Déjà vu

June 2, 2014 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)52 Comments

Misty3

If you've been reading my blog for a while you may have a slight feeling of déjà vu in seeing this post. Don't worry, it's not you it's me – I have made a virtually identical blanket in the past.

I'm not by nature an obsessive person, in fact ask H and he'll tell you I'm a natural slob when it comes to housework and there's always a small pile of discarded clothes next to my bed rather than neatly folded in drawers and cupboards. But when it comes to making woolly things it seems I do have compulsive leanings. I've been fighting this particular urge for a while but a few weeks back I began to wonder what harm there would be in giving in to something that is going to give me pleasure and contentment and so I have started work on a second misty blanket.

Misty4

I'm essentially using the same colour palette as before – I had quite a bit of yarn left over from the first which helps and there is something about this combination of colours which I find peaceful and that makes me rather happy. This time though I'm making some changes:

adding an extra round to each square
being more structured with the coloured centres
using more subtle shades in the beiges and greys
only chaining 4 at the corners instead of 5
working groups of 3 stitches into the corners on all rounds (previously I'd used 2 stitches on the first few rounds)

So, this is how the Misty Mark 2 currently looks

Misty2

And this was the mark 1 about the same stage:

Misty mk1

It's not that I don't like the first one but there are a few bits of it that do niggle me. In particular my misguided use of a dark brown yarn (which I remember being unsure of at the time) and I now notice leaps out in a very inharmonious way. Also, whilst I'm feeling critical, the gaps at the corners are just a bit too gappy if you ask me.

See, gappy corners and standy-out dark brown bits…

Misty1

The first misty will still be loved as a snuggly throw in the garden room and the second misty will be for our bed. All in all I'm much happier with how the new version is starting to look and it's nice to be crocheting again in the evenings when the lights are low and I feel sleepy. I just have to deal with telling H that there's going to be yet another blanket in the house – he's not actually noticed it yet 🙂

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PS: if you want any yarn/hook details I've added this to my ravelry project page and will keep that updated as I work on this.

planting, tick

May 19, 2014 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)15 Comments

Do you ever get the feeling that you're travelling through life on an escalator going the wrong way and although you're working pretty hard you are just not making any progress? I'm sure you do as there can't be many of us who escape feeling swamped from time to time. I've certainly been feeling that way lately – for every bit of paperwork I fill in another drops through the letter box, for every blog post I catch up with another 2 appear in my blog reader, for every email I answer another 3 pop into my inbox… you get the picture I'm sure.

Chive

Not a lot was ticked off my to do list this weekend either. In fact the only tick was vegetable planting with help from Toby and we spent a lot of lovely time in the garden together yesterday (hence the pictures of the chives which were planted last year and are now in full and glorious bloom and attracting a lot of bees).

Bee

So far this year I've not sown as much as I had planned to. I did have grand vegetable planting plans but they've been scaled back to more manageable proportions and this weekend Toby and I just planted some beans and peas (a little late in the year but hopefully not too late to get a harvest).

Chives

We've also got earlier plantings of garlic, broccoli and lettuce which are coming up nicely.

Raisedbed

There are a few little seedlings too which should be ready to plant out soon and with any luck will give us some delicious onion squash in the autumn. Courgette and squash seeds are my favourite to grow. They look just like a childs drawing of a little sprout and they are pretty robust – which is a good thing when Toby is involved in the planting out!

Sprouts

So that's the news from the garden at the moment. In knitting news there is lots going on with pattern writing but nothing yet finished, just a big old tangle of sample bits – the result of testing out different yarns and tweaking bits and pieces. If you've emailed me for an E.T.A on the next pattern I'm afraid I can't give one yet but I am working on the sweaters, the sneakers and all of the other animals, so they are on the way.

This week is the week of Toby's annual school play so he goes to school from 4pm – 9.30pm which throws everything out of kilter in a big way. And hot on the heels of this week is the school half term break, so I won't be getting on top of my to do list anytime soon and my email backlog is already of embarrassing proportions – I really am sorry if you're waiting for a reply from me.

A couple of people emailed to ask about how I constructed the cushion cover – by the way thanks so much for all of the kind comments about the bench in the previous post. Here is a picture of the back.

Edge

012

The crochet top extends a little way underneath where I've sewn it to a rectangular piece of fabric and left one side open (held in place by saftey pins) incase I need to take the cover off to wash it. In terms of advice for fitting the crochet top I can't give much other than to make a top piece the same size as your foam pad and then make side pieces, checking the fit as you go. It was all a bit make-it-up-as-you-go-along but it seems to work and so far it is standing up well to daily Toby use.

Hope you have a good week, see you soon x

crafts & knitting

re-purposing

May 1, 2014 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)70 Comments

If you've visited with me before you may remember the tiled blanket that I started back at the beginning of 2013.

Blanket2

I had plans for it to become a throw for the ugly sofa but things had stalled a bit and by the end of last year it was only this big…

Blanket

Well it has now been given a new purpose in life and after a few weeks of intense hooking I've finished it and I'm so pleased that it is no longer a throw but something more practical. Before I show it to you though, I'll tell you the story of how it came to be the way it is now…

For quite some time now I have been in denial about the enormity of my woolly stash and it has been getting increasingly hard to tuck it all away out of sight and keep it tidy. A few weeks back it had reached critical mass and after tripping over one of my yarn-stuffed bags one too many times (and once he'd stopped swearing) H decided that something had to be done.

Thankfully he appreciates how happy wool and knitting makes me so he'd never give me a hard time for buying more, though he does roll his eyes every-time the postman delivers a squishy packet. Instead, being a very practical chap, he got out his tape measure, work bench and tools and after a couple of trips to the DIY store he had drawn up plans and assembled materials for a storage bench and some extra wall shelves.

After a week of sawing, hammering, painting and generally making sure everything was robust enough to withstand Toby jumping and climbing on it, he had finished and I had a lovely new storage bench that doubles as a seat at our table. There's loads of room within and I've vacuum bagged all of my intact skeins and balls so that they're safe and take up less space but even so it's already pretty full!

Bench3

The question then arose of what to put on the top to make it comfy. We ordered a made-to-measure foam pad and I was looking at fabric to make a cover but nothing inspired me until I spotted the tiled throw languishing in a basket. I thought it would make the perfect cover and now it's finished, it does!

Bench2

All of which leaves me a clear conscience in buying some lovely new yarn, so I have…

Littlegreysheep

Little Grey Sheep colour work skeins which are truly beautiful and just perfect for the little cotton rabbit jumpers that I'm pattern writing for.

And of course I've had to start another throw to cover the ugly sofa which I'm determind will one day be pretty, but more of that another time x

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PS: Ooops, I forgot to say in the previous post that I'm only at the Creative Sanctuary from 1 – 3pm this saturday (yarn shop day). I've now updated the details