Category: crafts & knitting

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

Scenes of Summer

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)17 Comments

Hello! And sorry it’s been so long. I just wanted to pop in briefly and say I am still here – it’s just that here the school summer break is full on Toby time, and he remains my focus until school starts up again on September 4th. Even so I have had my camera handy and have captured some favourite moments from the last month…

  • countryside walking – finding breathtakingly fabulous fields of jewel-bright poppies;
  • sky watching – for clouds, techni-colour sunsets, vintage planes and the red kites that have recently moved into the area;
  • bug finding – newly emerged ladybirds, hoverflies and swallow-tail moths;
  • knitting – mostly socks because they are undemanding, but there are a few more things on my needles that I’ll share soon;
  • pic-nicing with Amy, revisiting Hatfield house (after our first visit this time last year) for a lovely day together;

Today it’s pouring with much needed rain, so Toby and I are having a lazy day – he’s watching cbeebies shows on tv and I’m writing this. If the weather is better tomorrow we’ll be off on a welly-boot woodland adventure – it’s good to get him out and about but overall he’s coping pretty well with the lack of routine. I do think though that we’ll both be ready for when school starts up again 3 weeks and once he’s back into routines I’ll have time to call mine again so I’ll see you then with some updates on what I’ve been working on. Hope the rest of August is good for you xxx

 

crafts & knitting · new patterns

Deer, supplement to the fox pattern

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)23 Comments

Hello and happy summer solstice. Just popping in here briefly today to let you know that I’ve just finished and uploaded the free deer supplement pattern over on Ravelry. Within it you will find instructions for knitting a pair of antlers and detailed notes on how to adapt either of my two fox patterns (Fox in a flowered frock or Fox in a star spangled sweater).

Please note that in order to make a complete deer toy you will need to have purchased one of these fox patterns and follow the full instructions within that, together with the instructions detailed in this free pattern supplement.

I’m looking forward to seeing the deer that are made using the pattern, so if you give it a go please come and share pictures of your project on the Little Cotton Rabbits Ravelry group. Hope you enjoy the new pattern,

J x

 

crafts & knitting

A week of finishings

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)29 Comments

Firstly, thank you so very much for all of the kind comments on the previous post. Things do get a bit wobbly here when routines are shaken up and it’s hard to concentrate on anything in the school breaks when Toby needs 24 hour care, so it’s easiest not to try – that way everyone stays calm and happy. During the recent half term break we had lots of wood walks and outdoor adventures but when we were at home and he was happily occupied I had a little time for some simple knitting – some nice undemanding projects that were easy to put down when he needed something. Knitting is the ultimate portable activity and I love that from a young age Toby has known that if he carries off my knitting bag I will follow. So in between keeping him safe and happy over half term, I was also following him around the house and nomadically finishing off some of my many W.I.P.s – mostly a case of weaving in the ends, which is something I seem to have a problem getting around to – most likely because it is the most boring bit of knitting something.

Finished projects:

The wristwarmers that I started in February. Just a simple ribbed tube with a little twisted cable detail (notes on them here), knitted in beautiful neppy Donegal yarn from Ocean Rose.

The socks that I had just started knitting in the previous post using ‘Wildflowers and honeycomb socks‘ pattern from Olivia at This Handmade Life. Yarn details are here.

A shawl that I started back in February, knitted from a lovely pattern by Tammy Gore called ‘Out of winter‘ in the most gorgeous hand-dyed yarn that I am slightly obsessed with and now want to buy more of – ‘Owl feather’ from Grenouille

I might have cast on a couple of new projects too, mostly of the socky kind, but now that Toby is back at school again I have returned to animal knitting and have been working on a new pattern, which actually isn’t new at all. I’ll be writing this up as a free supplement pattern with instructions on using my existing fox patterns to knit deer – I’ll explain in more detail soon 🙂