Category: crafts & knitting

countryside · crafts & knitting · general stuff · summer · wildlife

Summer days

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)9 Comments

First published on my typepad blog, August 1st 2023 . . .

Well, we’re half way through the long summer break here and have settled into a comfortable daily routine. Mornings are calm and quiet as happily Toby enjoys quite long lie-ins, so I usually have a couple of gentle hours to call my own, either reading or knitting and sometimes having breakfast in bed when the mood takes me. Once he is up we head out for a walk, usually walking around 3 miles and stopping for a picnic snack along the way. Toby is good company as a walking buddy, he so enjoys the peace and quiet of the countryside and looks all around him as we go along. He’s still not keen on me stopping to take photos of things but is getting gradually more tolerant, just as long as I’m quick.

It’s a wonderful thing to be able to share a love of nature and the outdoors with him, and our walks together are often the best part of the day. We’ve seen so much wildlife: lots of muntjac deer, a stoat, rabbits, buzzards, red kites, kestrels, storks, egrets and so very many insects, bees, dragonflies and butterflies, it’s been a great year for them and I’ve seen such a variety. It looks like being a good year for blackberries and hazelnuts too, with a bumper crop ripening in the hedgerows and we’ve seen a lot of early fungi too, doubtless sprouting well because of all of the rain we’ve had recently. Not that I’m complaining in any way, I’m so grateful this year for the cooler temperatures and wetter weather and so is the greenly verdant countryside.

There’s not much progress on anything knitting related at the moment. I’ve been knitting quite a few scarves from the ‘Sophie Scarf’ pattern by Petiteknit as it’s a beautifully simple and uncomplicated knit, perfect for picking up whenever I get the chance for a few rows and putting down again when Toby needs something. As far as my own pattern writing goes I do now have a cow pattern finalised, though still in the form of scribbled notes which need a lot of work once the next college term starts in September.

I hope you’ve had a good month and that August is kind to you, J x

crafts & knitting · new patterns

Horses, Donkeys & Unicorns

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)27 Comments

Thanks so much for all of the kind words about the sneak preview of my latest pattern, it’s so lovely to think that these patterns are going to be enjoyed, I truly hope they are anyway 🙂

They are now ready and I’ve uploaded the files to Ravelry and Etsy and hopefully in the next few days I’ll also have them on Lovecrafts.

There are lots of options in the patterns. Firstly there are 2 main versions:

the first comes with knitted on tights/pantyhose and shoes and has two removable dresses included, one which is worked in two colours with a stranded loops and flowers design, and the other which is worked in a single colour and has a traditional Shetland lace pattern called Horseshoe lace (well, it did seem apt).

and the other comes with a bare body and legs and has removable shorts and a choice of two removable sweaters, one worked in a two-colour geometric design of triangles and the other is a single coloured sweater using a textured ‘cob nut’ design.

Both of these versions have the same multiple options to make a horse, a donkey and a unicorn

The horse also has multiple options with a design for a plain face with a different coloured nose, a blaze on the face and a forehead star.

You can really go to town with choosing the yarns for the manes (especially the unicorns) and there are lots of yarn suggestions within the pattern.

I’ll be trying my best to give each of these heads a body, though it may take me a while! So many of them remind me of horses I have loved during my life, long gone now but hopefully galloping happily across meadows somewhere in horsey heaven, miss you Amazon, Trigger, Caspian, Danny, William, Katie, Rusty and Sweep xxx

 

crafts & knitting · general stuff

Horsing around

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)28 Comments

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Hello, hope you are well. I didn’t mean to be away for so long, but as you can see I have been keeping busy! I have wanted to do a horse pattern for such a long time, but every time that I have made a prototype there was something that I felt didn’t work, and so back to the drawing board I went. Then at the end of last year I had an equine epiphany and things clicked into place for me, resulting in a flurry of knitting activity and the beginnings of a new pattern. I have been working on it solidly now for 5 months and at last I’m almost finished with the final pattern.

So far I’ve knitted 33 different heads, including different facial markings for the horses, along with unicorns and donkeys too. I have to tell you that those manes do take a bit of patience, adding a strand at a time, but overall I’ve had a lot of fun putting this pattern together and am pleased with how it’s all looking in the layout. Just a few final pictures to take for the front covers and then I’ll be ready to share it.

It’s so exciting to almost have it ready. I have adored horses since I was quite little, always clamouring to stop and stroke their velvety noses when out on walks and delighting in donkey rides on beaches and at farms. From about the age of 8 until my mid teens I read about horses, drew horses and dreamt about horses almost constantly. I even tried to convince mum and dad that our very small suburban back garden would be perfectly fine for keeping a horse in, with pledges that I would ride it every day and tidy up after it. Needless to say my pleas did not result in a pet horse at home but they did get me riding lessons. I then started ‘working’ at the stable, I say ‘working’ because none of us were actually paid but we turned up on Saturdays or Sundays at 8.30 am ready for a day of mucking out, cleaning tack, lead-reining small children learning to ride and grooming our adored charges. My appointed horse was Sweep, a big gentle grey who was a little bit dim and kept my toenails constantly bruised by frequently standing on my feet when I was grooming him. I was also so lucky to have two week long pony trekking trips away in Wales, we rode every day in amazing countryside and I loved every minute, even the day three saddle sores!

It’s been fun looking out my old books, though I’m missing a few – the silver brumby series, by Elyne Mitchell – those were my absolute favourites. And digging out these photos has made me all nostalgic, though I don’t think I’m ready to dust off my jodhpurs any time soon!

Anyway, I’ll be back with news as soon as the patterns are in finished form, though next time I’m here will be all about the bluebells which are glorifying the woods right now, see you soon, J x