October and it’s toadstool time

November 3, 2025November 3, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)14 Comments

Autumn has continued drifting in on the breeze here, bring subtle shifts to the colour balance of the countryside. Many trees are now resplendent with rich gold and red leaves, some are yet to peak in beauty, and some trees still have leaves that are a very tired shade of green. Every week there is a noticeable change in the scenery on our walks and once again many of our familiar paths are already obscured by fallen leaves. The weather has turned cooler and damp with frequent rain, a welcome shift to more recognisably English weather and the perfect conditions for toadstool spotting, as they really need a little rain to be at their best. For the rest of the month there will be different kinds of toadstools popping up and I look forward to seeing new things emerging on our walks each week.

There is a wonderful aroma that emanates from a damp autumn wood, a mingling of the smells of rich earth, of gently decaying leaves and of the scent from toadstools. Some toadstools do actually smell quite distinctly, in particular Clitocybe odora, commonly known as the blue green anise mushroom (pictured just above), there have been a lot of these this year; Tricholoma saponaceum, also known as the soap-scented toadstool or soapy knight; and the aptly named stink horn, not one that you would choose seek out for obvious reasons.

Thank you so much for all of the kind messages to Amy, things are still quite difficult for her, but she has started a journey now that will hopefully lead her to a happier and more settled place through some support and therapy.

Well that’s all from me today, words are eluding me a little at the moment and I need a little more woodland medicine to find the flow of them again. I hope to be back later in the month as the photogenic season of autumn continues to settle over the woods and countryside,

Look after yourself and those that you love, I hope you can hug them every day, J x

countryside · general stuff · in the woods · wildlife

September/early October: And the arrival of Autumn

October 2, 2025October 4, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)22 Comments

Autumn is arriving here, with all of its mellow, golden beauty and the leaves are just beginning to change colour. It is one of my most favourite times of the year. Although walking in the woods is a beautiful and enriching experience whatever the season:

In winter they are cold, silent and skeletal, but oh so atmospheric, and the architectural shapes of the trees against the sky can be seen and admired;
The Spring they come alive with birdsong, the new leaves are a bright impossible green, and bluebells beautify the woodland floor and scent the air;
In summer they are a cool place to enjoy respite from the heat, and the woodland floor is dappled and pretty with a sprinkling of sunlight through the dense canopy of leaves overhead,

But it is in Autumn that I find the woods at their most magical and fascinating, and that is due to the beauty of the autumn leaf colours, the quality of the light and the profusion of wonderful fungi that emerge and fleetingly exist under the trees.

There’s not much fungi sprouting yet, just a few springing up here and there in the damper patches of the wood, but with rain forecast over the next week the majority should begin emerging soon.

September signals the start of spider season too and all along the hedgerows a host of big orb weaver spiders are sat fatly in the centre of their webs. They look like they are floating in mid air until the sunlight glints off of the silken strands and highlights the intricate pattern. And the hedgerows themselves are absolutely laden and bountiful. This year is a ‘mast year’ meaning that trees and shrubs are co-ordinating and producing an unusually large quantity of fruits, berries and nuts, possibly in response to weather conditions throughout spring and summer, or perhaps from a more mysterious connection between their root systems or pheromones, it is not fully scientifically understood yet, leaving us free to still believe in a little magic going on out there in the woods 🙂

At home there is knitting, of course, but there is very little in the way of pattern writing going on here for me. Things have been a little difficult of late. I don’t often mention Amy here on the blog anymore, because although she is still living with us and our stories are still very much intertwined, it feels an invasion of her privacy to write about her. It is after all her privilege to share her own story with those that she is personally comfortable with. But I am going to say that this has been such a tough month for her, she has had to contend with physical health issues, which have led to mental health issues too. It has been so hard to watch her struggle and be able to do little more than try to comfort her. I so hope that she can overcome her struggles and get back on an even keel again and continue her journey towards building an independent life for herself. The path from adolescence to adulthood is never an easy one, but it feels like it is harder than ever for our young people now.

After a few planned solo trips out to the woods with my camera I hope to be back with some toadstool pictures later in the month. I am craving the peace and comfort that being out there alone brings me, and look forward to having the space and time to calm my racing thoughts and concentrate only on what I see, hear and smell in my woodland sanctuary.

I hope you have a good couple of weeks and get some time to spend on the things that you love,

J x

crafts & knitting · knitting tips

Knitted Decrease Methods for LCR patterns

September 18, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)14 Comments

This post details the decrease methods most used in my range of Little Cotton Rabbits patterns, with pictures for each method and details of their specific characteristics so that they can be compared and contrasted. I’ve also put together a PDF file that you can download to keep or print out if preferred: Download PDF file

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A comparison of decreases:

This table compares four paired and mirrored decreases, these are the decreases that I use most often in my patterns.
As you can see they are grouped vertically according to the direction in which the decrease stitch leans (either to the left or to the right) and also grouped horizontally as matched symmetrical pairs which mirror each other.

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Double decreases:

CDD: centred double decrease:

This is a lovely decrease that removes 2 stitches from the work at the same time. As its name suggests, it is centred and therefore symmetrical. I use it a lot because it is so neat and attractive.

The most important thing to remember is to begin by slipping the two stitches TOGETHER and NOT one at a time. This twists them and changes their order and is vital to creating the neat and symmetrical finish.

Method:
Slip 2 stitches together as if to Knit them,
Knit the next stitch,
and then pass the 2 slipped stitches over it and off the needle.

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Right Leaning decreases:

K2tog: Knit two together:

This is a simple method for decreasing a single stitch on the right (front) side of the work, and is probably the best known method of decreasing by one stitch.

Because the left stitch crosses in front of the right stitch this creates a decrease that leans towards the right.

Method: Knit two stitches together at the same time, in exactly the same way that you would Knit a single stitch.

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P2TOG: Purl two together:

This creates a right leaning decrease, identical to K2tog above, but is worked on the wrong (reverse) side of the work.

Method: Purl two stitches together at the same time, in exactly the same way that you would Purl a single stitch.

I prefer to work decreases on the right (front) side of the work so don’t often use this decrease, unless it is part of a decorative stitch pattern. But I do use it when extra decreases need to be made that could not comfortably be fitted in on the previous right side row.

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Left Leaning decreases:

P2tog tbl: purl two together through the back loops:

This stitch creates a left leaning decrease, identical to SSK below, but is worked on the wrong (reverse) side.

Method: Purl 2 stitches together through the back loops.

This is done in order to twist the stitches and swap their positions, so that from the front of the work the right stitch crosses in front of the left stitch, creating a decrease that leans towards the left. This can be a little tricky to work, so it helps to have needles with pointy tips.

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SSK: Slip, slip, knit:

This is a simple method for decreasing a single stitch on the right (front) side of the work. Because the right stitch crosses in front of the left stitch this creates a decrease that leans towards the left.

Please note: It is important to slip each stitch individually from the left to the right needle in Step 1 below, and to slip both stitches together at the same time from the right needle back to the left needle in Step 2.

Method:
Step 1: Slip a stitch (as if to Knit it) to the right-hand needle, slip a second stitch in the same way

Step 2: Slip both stitches together back to the left-hand needle and Knit them together through their back loops.

There is however a problem with this decrease stitch which occurs when it is used in a stacked way over several alternate rows. And that is because the SSK decrease goes against the natural direction of regular Knit and Purl knitting stitches. The SSK decrease stitch leans to the left and yet on the following row when you work a normal Purl stitch above the decrease this naturally leans to the right.

The result of this is a stepped line of decreases in the work, like a zig-zag pattern, and the finished result is not particularly neat (see the green sample below).

So, in order to smooth the step-like appearance we can use a little trick. There are several different ways of doing this, if you’d like to explore that further then please google ‘smooth SSK knitting’ or ‘neater SSK knitting’ and this will bring up a host of video tutorials and you can compare and decide which is your favourite method, my favourite is below.

My preferred method is to work the SSK decrease exactly as described at the top of the page. And then, on the following wrong side row, Purl the single stitch above it through the back loop (PTBL).

This twists the stitch that is above the decrease slightly, making it change direction so that it lies a little flatter, and creates a much smoother line of decreases (see the blue sample above):

This method of smoothing the stacked line of decreases comes in very handy in a couple of my patterns: especially the nose of the foxes, the bib of the dungarees, the armholes of the cable panelled sweaters. But to be honest, for the sake of neatness, I always PTBL the stitch above any SSK decreases.

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