fairy cake T-shirt

September 5, 2006October 17, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)2 Comments

Toby seemed to cope well yesterday and was pretty calm and happy after arriving home on the minibus. It’s so strange not having him around in the day and I’m like a butterfly – just flitting from one thing to another. As usual knitting is keeping me sane! I’ve been playing around with ideas and considering that knitted corsages are ‘all that’ right now I thought I’d vary the theme. The result is a knitted badge / T shirt decoration on my favourite theme of fairy cakes. Modeled here by the lovely Amy:

The instructions to make it are below:

Abbreviations:

K = Knit, P = Purl

PF&B: Purl into the front and back of the stitch so increasing a stitch.

K2tog: Knit 2 stitches together, so decreasing by one.

P2tog: Purl 2 stitches together, so decreasing by one.

K2togtbl: Knit 2 stitches together through their back loops, so decreasing by one.

P2togtbl: Purl2 stitches together through their back loops, so decreasing by one.

Pattern:

Using 2.75mm (US 2) needles and 4ply/DK weight cream yarn, Cast on 15 stitches for the cake case
Row 1: (K1, P1) 7 times, K1
Row 2: (P1, K1,) 7 times, P1
Row 3: as row 1
Row 4: as row 2
Row 5: as row 1
Row 6: as row 2
Row 7: as row 1
Row 8: as row 2
Row 9: K1, (PF&B, K1) 7 times (22 stitches)
Row 10: (P1, K2) 7 times, P1
Row 11: (K1, P2) 7 times, K1
Row 12: Cast off, keeping ribbing correct, cut the yarn from the work leaving a short tail for weaving in later.

Row 13: With chocolate cake coloured yarn pick up and knit 15 stitches from the back of the finished case (around 1 row down from the cast off edge) taking 1 alternately from the purl rib and 1 from the knit rib.
Row 14: Purl
Row 15: Change yarn to pink colour for the icing and knit 1 row
Row 16: Knit
Row 17: Purl
Row 18: Knit
Row 19: P2tog, P11, P2togtbl
Row 20: K2togtbl, K9, K2tog
Row 21: P2tog, P7, P2togtbl
Row 22: K2togtbl, K5, K2tog
Row 23: P2tog, P3, P2togtbl
Row 24: Cast off remaining stitches, cut the yarn from the work leaving a short tail for weaving in later.

Cherry on the top:
Cast on 4 in red yarn.
knit 1 row
(P2tog) twice, pass 1st stitch over the second and pull end through to secure.

alternatively you could use a fabric flower instead of the cherry or cut a small circle of red felt.

To Finish:
Sew cherry on to top. Sew in ends neatly on reverse. Sew on beads / sequins and attach to T-shirt / tea cosy / greeting card etc…

crafts & knitting

This one’s for you Hazel

September 4, 2006November 5, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)4 Comments

Well, here I am, trying not to think about how Toby’s getting on. It’s his first day at school and because he’s autistic I wasn’t able to prepare him as well as I’d have liked. Still he should like today – they’re swimming this morning, PE this afternoon and half an hour of soft play at the end of the day (because it’s a severe learning difficulty school they do lots of pyhsical activity and have their own bouncy castle and soft play room!). Tomorrow he’s got his first horse-riding lesson – still can’t imagine what he’ll make of that. Anyway, the point of posting is to take my mind of worrying about him – so I should move on. Back to Hazel…

My new friend Hazel (mum to Madeline and Jack who is also autistic) invited me over to her house last friday evening. She’d organised a charity fund raising evening (Hazel – where do you get your energy?!) selling beautiful handmade cards, children’s clothes, Tibetan furniture and accessories, knitted corsages and more. Well, what a great evening – everyone had a fab time drinking, eating
cakes (Hazel’s chocolate cake is legendary) and shopping (what a heavenly combination). I was chuffed to bits as I sold 10 rabbits and 5 cakes so a big thank you to the lovely ladies of Townshend and West Streets who were so complimentary about my work. Above are some of the cakes that I sold for the charity.

crafts & knitting

walking on sunshine

September 3, 2006November 5, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)10 Comments

Hi, at last I am posting! Today is a real turning point for me and my family – my autistic son starts school tomorrow. It’s a real emotional conundrum for whilst I’m a wreck with worrying how he’ll cope I’m also brimming with excitement at the prospect of a daily 6 hours of free time for me – weeeeheeee! Anyway, on balance it is a positive – he’s so ready for the challenge and has been so bored and restless over the summer hols and I am full of so many creative impulses which need to be put into action before I burst!

I’ve been so inspired by reading various weblogs, particulary Hillary Lang’s fabulous Wee Wonderfuls that I’ve been itching to start my own weblog. So here it is.

Basically I’m a non-stop knitter. I created a design for a rabbit around 3 years ago as an easter pressie for my daughter Amy. Pink cotton rabbit was so fun to make that I just carried on and made some for everyone I know – including my daughters playgroup. I always try to make each one different so whilst some jumper designs crop up time and again they are always in different colourways or on differently coloured rabbits. I love the yarns I use – Rowan, Jaeger and Debbie Bliss – pre-dominantly cotton and wool mixes with a dash of cashmere and silk thrown in for good measure. Anyway, enough chitchat – here are some pics of bunnies I’ve made so far…