Category: crafts & knitting

countryside · crafts & knitting · in the woods · wildlife

Hibernating

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)16 Comments

The first few months of the year always feel to me like a time for quiet rest and a gentler pace of life. Perhaps it’s the short daylight hours of winter which make me feel a little like hibernating and using less energy. In summer I might walk in the woods in the evening or we’ll be in the garden until after 10pm when dusk falls, but in January and February, with darkness falling before four o’clock in the afternoon, all I feel like doing in my free moments is curling up in a cosy corner by the fire and reading or knitting.

Along with bunny knitting I’ve been knitting lots of mittens. I have lots of wristwarmers, which I wear constantly throughout the winter months, but have been getting cold fingertips on my woodwalks and so it seemed a good plan to knit something a bit more cosy. This was a free pattern that I found on Ravelry and it’s perfect, knitting up very quickly and with such a clever and comfortable thumb placket. It’s called Garnomeras enkla vantar by Maria Samuelsson and I’ve loved knitting these in the ‘silver birch’  organic merino Viola yarn that I gifted myself for Christmas, a beautiful hand-dyed yarn which has so many subtle tones. In fact I love the pattern so much that I’ve knitted a second pair, also in Viola Organic merino yarn, colourway ‘frozen earth’. I have made a few modifications to the pattern (which is written for worsted weight yarn) in order to accomodate the DK yarn weight and I’ve added a little texture too – notes are over on my project page.

This morning there was a spectacular sunrise, which made me want to get up, dressed and out for a walk. So I headed off to the woods to see if the wood anemones were up yet but there was no sign of them, not even the tips of their leaves breaking through the soil. The woods are still deep in winter’s pause, and we’ve not yet had a cold snap so it will be a little longer before the growing season starts again, although tree buds are starting to swell and small bird songs were all around as they start to pair up ready for spring. At least I’m now ready for ice and snow if it does arrive soon, and my hands will stay toasty and warm in my new mittens.

 

crafts & knitting · new patterns

new year, new pattern :)

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)22 Comments

 

Hello and a belated happy New Year! I do hope that this new year has been kind and gentle to you so far.

I’m still getting back into the swing of things after the wildly out-of-routine Christmas break and I have some pictures to show you of the knitting that I did manage to work on in the quiet moments. But first I want to tick something off my New Year’s resolution list, something that I had hoped to have ready during November (in time for Christmas present knitting), but missed my self-imposed deadline. So here it is now, nice and early for a little Easter bunny knitting instead. Introducing Little Cotton Rabbits small rabbit pattern.

This little pattern was prompted by all of the messages that I received last spring following the release of the mini bunny and bear pattern when I was inundated with requests for removeable clothes for the minis and so I set to work making some scaled down versions of the regular sized clothing. I’d also received a lot of requests for mini versions of all my other animal designs and so at the same time I started working on those too. As I worked I began thinking that instead of adapting the minis for the other animal designs, it might instead be more fun to have small scaled down versions of my regular sized animals to wear the clothing. I’d made a small version of the bunnies back in 2007 when I was playing around with ideas for different sized animals and so I hunted through all my old notebooks for the notes that I made back then, and used those as a start point for a scaling down the little cotton rabbits design.

I’ve really enjoyed working on these small versions, they knit up more quickly than the regular sized bunnies and are a nice size for little hands to hold – they come out at around 8 inches (20cm) tall compared to the regular sized bunnies which are around 101/2 inches (27cms). Paired with the regular sized bunnies they make a sweet family group too. The yarns I’ve used are exactly the same yarns and needle sizes as I would knit the regular sized animals in – using a worsted weight yarn for the bunny, with the clothing in 4ply weight yarn (unlike the mini patterns, that are made completely in DK yarn on 2.75mm needles), so it’s easy to make a regular sized bunny and a matching little version too, all from the same balls of yarn. I can’t wait to see little cotton rabbit families appearing 🙂

Just as with my regular sized bunny patterns, I’ve included different designs for the head – a plain coloured bunny head, one with an eye patch and a Dutch bunny head with a blaze down it’s nose. Within the pattern there are also 2 options for knitting the body, a plain naked body and a body with knitted on underpants. Included are 3 items of clothing to fit the small rabbits (though they will also fit the mini bunny and bear patterns too), there’s a dotty dress, a striped sweater and a pair of short trousers all included. I’ve decided not to make these small versions with mary jane shoes at the moment but I plan to play around with options and will most likely work on a ‘small ones’ shoe pattern to also include sneakers and so on, just like the optional extra shoes for the regular sized animals. There will be lots more clothing to come too, I am bursting with ideas, all I need now is the time to turn those into pattern form.

As always I’m brimming with excitement to see what you make from my patterns, so if you do give this new one a go please come and share your project photos over in the Ravelry group.

Right, I’m off to keep working on some small versions of my other animal designs and the clothing too. I’ll let you know how I’m getting on soon.

The picture below shows all 3 sizes of Little Cotton Rabbits now available. The largest is the boy bunny in a striped sweater (original sized rabbit) which is 27cms/101/2 inches tall, the middle sized is the new ‘small rabbit’ pattern which is 20cms /8 inches tall, and the smallest is the ‘mini bunny and bear pattern’ knitted in 4ply yarn on 2.5mm (US 1.5) needles and 14cms/ 51/2 inches small.

 

crafts & knitting

Repetition

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)28 Comments

Hello and sorry to have been absent for most of November. Things with Toby have been a bit intense and we’re not quite sure why he’s finding life hard at the moment, but it is taking lots of energy to keep him happy, relaxed and occupied. Still, there has also been a lot of knitting going on, although it’s been of the dis-organised type, which has meant lots of projects started and in progress, but nothing finished.

As I’ve sat here knitting, I’ve been contemplating how useful knitting is as a way of coping with life’s harder patches. There’s something soothing about the rhythmic action of wrapping the yarn; something comforting about the stillness of your body while your hands are busy; and something meditative in the way that part of your brain is fully focused on the task in hand while another part is free to wander and ponder. I been wondering too about the nature of what I knit, and what it says about me that I seem to knit mostly the same kind of thing. Are you the kind of person who likes constant variety and the excitement of something new, or are you someone who sticks to what you know and is happy with a tried-and-trusted familiar? I think that I must be more in the second camp, as my sock draw shows all too well.

I came late to sock knitting – only making my first pair 2 years ago, but since then I have always had at least 1 pair on my needles. Currently in my work basket there are 3 single socks waiting to be knitted a twin and be united into a pair, and of the pairs that do exist there are a couple that are still waiting for ends to be sewn in and trimmed. I do though have lots that are wearable and my feet are very much enjoying the cosy comfort of them and wondering why it took my fingers so very long to get around to sock knitting.

The other day I was rooting about in my sock drawer for a warm pair and realised that I must be a creature of habit, as you can see…

Above are 3 pairs made from Helen Stewarts ‘fragment’ pattern.

The dark pair on the left are knitted in ‘loam’ Bien Aimee tough sock, the middle pair in ‘well water’ Madeline Tosh twist light, and the pink pair on the right are in ‘tea smoked’ The Uncommon Thread Tough Sock.

These 3 pairs (and the 2 on the left in the picture below) are from This Handmade Life’s ‘Wildflowers and Honeycomb socks’ pattern.

The pair on the left are knitted in alpaca sock from The Wool Barn, the middle pair in ‘tea smoked’ The Uncommon Thread Tough Sock, and the pair on the right are in ‘ lime mortar’ Ainsworth and Prin classic sock from The knitting shed

The light blue pair on the left are knitted in ‘memory’ Madeline Tosh twist light, the middle pair in ‘space oddity’ The Uncommon Thread Tough Sock, and the pair on the right are from Hermione’s Everyday socks by Erica Lueder, in ‘surf’ The Wool Barn Cashmere Sock.

Both the 3 pairs above and the 3 pairs below are made with Emily Fodens ‘Emily’s Favourite sock’ pattern

The pair on the left are knitted in ‘limpet’ crush sock yarn from Skein Queen, the middle pair in ‘mellow monster’ sock set from Studio Meez, and the pair on the right are in a one-of-a-kind dyed super sock yarn also from Studio Meez

These 3 pairs are all knitted in beautiful shades of twist sock from The Wool Barn

Above are 3 pairs made from Lucky Me Socks by Sofia Kammeborn  and all are knitted in The Uncommon Thread Tough Sock ‘attic room’, ‘cobble’ and ‘peat’

The 3 pairs above are all made from Skein Queen Crush DK in ‘limpet’, ‘dreamcloud’, and ‘highclere castle’ with the pair on the left knitted from Emily Foden’s Snowshoe pattern and the other two from Cabinfour’s Laule’a pattern

Well, I do hope you’ve enjoyed the tour of my sock drawer! Though I know that’s most likely not the reason you visit me here, so please be assured that along with sock knitting I am working on lots of knitted little cotton rabbit animals and some new patterns too 🙂

Before I go, I want to send love and best wishes for a joyful Thanksgiving to all of you friends and family in the USA,

‘Til next time, keep well and happy and thanks as always for visiting xxx