices or actions, I have absolutely no credentials on that front, and I’m not writing about this to invite debate or discussion – there are other forums for that, if that is what you wish to take part in. Instead I simply wanted to share some of the resources that I’ve been reading and have been finding helpful with my own thoughts. If the thought that the knitting world is not as cosy and safe and loving to some as it is to others troubles you too, you might want to explore what steps you can personally take to be a part of change. Taking the first step could begin very simply with searching out more information and reading some of the personal accounts with empathy.

When each of us takes an individual step towards making the spaces that we share (whether they be on-line or physical spaces), as welcoming and friendly and representative to everyone who would like to enter them, collectively we will form a more diverse, dynamic and creative community.

So, a few links that I’ve found helpful (and I know these are very limited but lots of you who visit here have previously said that you don’t use instagram, and if you follow the links you’ll find more links…):

Reading Assignments – some background to why this is being talked about now, by Hunter Hammersen

Racism and inclusion in the yarn community, Ravelry

5 initial ways you can be a better ally to people of colour, by Savonne Anderson

Black people do knit article by Jeanette Sloan

POC designers and crafters list by Jeanette Sloan

Resource list by Louiselynda (this is quite comprehensive)

Thanks so much for reading x

(The picture above is an old one, but it seemed apt)