Before I started the Little Cotton Rabbits Facebook group it hadn’t occurred to me how much people like to give their knitted animals accessories. Seeing lots of projects there with little shoulder bags and backpacks started me thinking that it might be nice to have a range of bag accessories for my animals, and so here they are.

There are 5 little patterns within one, though lots of extra options within that so that you can customise each bag or basket:

• A backpack/rucksack with a gusseted flat bottom so it can stand on it’s own, a front flap to keep any treasures inside secure and the option of fastening the flap with either a strap and loop or a button and buttonhole.
• A basic basket that can be made in 3 different styles depending on the type, length and attachment points for the handles.
• A little shoulder bag which can be made in colour-work or texture.
• A shopping/market bag in a choice of 2 different open-work patterns
• A cross-body/handbag in either a 2 or 3 colour tweed pattern or a honeycomb texture pattern.

The pattern is up on Ravelry and over on Etsy too if you’re interested in giving it a go. As always I am excited to see what people do with these and as they knit up quickly I’m hoping they’ll be good fun to knit.

Well, I’m off to do some housework (reluctantly, I’d definitely rather be knitting) and get things ready for Amy coming home tomorrow. It’s been 4 months since I last saw her and I’ve missed her so much, it will be lovely to have her back here for the next few weeks. Hope you have a good weekend in store too,  J x

 

Hello there, it’s been a while and I hope you’re well.

It feels like I’ve been working on these patterns for a very long time indeed and they have to be the most stressful set of patterns that I’ve ever worked on – though not because the patterns are in any way complicated or difficult but because of the circumstances that they have been written under. For the last 4 months we’ve been in lockdown here, without the usual support of respite or school for Toby, and that has meant that his 24 hour constant care and supervision has been soley down to us. This has meant that I’ve had to grab small snippets of time to pattern write whenever they presented themselves to me and it’s not the way I like to work at all, nor the most effective way of maintaining focus and concentration.

Anyway, Toby was invited back to school 10 days ago and after a bit of a wobbly start he’s started to settle into the new routines. His school day is shorter than usual, but it has meant that I have had 4 hours and 30 minutes of uninterrupted concentration time with which to work on finalising these patterns and it’s been such a relief to be able to achieve something again and finally get the patterns finished.

So here they are. They are all designed to fit the small 7 inch rabbit pattern (not the larger 9 inch animals),

• A dresses pattern with 20 different designs for the skirt and 3 options for the neckline;
• A sweaters pattern with a cabled Aran sweater; a top down cardi with a yoke;  3 top down raglan sweaters: a T shirt, a long-sleeved sweater and a cardigan; and a simple sweater with 10 designs to duplicate stitch on to the front;
• A dungarees and pinafore dress pattern.

I’ve decided to launch them altogether so that if anyone wants to purchase 2 or more at the same time they’ll automatically get the 15% multi pattern discount. They are currently available via Ravelry or Etsy (the discount will apply as soon as you add at least 2 patterns to your basket)

Sorry that there are not more pictures of the small animals wearing these outfits, time has not allowed that yet but I am hoping to take some more pictures over these next 2 weeks, which is the only time that is left to get anything done before the 7 week school sumer break begins. I’m hoping that I’ll also have a chance to finalise another pattern that I’ve been working on but it will depend on whether time is on my side 🙂

I’m looking forward to September when all being well,  I’ll have a few more free hours to call my own and I can get out and about with my camera and write a little more here on the blog, I miss that. Until then stay safe and well where you are, with love and best wishes from me xxx