About me & my knitting…

January 10, 2008 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)167 Comments

Hands

Hi and welcome to my blog, I’m Julie. I live in Hertfordshire with my husband, 2 children, 3 chickens and a lot of wool.

Here you’ll find I write mostly about knitting, which is my favourite way to spend my free time and it’s helped keep me sane through some of the more difficult times with our son who is severely autistic. Family life is a bit of a rollercoaster ride and I also write a little about our experiences in the hope of helping others in a similar situation and to give a little insight into some aspects of life with an autistic child. I also write about the countryside and wildlife that also inhabit this little corner of leafy green Hertfordshire.

There are some free knitting patterns for you to use (see the ‘free patterns’ button on the right). I also have patterns available to purchase, it’s a small range of toys and novelties at the moment but I hope to keep adding new ones. I’ll keep the blog here and my ravelry page up to date with any new releases.

Me with wool

A little bit about me:

I trained as a graphic designer and since graduating I’ve worked as an illustrator, in sales & marketing and more recently as full-time mum and part time knitter. I was nine when my Mum and Gangan taught me to knit and knitting has been a part of my life in some shape or form ever since. I knit to keep stress at bay, to have a creative outlet in my life but mostly because it simply makes me happy.

Since 2005 I’ve supplied my knitted work to various outlets: Hope & May, Gibbs & Ward, London Mummy, The Cross in Holland Park, Lilymay in Brighton & Mahar Drygoods in the USA. I currently sell what I make through my Etsy shop and although I’m unable to take on orders I am always making new items and will keep my mailing list up to date with anything newly available. To be added to this list please use the sign up form in the column on the right there.

I like a quiet life and the other things that bring me pleasure are:

listening to music – Ludovico Einaudi on a sunny Sunday morning, The Wailin Jennys in the quiet of the evening when the children are in bed, Nick Drake when it’s raining or I’m down and ’80’s disco when I feel full of life and want to dance with the children.
cooking and eating, especially homemade cake, cold rhubarb crumble with custard, goat cheese with tomatoes and I like drinking tea from a nice cup.
being outdoors, especially the smells of mushroomy earth, cut grass and thyme and the sounds of birdsong and the wind in the trees.
growing things in my little garden, especially things to eat; herbs, vegetables and raspberries warmed by the sun.
hills and woods, camping and the sound of rain on your tent when you’re warm & dry inside.
buying yarn, knitting, singing when I’m happy, reading other people’s blogs, warm socks and cosy cardis

and I love being a mum.

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Path

Mustard stuff

Thanks for visiting x
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general stuff

starting as I mean to go on…

January 10, 2008 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)21 Comments

Well traditionally it’s the time for new beginnings and for resolving to change things that need changing so like everyone else I’m jotting down my new years resolutions – knowing full well that given a couple of weeks some of them will have been put aside (and number 3 will definitely never get off the ground!). Still, I love the idea of starting afresh (in school I was the swotty kid who got really excited when it was time for a brand new exercise book) and number 5 is the one that really needs my attention this year. So for the record (because apparently telling people helps you to keep them) here’s my new years resolutions…

1. to buy less prepared food and make more – I want to make all of our bread, cakes and biscuits (I have done well so far this year – my current tally is 3 loaves, 2 cakes and 2 batches of peanut butter cookies – mmm!)

2. sew some stuff. I’ve had Wee Wonderfuls put-together-pattern-book no.1 and the Crafter’s Companion for the last year and still haven’t made anything from either AND I’ve been hoarding some kitty craft fabric so there are no excuses really. I have a few other projects in mind too – hopefully at least one will get done during the next 12 months!

3. be tidier (hmmmm, like that’s going to happen!)

4. chill out about my inbox and face facts. I am never going to be able to answer all the emails or reply to all the comments unless I give up knitting! Sadly my inbox currently contains 58 messages pending a reply – apologies to all those waiting to hear from me.

5. make more time to do simple things with my daughter – she misses out so much on a ‘normal’ family life and has to put up with a lot less attention than she deserves. We’re good at the big stuff but day to day when Daddy is working Toby soaks up all of my available attention. I know I’m going to be carrying around guilt about this for the rest of my days so maybe this year I can do more stuff with her which will ease that a little.

Ali recently wrote a beautifully thought-provoking post about blogging and I think she’s absolutely right – when you’ve blogged for a while posting does take on a different flavour. I’d certainly find it difficult to turn my back on this little space here – it’s become such an important part of my daily life and it really lifts my spirits to find people sharing warmth, creativity and ideas. But that said it can be a bit of a black hole that sucks you in and spits you out 3 hours later and you wonder where the time has gone.

In order to achieve my number 5 this year I am going to have to be more disciplined about the time I spend here so whilst I’ll be around it may not be as frequently as before. Or maybe it will – new years resolutions often don’t amount to much but at least if you know what you’d like to change you can begin to take steps.

general stuff

illustration and bouncing

January 6, 2008 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)33 Comments

Well, school awaits the children in the morning and for me a lovely big pile of new yarn and my trusty needles are calling! The weather was mild today and Toby rediscovered the joy of being outside and bouncing on the trampoline – thankfully using up some of that bundled up energy!

It was lovely and gave me some breathing space so I sat and sorted through my old portfolio of illustration work. It’s funny looking at it all now as I’ve not painted for years. I’m not sure I’d remember how to paint these days. Maybe one day I’ll pick up my brushes again.

If you’re interested in seeing any more of my paintings I’ve uploaded a selection over on flickr. I was really grateful for all of the kind comments that you left me
about some of my work that I showed in an earlier post – thanks for all
of the compliments.