Thank you all so very much for the hugely positive response to the release of my first animal patterns. The people closest to me know how nervous I was about putting them out there and worried that people might find them too fiddly or frustrating but it has been great to see projects start appearing on Ravelry and to read that people have been enjoying the patterns and are happy with what they have made. And I've had so many lovely messages and emails – thank you so much if yours was one of them and sorry I've not had the chance to reply to everyone yet. It really has been a wild week!

I was really touched when I read one message from a fellow Raveller who volunteered to set up a little cotton rabbit ravelry group. It's not something I would have had time to do myself but I will definitely be involved and I do hope you'll come along and join us. There will be knit-alongs, community knitting support, tips and general chat and I hope to share an occassional freebie and news of future patterns. We'd love to see you and your projects there!

Thanks again for making the release of my patterns such a pleasurable experience for me and for all of the kind and lovely messages. I'll be back next week with the promised post about fairisle knitting tips. Have a good weekend x

Thanks so much for the nice welcome back. Getting so out of touch does feel strange to me when blogging has been such a part of my life for nearly seven years. The list writing is definitely helping me order my thoughts but lists are not the only thing I have been writing over the last week, I have also been pattern writing!

Over the years I have avoided writing up the patterns for the little cotton rabbits partly because it is such a lot of work to write something that someone else can follow, partly because I'd rather be actually knitting than anything else and partly because they are so very personal and it's hard to put them out there for scrutiny. And then there is the Toby Factor. If you are one of the people who have written and asked me about availability of animal patterns you will have probably received my standard answer

"Thanks for asking about the patterns for the knitted animals that I make. As
yet I've not written them up but I do hope to in the future when things get a little easier with my son and will keep the blog up to
date with any developments"

Well, it has been slowly dawning on me that things may well not get any easier on the Toby front, in fact with his teenage years looming they may well get considerably harder for a while. His future is uncertain and therefore so is mine, tied together as they are and right now may be as good as things get. So I have been thinking long and hard and decided that if I am ever going to publish my patterns I may as well just get on with it and so that is exactly what I am doing right now. The first one is with pattern testers right now, though I think it will be a few weeks before it will be ready with all the charts, photos and formatting that I intend to include.

I just thought I'd give you a bit of advance notice and an explanation as to why I might not be popping in here so much for a wee while. I am working on them every spare minute I have.

I still plan to make knitted animals for sale, I cannot imagine life without making them now, it has become my main source of peace, tranquility and relaxation. But I'm also mindful of the fact that knitting for around 8 hours a day, almost every day may well be taking its toll on my fingers – they are not as supple as they once were and are a lot more prone to aches. Still there will be plenty more knitted animals from me for the forseeable future – in fact there are plenty waiting for finishing at the moment. Once I get pattern writing out of my system I will be turning my attention back to bunny knitting in earnest.

If you are one of those waiting on my patterns – thanks for being patient with me for all of these years, I hope you won't have to wait much longer!