autumn knitting

October 25, 2013 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)50 Comments

The last couple of days have been the perfect autumn kind - misty mornings with dew festooned cobwebs…

Jewelled web

…dissolving into warm days of sunshine that sparkles through the rich colours of the leaves.

Leaves

I'm so glad to live somewhere that has four distinct seasons, each one bringing changes in what we eat, what we wear and what we do. Autumn always makes me feel like baking; tidying the garden; airing the winter weight duvets, blankets and winceyette sheets and unearthing the the jumpers, scarves, gloves and snuggly socks from the backs of cupboards and drawers. I've been baking lots of biscuits and quite a few apple cakes (this has been such a good year for apples and we've had bags and bags from our neighbours tree). Our current favourite cake though is a lovely lemon and thyme cake from a Nigel Slater recipe. It's really delicious, very moist and lemony and good with a dollop of cream. It's a tad messy in the making, although that may just be me – I am useless at zesting lemons.

Making cake

Lemon thyme cake

Autumn is also a time to be knitting things that are toasty and warm, ready for the colder months to come. I've finished off my mittens and am really pleased with this Purl Bee pattern, I'll use it again in future as I really like the rounded mitten top and the placement of the thumbs.

Autumnmittens

I've made myself a slouchy beret too. I messed up though by increasing too many stitches and didn't notice until after the border. I couldn't face unpicking so pressed on and the finished hat is probably a bit too baggy, though very comfy to wear.

Pattern: Ethel Beret by Andi Satterlund

Hat2

I'll use the pattern again as it's very sweet (though next time I will concentrate better when I work the increase row). I love the little knitting needles on the border and had lots of fun making the pompom, I even got Toby to help a little with winding the wool for it.

Hat

Well, that's my news. It's half term break here next week so I'll be busy keeping Toby occupied. Luckily he is still enjoying some of the presents from his birthday, especially his duplo (and the box which doubled as a hat) and the huge helium balloon which is still buoyant and providing much delight two weeks on.

Tobybday

Thanks for dropping in and visiting with me. Til next time, keep well and happy

J x

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PS: I knew there was something else I'd planned to say, I am such a scatterbrain at the moment.

We are having another photo contest on the little cotton rabbits ravelry group. It starts this coming Monday (October 28th) and will run until November 10th. The theme is autumnal animals and it's open to anyone. All you need to do to enter is to take a fitting picture of an animal you've made from one of my patterns. We'd love to have you join in, all of the details are here.

Tausigma has also started a photography club which will be a great place to share tips on taking better pictures, ask questions and share ideas.

in my knitting bag

October 9, 2013 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)53 Comments

I don't know where the days have gone recently. It seems such a short while since the children went back to school and yet here we are in October already. All of those long and wonderfully warm sunny days are gone for this year and though autumn is always a favourite time for me I do feel rather melancholy at the moment.

Still there have been plenty of cheery things in the last month and October brings two special birthdays – Amy has turned 14 and Toby's 12th birthday is this
friday. And I've of course have been knitting, which always brings pleasure and peace. I was also really pleased to be asked about the contents of my knitting bag by Jennifer at Let's get Crafting magazine. I do love collecting knitting bits and trying out new yarns so I had plenty of things for a show and tell. The article is just out in the October issue (no 55). I did have to tidy up my knitting bag first though because as you can see in the picture below it is not usually terribly tidy. I even found some notes and drawings from Amy in the pockets which must date back at least 5 years!

In my bag

Here is the shot for the magazine, when it looked tidier.

Knit bag2

The Little Grey Sheep Stein Fine yarn snuggled in the corner of the bag there is my current favourite. It is beautiful in every way from the label to the multi-tonal hand-dyeing. It's worth popping over to their website for a visit to see all of the wonderful colourways and reading about how the yarn comes into being. I love that it is a completely homegrown British yarn, shorn by Susie from the sheep living on Well Manor Farm in Hampshire, washed in Yorkshire, spun in the West Country and then hand-dyed back on the farm by Emma. It is proper wool.

Lgsheep

Inspired by my friends Elaine and Esther I've started on a shawl (South Bay Shawlette) with the bluest colourway at the top which is called 'Cresswell Quay' and I really like the way it is working up. I expect I'll work in the other colourways too as I would like quite a big snuggly shawl.

South bay

There is always a little bunny knitting going on here too but in truth I need a little break from pattern writing so I'm enjoying playing around with other woolly things for a while. I'm still working on the projects in the previous post and almost have the mittens finished. This week they were featured on the lovely Knitted Bliss blog's Modification Monday post, thanks so much to Julie for the lovely write up.

Well, I'm off to make some oat cookies because another recent happy thing is that Toby has started loving my home baking instead of those hugely sugary custard creams. Though he is loving the oat cookies a little too much and getting quite portly so I will be hiding most of this batch before he gets home and rationing them!

Thanks as always for popping in, J x

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PS: This is not a sponsored post, I don't do those. I just write about the things that I like 🙂

crafts & knitting

snippets of summer: knitting

September 25, 2013 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)36 Comments

I started writing this post back in August but the school summer hols got the better of me and it didn't get finished so I thought I'd show you
now some of the things I started knitting over the summer.
As is usual for me in the hottest time of the year I started some winter
weight projects in the form of gloves, wristies and scarves…

Gloves

Gloves2
"Fake Thrummed mittens"

Pattern: from the Purl Bee's lovely simple free pattern with tweaks
(see my ravelry project page for details). I love the look of thrummed
mittens and thought I could capture a similar feel by stranding a
thicker multi-coloured yarn. I'm pleased with how they're turning out and the stranding on the
inside makes them lovely and warm.

Yarns: Cascade heathers 220 in Aspen Heather 8011, with accents of Misti Alpacas hand paint chunky in Gemstones

Wristies
"warmer wrists"

Pattern: wristwarmers with tweaks for the thicker yarn

Yarns: Madeline Tosh Vintage in Chambray and Ivy

Scarf
"frothy scarf"

Pattern: Alpine Frost scarf by Amy O'Neil Houck

Yarns: Malabrigo yarn lace in Pearl

I'm also making slow and steady progress on the crochet blanket that I started earlier in the year, but more of that another time.

The seasons are definitely turning and colder weather is arriving so I'll be pressing on with these and wearing them all too soon. I'm also feeling in a baking mood, I think I'll be making an apple cake this week with the apples our heighbours have just given us from their tree

Can you feel the seasons shifting and are you all set for a change?

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PS: Thanks so much to Let's Knit for inviting me to guest post on their blog