Did you know that the 2nd annual softie awards have just started taking entries?

It’s not too late to get softie making and enter your own (closing date is April 18th). Full details can be found here on Softies Central but in short there are 5 categories and anyone can enter an originally designed softie. I’ve started thinking about mine and have a few works in progress that I hope to have finished over the coming week.

Why not take a look at the entries so far and get making yours? Good luck everyone and have fun softie making!

It’s still chaos here but the school Easter hols are nearly over and we’re all still smiling (just!)

For a while now I’ve been meaning to share this fabulous creation that was sent to me by Kim. It’s a wedding albumn showing the marriage of Dougie and Blueberry. The detail is breathtaking with each page beautifully composed and it truly is something I will treasure forever along with her previous wonders here and here !

Kim, you really are incredibly talented and I’m so grateful for this wonderful gift. Thank you x

Thanks so much for the lovely comments on the previous post. The ‘Holland’ piece has obviously been a source of comfort for a lot of people – I’m certainly very glad it was written. Thanks too for sticking around while I was ‘off blog’. I’m up to date with my paperwork now, which is a nice feeling, however fleeting!! I even managed to squeeze in some knitting time –  not toys but a pair of Eunny Jang’s wonderful Endpaper mittens.

Taking this break from knitting toys has given me a bit of breathing space to consider where it has all evolved to. For the last year I’ve been going at the toy knitting like there’s no tomorrow, but of course there is and this knitting pace is not sustainable if I want to continue to enjoy what I’m doing. For me, that is the one true aim – making the toys is my ‘thing’ and definitely an antidote to raising a severely autistic child.

Since starting this blog I’ve had so many lovely comments about the
things I make, all of which I deeply appreciate and treasure and I
guess I felt that I owe you all an explanation and an apology for the
current lack of toys. So I’m sorry that there will be no Little Cotton
Rabbits for Easter this year. Instead I’m building up a stock which
will mean that there will always be a slow and steady trickle going
into my shop even if I have a knitting break now and then.

I’ve also been pondering my patterns again but I’m not ready to release any yet so I’ve put a new link to some toy patterns from other designers – including Ysolda Teague who designs toys with the most beautiful shaping and Fuzzy Mitten who has a great range of different creatures. See the list below on the left (I’ll add more in future).

It’s not all bad news from here though – Edgar and his friends are waiting in their box (in fact they keep trying to break out!) and will pop into the shop in early April and I’ll aim to have a new batch every 4 – 6 weeks following that (barring school holidays of course!).

Also this is my 199th post and so in keeping with tradition I’m having a giveaway in the next post – a chance for someone to win a Little Cotton Rabbit of their choice. To enter the draw please pop back and leave a comment on the next post.