Category: crafts & knitting

crafts & knitting · new patterns

The badgers

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)14 Comments

Back in 2008 I knitted started playing around with some ideas for a knitted badger. I knew what sort of shaping I wanted in the head and that it would be a slightly fiddly knit because of all of the colour changes needed to get the distinctive badgery stripes. At the time I was relatively pleased with the outcome but knew there were things about it that I wasn’t happy with, so it needed more work.

Since then I’ve gone back to the pattern notes several times and then become distracted by ideas for other animals and so the poor badger has languished at the very bottom of the work basket for all these years. I’m happy to say that I now feel they’re at last ready and so today I’m releasing the patterns, as usual one with removable sweater and shorts and bare body and feet; and the other with knitted on knickers/panties and shoes and a removable dress. They both have a change of outfit, so the first has 2 sweaters and the second has 2 dresses (both with one in stranded colorwork and one textured in a single colour). They’re both live now on Ravelry and will be shortly on Etsy too.

The timing for a pattern release is daft I know, everyone is far to busy over the next week to be sitting knitting badgers and I’m sorry it’s taken me longer than the autumn release that I had planned. Maybe there will be the chance for a little badger knitting in the lull of the new year and if you do give either of the patterns a go, I hope that you have fun with them – as usual I am excited at the prospect of seeing the first projects emerge over on the Little Cotton Rabbits facebook group and on Ravelry 🙂

I hope the next week is a good one for you, despite the rapidly wosening situations we all seem to be finding ourselves in again. I’ll pop back with a proper seasonal greeting next week, ’til then stay safe and well xx

 

crafts & knitting

Winter knits

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)17 Comments

With the arrival of colder weather I’ve been cosying up with my knitting.

Last Sunday morning, as Toby enjoyed his long lie-in, I picked up a pair of mittens that I started last winter and resumed where I left off. I may even get them finished in time for January’s frosty days. They are the ‘Persephone’ mittens from Emily Foden’s ‘Knits About Winter’ and I’m knitting them in soft and lovely Ysolda’s Blend no. 1 that has sadly now been discontinued.

I’m also still playing around with ideas for patterns and exploring different textures and yarns, there are just so many possibilities. I’ve just uploaded the free pattern for a little selection of toy scarves that you can download if you’d like to.

And there’s good news on the badger patterns I’ve been promising, they’re all written up and have gone out for testing, I’ll keep you posted with news once they’ve been properly error checked.

Once the badgers are done I’m going to award myself a short break from pattern writing. I find it quite an intense process – writing notes, knitting them through, tweaking bits, knitting through again, knitting them through yet again to test out different yarns (you can tell how many times I’ve done this from all those heads there). It takes me a lot of time and concentration and I know that a lot of the enjoyment is quashed for me by getting far too anxious in striving for perfection. I’ve spent most of this year knitting for pattern writing purposes and have produced more patterns this year than any previous years and to be honest I am currently missing the simple joy of knitting just for the pure pleasure of it.

So for the rest of December and January I’m just going to go with my whims and knit a little of what I fancy. I have such a glorious collection of yarn calling me so I think I’ll dip into it and see where it takes me. There will definitely be more Little Cotton Rabbit patterns to come, but first I need to shake off this pattern writers fatigue that has crept up on me:)

I’ll be back soon with a badgery update, til then keep well xxx