Author: Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)

knitter, peace-seeker, woods-lover, chicken-keeper, woolly-wearer, autism-mama and all round quiet time girl.
garden stuff · general stuff

summer hols

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)46 Comments

The school summer holidays have arrived here. Amy is excited and busy making all sorts of plans to be out with friends, while I'm doing my best not to feel panic at the thought of 43 days to fill with activities for Toby. Previous experience though has taught me to take each day as it finds us and go with the flow as much as possible, so in some ways I feel prepared and he does have a few CHIPs club and respite days booked in so I'll definitely be putting my feet up with my knitting on those days. As usual we're holidaying at home but I'm happy with that. With the new room at the end of the garden and the weather being so hot and sunny it feels just like being on holiday in the Mediterranean but without all the hot and bothered hassle of actually getting there 🙂

The warm weather paired with lots of watering has really helped the plants grow here. My little mixed bed of herbs, vegetables and flowers is doing very nicely…

 

Vegbed4

 

Vegbed3

 

Vegbed2

 

and I'm really pleased with the rusted iron plant support which is forming a frame for dwarf french beans to climb.

 

Beans

H has worked so hard and completed all the paving and laid new grass.

 

Room3

 

Room4

 

And the room itself is now completely finished and getting lots of use. It feels like a little haven of peace and a place for year round holidays for us all.

 

Room

 

Room2

 

Window

So that's us for the holidays, what are you up to?

Whether you're venturing afar or staying at home I wish you happy times. I plan to pop in from time to time so hope to see you soon x

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PS: If you're a bunny knitter and have made one from my patterns then please come over and join the little cotton rabbits ravelry group. At the moment we're have a fun and friendly contest 🙂 with the theme of bunnies on vacation.

 

 

 

autism · crafts & knitting · general stuff

summer days

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)39 Comments

Summer has arrived here in this little corner of England. The last few days have been wonderful weather-wise and over the weekend our whole family has been outside  – the sunshine even coaxed Amy out of the teenage stereotype of preferring bedroom living 🙂

I've been sitting in the shade at the end of the garden and working on some end of term presents for Toby's teachers. I plan to pair each strawberry bookmark with a pretty note book and pencil and wrap them up nicely.

 

Strawberrymaking

Free pattern from Pezdiva (with a few adaptations).

 

Strawbs

Toby has of course been enjoying bouncing, swinging and paddling

 

Paddling pool

even the chicken has been enjoying the hot weather with a paddle in her own pool

 

Paddling

Poor H has been the only one not relaxing or keeping cool – he's still been hard at work building paths and paving around the garden room.

 

Garden work

I am also working on a little batch of knitted animals. It's been a while since I offered any for sale so I hope to have them finished soon, I'll post some pictures when they're ready.

Talking of knitting, thanks so much to Love Knitting for featuring little cotton rabbits as their blog of the week last week.

Thanks too to all of the people who sent me emails and messages about the book of the week on radio 4. 'The reason I jump' is written by Naoki Higashida an autistic boy living in Japan and takes the form of questions put to him and his answers. It is a fascinating and thought-provoking insight into the world seen from an autistic perspective. My copy arrived yesterday and I'm already halfway through (and scribbling notes to myself as I go). The introduction by David Mitchell is brilliant and any parent of an autistic child will be nodding in agreement and probably like me welling up with tears at reading things that so often go unsaid.

 

Book2

The book itself is revelatory and has again made me tearful many times, both in recognition of the huge implications it could have in the way that others perceive those with autism and because current state schooling often deeply underestimates and mis-interprets many autistic children. My head is literally buzzing and I'm trying to think where we go from here in order to give Toby a way of communicating all that is in his head (rather than just his basic wants), because there is a lot more going on in there than most people give him credit for. I'd urge anyone involved with any aspect of caring for autistic people to read this book, it is an eye-opener and has the potential to change lives.

Thanks as always for popping in to visit. See you again soon

 

crafts & knitting · new patterns

little cotton rabbit dresses

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)87 Comments

Well the patterns for the seasonal dress collection are done. I’ve bundled 14 different designs into one PDF pattern which includes 3 designs each for Spring, Summer and Autumn attire, 4 for Winter wear and a pretty lace dress for parties and special occasions.

The pattern has 19 pages including a single page with both colour charts and written instructions for each design, an index indicating level of difficulty (most are fairly easy with one or two trickier knits) and full construction details with pictures to show two different options for the sleeve. But if you’re worried about printing all of those pages out you only need to print the 2 pages of instructions and the single page for the pattern you’ve chosen to work on in order to make a dress. The rest of the pattern can sit on your computer for reference and like my bunny patterns all photos are zoomable if you want to see more detail on the fiddly bits. The pattern is available as instant download either on Ravelry or Etsy

I hope everyone who buys a copy really enjoys making their little cotton rabbits a wardrobe of dresses to wear throughout the year.

Now I’m off to do some quiet knitting, rest my brain and catch up with some blog reading – I’m really missing seeing what all my favourite blog people are up to. Thanks as always for dropping in and for supporting my work x

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PS: Lots of people have asked about the other animal patterns (fox, elephant, mouse, monkey etc) and I will be writing up these over the coming months.