Autumn in the woods: part 2

November 15, 2023August 31, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)17 Comments

There’s a line from a Mary Oliver poem, which resonates for me…

“If you have ever gone to the woods with me, I must love you very much”

‘How I go to the woods’ from ‘Swan: Poems and Prose Poems’

For only a handful of people have ever come to the woods with me, and all of them are my most loved people.

Going to the woods is usually something that I much prefer to do on my own (except for walks with Toby of course), because being alone in a wood is a wonderful sensory experience which is greatly diminished if you’re chatting with someone else.

Alone you can walk quietly, listening to the forest sounds and concentrating on noticing small details: the curl of a leaf; the glint of a toadstool in the dark of a hollowed out stump; a leaf reflected in a small pool of silvery water cupped in the cap of a toadstool; the patterns in a decaying tree.

The woods feel safely enduring and impervious to the anguish and perils of the human world, and although this is of course a fanciful illusion, I am happy to embrace that feeling for an hour or two and let the woodland peace dissolve my disquiet.

Back home knitting is proving soothing too and I have a finished pair of socks and a few scarves still on the go.

I hope that you also have fortifying activities that gently reinforce hope, optimism and joy for you in these troubled times.

countryside · in the woods · wildlife

Autumn in the woods: part 1

November 8, 2023August 31, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)18 Comments

Autumn has arrived here, with wet and windy weather and a sudden profusion of fungi out in the woods. I head there at every opportunity, savouring the soothing peace and quiet that flows between the trees.

It’s been a good year for the hedgerow fruits of hips, haws and berries and the woodland creatures will be well provisioned this winter. Tree nuts have been abundant too – chestnuts, beech nuts, hazelnuts and acorns have covered the woodland floor, though most are now hidden away in the winter larders of squirrels and jays. And now the holly trees present their harvest and are heavy with scarlet berries. I hope to see the first waxwings, but am not lucky this time.

There is such great beauty in the natural world, but sometimes you have to get dirty knees and elbows in order to see it. Luckily for me the woods are mostly deserted on week days, so there is no-one to see me lying on my tummy in a soggy patch of moss in order to capture the close up delight of a toadstool and home is only a 10 minute trip in the car so I’m soon warming up in a hot bath after getting damp and chilled on my adventures.

Then it’s back to knitting, for now just a little gentle-paced making rather than the more intense pattern writing. A pair of socks, a couple of Sophie scarves and quite a few pairs of very simple ribbed wrist-warmers are all currently on my needles and I’m enjoying just flitting between whatever takes my fancy at the time. And with each new project I begin to feel a re-kindling of my love of knitting, which I’ve recently felt has been ebbing away from me a little. Perhaps being so focussed on the end product, as is necessary when writing patterns, has diminished my enjoyment, and I just needed a little simple ‘process knitting’ time to find my joy again.

Hope you find a little joy somewhere in your week, J x

PS: it’s been wonderful to see so many cows appearing on the facebook group and on ravelry, thanks so much for sharing pictures of your lovely projects 🙂

crafts & knitting · new patterns

New Cow Patterns

November 2, 2023September 18, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)10 Comments

The cow patterns are finished!

As always with my patterns there are 2 versions available:

one that comes with a naked body, removable shorts and a choice of 2 removable sweaters, one in an Argyle colour-work design and the other in a single colour textured stitch pattern.
and the other which comes with knitted on tights/pantyhose and shoes and a choice of 2 removable dresses, one in an Argyle colour-work design and the other in a single colour clover lace pattern.

Both patterns include the same range of options for the heads, including a couple of different designs using colour-work patches. There are two different options for the body, either plain or with colour-work patches, and two different options for the horns, long or short.

There are comprehensive instructions for knitting and finishing the cows, including over 100 detailed colour photographs to show the steps and the different options. By combining different colours, horns and amount of hair you can easily tailor the pattern to your needs and make a variety of different cattle breeds, in the pattern I’ve shown Highland, Argyle, Holstein, Friesian, Swiss Brown, Jersey, Redpoll, and White Park cattle. I wanted to try a yak and maybe a bison but ran out of steam, but those might also be possible.

As with all of my other patterns they’re now available on Ravelry, Etsy and will shortly be on Lovecrafts too.

If you decide to give either of the patterns a go I do hope you enjoy them. As always I am very excited to see my patterns coming to life in the hands of others, happy knitting and thank you so much for your kindness and support xx