A new facebook group

May 20, 2020September 29, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)8 Comments

Hello, how are things with you?

Here we’re plodding on with our small routines and trying not to panic too much at the thought that Toby may not go back to school until September. He’s happy with walking in the woods every day but still getting frustrated at the lack of everything else that he enjoys and so the thought of another 15 weeks with no school, clubs, respite, McDonalds, swimming or mini steam train rides is a scary one, so let’s not dwell on that!

I’ve been spending my early mornings pattern writing and have been making slow and steady progress. Now I need to work out the logistics of getting the step-by-step photos for them done – I suspect that as my hands are often busy elsewhere it will also be a long slow process! But I do hope to have 3 new clothing patterns for the small rabbits (7 inch size) soon – including a selection of dresses, sweaters and dungarees. I also have a free supplement pattern for the regular sized (9 inch) animals that is almost ready to share.

The other thing I’ve been spending my free time on is setting up an official Little Cotton Rabbits facebook group. I already have a lovely, friendly Ravelry group that is full of talented makers and it’s been my plan for a while to try and set up a similar group over on facebook.

The fact that I’ve started my own group is not a criticsm or negative comment on the friendly group that already exists on facebook, but I do feel more comfortable spending time and sharing tips in a space that is all my own, and where I can control the look and feel of things. I also wanted a space where I can share the download files for my free patterns along with my personal making tips, special offers, pattern launches and the occassional yarn giveaway. At the moment there’s not many members (although I’m so happy to already see some friendly and familiar faces) but I hope in time together we can build a friendly and supportive corner of the internet for people who enjoy using my patterns, if you’d like to come and join me there, and share any projects you’ve made from my patterns here is the link:

New Little Cotton Rabbits Facebook Group

Well, I’m off to squeeze in a little pattern writing time before Toby gets up. Hopefully I’ll be back later in the week with that new free pattern supplement, see you then x

The one all about Kit and her cubs

May 8, 2020November 18, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)43 Comments

I know that you’re most likely to be here for the knitting, but fair warning there’s none of that here today. Instead this post is all about my lovely garden visitor Kit and her sweet cubs (eeeek!)

Kit started visiting my garden in February 2019. I’d see her peeking through the broken fence and managed to get a few pictures of her from a distance. She was drawn to our garden by the presence of our hens and when I wasn’t in the garden she’d try every way possible to find a way into their run, causing much panic, consternation and a great many ruffled feathers in the process. But the run, built by my inventive and clever husband, defied all foxy attempts at entry and the hens stayed safe and well. I felt a bit sorry for the fox, who was very thin and scrawny, with a damaged eye and who showed such tenacity and ingenuity in her attempts to get a warm, feathery meal, and so I started to throw her small scraps of food whenever I saw her – it was always possible to know when she was around by the sound of alarmed clucks from the hens.Gradually over a couple of weeks the fox decided that the hens were not worth the bother and so stopped trying to chase and torment them and instead went close enough for them to sound the alarm, whilst seeming to understand that this would result in me appearing from the back door with something nice to eat in my hand. We found she’s partial to leerdammer cheese slices, hot cross buns, raisins, cooked chicken skin, infact anything chickeny (though I never feed her cooked bones as they can splinter into sharp shards), digestive biscuits, bacon rinds but not definitely tuna, which she turns her nose up at.

Back in spring of last year she was visiting sporadically and we’d go a week or more without seeing her and then there she’d be again. I wasn’t sure at that point whether she was male or female but one day in May I took some pictures of her when she visited in daylight and when I looked at them I could clearly see teats. So we knew at that point that she was A. Female and B. had cubs somewhere, and I decided to stop calling her fox and give her a name, Kit (from Kitsune, the fox from Japanese folklore). I hoped so much that she’d bring the cubs to the garden at some point and in June I did once have a brief glimpse of one cub with her but I have a feeling that the cub didn’t make it as we never saw it again. Kit however kept visiting and I kept feeding her little tidbits. The hens grew bored of panic and became complacent, not even glancing up from their corn when she trotted by. I have a lovely video of Kit in front of the run and Bluebell, the biggest hen just looking at her and before we tidied the top of the chicken run ready for new fencing it was covered in a thick layer of ivy and was a favourite place for Kit to curl up and nap on, with the oblivious hens happily pecking below.

As 2019 ticked over into 2020 Kit was visiting daily and I felt very lucky to be regularly seeing such a beautiful wild creature up close. I started to keep a note in my diary of when she visited and in mid February I noticed she was getting rather barrel-like around the middle and it soon became clear she was pregnant again. On the 1st of March she didn’t visit and when she turned up again on March 3rd she was no longer plump, so we knew that she’d had her cubs and within a week her teats were clearly visible. Throughout March and April she’s continued to visit daily for her regular supplementary snacks and has been coming more in the daytime perhaps while the cubs were safely napping in the den. Last monday I heard some funny noises in the garden just before bedtime and when I looked out there were a pair of cubs frolicking on the grass and pouncing on worms. I tried to take some pictures but in the dark they came out blurred and grainy and were not much to look at. We heard them again the next night and on wednesday we saw Kit with one of the cubs. But then on Thursday there was no Kit, and on Friday she didn’t come, although I saw the two cubs in the garden at around 2am, and on Saturday still no Kit and no sign of the cubs and I was starting to worry that something bad might have happened to her.

On Sunday morning I woke up at just before 7am and got up to feed the chickens and just as I was coming back into the house I heard a sound behind me and there was Kit again. I was so pleased to see her and found her a snack, which she promptly carried off to a corner of the garden. There was a movement in the bushes and as she came back to enquire about further snacks a small, plump and fluffy bundle came running after her. I sat on my kitchen floor for the next 40 minutes with my camera, feeling immensely privileged to be witnessing the scene before me as Kit washed and cleaned her three little ones: nibbling at their fur to groom out fleas; snuffling their plump bellies and licking their ears. Like all small children they squirmed and complained and played up, running off to investigate various bits of the garden and giving some of my garden furniture a nibble in the process and she was wonderfully tender and loving with them. Eventually she came right up to the back door again to see if I had one last snack and two of the cubs followed her. By the time they all trotted of into the bushes again I’d taken 240 photos on my camera. So these are the highlights 🙂

I just wanted to add that although there is a small element of trust between us she definitely retains her wild instincts and I’d never try to get close to her. She will come into the garden when we’re outside too, but she keeps her distance and we never approach her but leave it for her to decide how close to us she is comfortable with. I never feed too much and do everything to ensure she does not become dependent on us or in any way tame and I only ever give food to her when she arrives, so she can take it to the cubs herself. When she first arrived I only started to feed her in order that she didn’t chase the hens and this arrangement has become a satisfactory one for all involved parties, she leaves the hens in peace and, most surprisingly to me, they now ignore her 🙂

countryside · general stuff · in the woods

On finding routine

May 4, 2020September 29, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)14 Comments

Hello, how are you holding up?

I expect that you’re just like me and are finding that the days have lost their identity and all merged into a constant stream of sameness. Here we have settled into new routine of sorts. Happily Toby now enjoys a long lie in – something he has recently been starting to get rather good at, after many previous years of waking at dawn. So my early mornings do give me a few hours of precious free time and my favourite activities are tea, toast with honey and knitting in bed (currently working on lots of clothing patterns for the small version of my rabbits); reading (currently The Wild Remedy by Emma Mitchell, an inspiring and comforting read) or pottering in the garden. Once Toby’s up and dressed and lunch is dealt with we’ve been keeping occupied. On sunny days we’re outside in the garden which has needed a tidy up and a rearrange ready for summer. H has spruced up the trampoline, which needed a bit of TLC after the winter, and Toby has had fun bouncing with lots of bubbles from his bubble machine. On rainy days we’re inside for some boxercise, yoga or a disco, depending on Toby’s mood. Toby loves music and he’s also really enjoyed watching the music videos on ‘The Singing Walrus‘ – be warned before you listen as I often go to bed at night with the catchy songs still circling in my head! We’ve also been baking, tidying and sorting too and Toby’s got quite good at helping peg out the washing.

Early evening is our time to walk in the woods. We aim to arrive there at around 6ish as this seems to be the quietest time and we usually walk our 2 miles without seeing another human soul. We do see plenty of other creatures though, rabbits, squirrels, woodpeckers, a host of small woodland birds, a sparrow hawk, a red kite and in the last 2 weeks we’ve regularly heard cuckoos. It’s been lovely walking the same route each day and fascinating to see the progression of Spring throughout the wood. Back in March the trees were still bare but now the lanes on our short drive have once again transformed into leafy green tunnels and throughout the wood there’s a gorgeous lime green light created by the new leaves dappling the sun. As soon as the leaves started to unfurl they were besieged by an army of tiny munchers and the lower branches are now strung with silk-suspended caterpillars. When we arrive back at the car we have to brush them off our shoulders. I always come away from the woods feeling deeply grateful that we can walk there. Toby has a couple of meltdowns each day at home but it doesn’t matter what has happened during the rest of the day, our woods walk is always a peaceful and happy time, as you can see from his face 🙂

Then it’s home for dinner and a quiet evening. Toby likes a bath with lots of bubbles and water balloons and then some quiet music until bedtime – hopefully before midnight as I’m usually ready for bed by 10.30, but like most things in our house Toby dictates when we can all turn in. I usually fall asleep with my book in my hand and then am woken up by the hens clucking for their breakfast, ready to start a day of the same again.

What are your days like? I hope there’s a little room in them somewhere for the things that bring you pleasure x