It’s been quite a while since I started working on a badger to join the clan but after making a couple of heads that weren’t quite right he was relegated to the bottom of the knitting bag! I think that the arrival of autumn has renewed my interest in him and over the weekend he was at last given a body, ears and a tail.

The pictures aren’t great as my little camera can’t handle the contrast very well but hopefully I’ll get H to take some decent photos soon. Now that I have a prototype I’m happy with, I hope to be adding little cotton badgers to the shop from now on.

Talking of wildlife you may have noticed that I’ve been rather quiet on the hedgehog front. I’ve not had any news from the wildlife rescue about the 3 little ones that we found earlier in the year. It could well be that they didn’t make it as they really were infested with ticks and so far I’ve been too much of a chicken to phone and find out! We do still have 2 adult hedgehogs, Fatty and Herbert Hogwart (possibly?), who visit the garden each night and gobble down the mix of peanuts, cat food, seeds and raisins that we put out. I’ll keep you up to date with any more hoggy news!

Well, here we are in the last few days of the school year and I’m desperately stocking up with everything that we might need to get us through the school holidays…

new lego for Toby who bites it to bits and then gets very cross when it doesn’t fit!

new colouring books for Amy that will keep her busy for hours (I hope!)

and for me, gorgeously natural, ethically produced, organic alpaca yarn from Farm Yarn

and beads, ribbon and trim from my new favourite on-line haberdasher – Robson & Mason (I love that floral bias binding!)

I’ve also been jotting down ideas left, right and centre and found some great suggestions for keeping Amy busy over on Domesticali and Dottycookie. So, hopefully we’re all set! Now I’m off to soak up the silence and cram in a bit of uninterrupted knitting before the fun begins!

Thanks enormously for all of the kind, supportive and very lovely messages about my last post. I suppose I was seeking a bit of external validation to help solve my quandry – your feedback definitely helped! I like how etsy is working out so far- there’s a lot less involvement for me which means more knitting time (YAY!) and as Mama Urchin so kindly pointed out it is possible to subscribe to an RSS feed which is like getting an alert when anything new is added.

I do like how Vicki described my situation as a ‘hobby gone wild’ it’s a perfect description of the way things have snowballed to slightly overwhelming proportions. I think if things were less intense on the home front I’d have jumped on that snowball and enjoyed the ride. I’d have taken up the book offers, the chance to appear on tv with my cakes (kept that one quiet didn’t I!) and the other wonderful opportunities that have come my way but I don’t have the drive anymore – just a longing for calm and quiet! Getting old you see!

Anyway, nuff about all that and on to some knitting!

This week I’ve been in a mood for tiny things and have been making lots of teeny tiny toys and some snacks for them too! If you’d like to make your own tiny cake the instructions are now over with the pattern for the teeny toys.

I like the idea of making a few for Amy’s friends, maybe with a little sleeping bag each or in a wee box. This lot are just awaiting their limbs – poor things look like little peanuts!