Category: autism

autism · crafts & knitting

blanket making

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)44 Comments

Earlier in the year I started on a new blanket project with the aim of making one square a day, but what with one thing and another it has ended up being more like one square a week! Today it is cold and windy outside so I've dug out my basket of blankety squares and I'm enjoying snuggling here by the fire and sewing them together.

 

Blanky

 

I wanted to make a geometric blanket inspired by the colours of oriental carpets and I think I am now happy with the pattern the squares are making – I've gone for 4 squares of blue/brown/grey with ochre centres surrounded by a row of red/brown/rust squares with ochre centres and one square of ochre/yellow with a red centre at the point where the lines of reddish squares cross each other.

Blanket

 

There is a long way to go before this is big enough to be worthy of being called a blanket but now it's beginning to take shape I'm feeling enthused again and will go back to the plan of making a square a day. I do like working on something different at the end of each day (I'm spending my daytimes working on a small batch of Christmassy bunnies) and something like a blanket that requires lots of little bits is perfect. It's a good way of making me sit quietly, concentrate on the good bits of the day and relax before bedtime.

Things have been a little heavy going here of late because Toby has been struggling to cope with daily life. This term has been a very hard one for him due to lots of changes at school – he's had a new bus driver and escort on the school bus (for the first time in 7 years), a new teacher, classroom and classmates and a completely different school routine. All of which have unsettled him greatly and caused him to be much more prone to self harming, meltdowns and long periods of wakefulness and upset during the nights. Unfortunately things will probably get worse before they get better as on the horizon is the upheaval of Christmas which brings more change to the school routine and of course the dreaded school holidays and we've just heard his new teacher will be leaving at the end of this month. I'm confident things will become more manageable for him as he gets used to everything but I'm not feeling very excited about the thought of Christmas.

Anyway, things are peaceful, calm and relaxing here right now so I'm going back to make the most of my square sewing before the school bus brings my unhappy boy home.

Thanks for dropping in to visit. I'll keep the mailing list updated with news of the little batch of Christmas rabbits which I hope to have ready by the end of the month and I'll pop back soon with some pictures of some other christmassy knitting x

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PS: yarn and hook details for the blanket are on Ravelry

autism · crafts & knitting · general stuff

summer days

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)39 Comments

Summer has arrived here in this little corner of England. The last few days have been wonderful weather-wise and over the weekend our whole family has been outside  – the sunshine even coaxed Amy out of the teenage stereotype of preferring bedroom living 🙂

I've been sitting in the shade at the end of the garden and working on some end of term presents for Toby's teachers. I plan to pair each strawberry bookmark with a pretty note book and pencil and wrap them up nicely.

 

Strawberrymaking

Free pattern from Pezdiva (with a few adaptations).

 

Strawbs

Toby has of course been enjoying bouncing, swinging and paddling

 

Paddling pool

even the chicken has been enjoying the hot weather with a paddle in her own pool

 

Paddling

Poor H has been the only one not relaxing or keeping cool – he's still been hard at work building paths and paving around the garden room.

 

Garden work

I am also working on a little batch of knitted animals. It's been a while since I offered any for sale so I hope to have them finished soon, I'll post some pictures when they're ready.

Talking of knitting, thanks so much to Love Knitting for featuring little cotton rabbits as their blog of the week last week.

Thanks too to all of the people who sent me emails and messages about the book of the week on radio 4. 'The reason I jump' is written by Naoki Higashida an autistic boy living in Japan and takes the form of questions put to him and his answers. It is a fascinating and thought-provoking insight into the world seen from an autistic perspective. My copy arrived yesterday and I'm already halfway through (and scribbling notes to myself as I go). The introduction by David Mitchell is brilliant and any parent of an autistic child will be nodding in agreement and probably like me welling up with tears at reading things that so often go unsaid.

 

Book2

The book itself is revelatory and has again made me tearful many times, both in recognition of the huge implications it could have in the way that others perceive those with autism and because current state schooling often deeply underestimates and mis-interprets many autistic children. My head is literally buzzing and I'm trying to think where we go from here in order to give Toby a way of communicating all that is in his head (rather than just his basic wants), because there is a lot more going on in there than most people give him credit for. I'd urge anyone involved with any aspect of caring for autistic people to read this book, it is an eye-opener and has the potential to change lives.

Thanks as always for popping in to visit. See you again soon

 

autism

The hooded boy

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)80 Comments

Toby has been finding life hard just lately and as a result he's been having a lot more outbursts and meltowns. He has
now bitten his hand so much that he's developing permanent callouses on his thumb and
forefinger and I once again have bruises up the
back of my arms from where he digs his fingers in and pinches me if I
get too close to him during a meltdown. He has been stressed a good deal of the time, retreating into extreme stimming and seeking comfort and security by covering his head most of the time.

 

Hiding

This morning we went walking in his most favourite of woods but even there he was 'hiding' under a hat and two hoods and covering his face completely when he found something too hard to deal with – it could be a sudden noise or the appearance of a dog but most often it's something that only Toby knows and the rest of us can only guess at.

 

Hiding2

 

Hide

 

It made walking in the woods a very slow activity, it doesn't pay to cover your face when wood walking as you too easily bump into trees!

 

Bump

At home he has taken to wearing his pyjama top twisted up over his head most of the time.

 

Toby3

And he's not been taking much interest in anything apart from his lego which he's been biting too much for my liking.

 

Toby4

There are no significant changes to everyday life that I can pinpoint so it could be that he's just weary of the winter weather – it is so much harder to keep him occupied when it's cold and wet and he may be missing the trampoline and the carefree feeling of flying that he gets when he's bouncing. Hopefully the arrival of spring will lighten his mood a little.

 

Toby

It's not all been bad though – there have been some positives recently too. Over the winter we've worked hard on 'project socks' and finally he is getting used to wearing socks in the house. To Toby socks have always been something that you put on with your shoes before going out and are most definitely to be taken off and stuffed firmly into the very tip of your shoes when you come back indoors. Seeing Toby wandering around barefoot has always made me feel cold because we have wooden floors which are chilly underfoot in winter, so I'm really glad that he now considers sock wearing a suitable indoor activity!

Next will be 'project pants' which will involve weaning him off of the only two pairs of pants he'll wear at night (as they are now getting too small for him and I can't find the same stripe pattern anywhere) and on to random pants wearing at bedtime. Though I will wait for him to be in a calmer phase before attempting this, tackling it in his current mood would be foolish. Hopefully it won't be too long before a calm patch arrives!