Category: crafts & knitting

crafts & knitting

Catching up

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)19 Comments

Hello and sorry to have been absent for so long.

The school break times are a little bit of a challenge in our household – as always Toby finds the change in routine very unsettling and having him around 24/7, though lovely, is demanding, so not much else gets done. For most of April Amy was back from uni too, so I wanted to spend as much time with her as possible and we went off for a couple of lovely country walks together, just like the old days 🙂

I’ve got lots of beautiful blossomy pictures from our walks, but I’ll show you those another time. Today I just wanted to pop in briefly, say hello, and post the pictures that I had planned to post a few weeks ago in order to wish you all a happy Easter. I had also planned to let you know that I’ve updated my free pattern for the Easter eggs to include an extra flower design and also to provide the pattern in a new pdf file. I know it’s now too late for this year, but if you fancy knitting some Easter eggs for next year then you can download the free pattern here.

Because I liked the new spring flower design so much I’ve also popped it on a free dress supplement. You can download a free copy here. Please note that you’ll need use it with one of my animal patterns that has a dress included or the seasonal dresses pattern, in order to have the instructions for the cast on and bodice (my entire range of patterns are here) – I like to share the free pattern supplements as a little thank you to those who are kind enough to support my work.

Well, I’m off to quietly knit a little this afternoon. I’m working on a batch of blue dressed animals (the first 3 of them are in the picture at the top of this post) which I hope to have ready to sell before the summer arrives properly. I’ll share some progress updates here as the rest of them start coming together.

Hope to pop back again more regularly now that the school break is over and I have time to call my own again, see you soon x

crafts & knitting · new patterns

mini bunnies and bears, two new patterns

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)41 Comments

Earlier this year I started playing around with the idea of a mini version of my knitted bunnies. I wanted a pattern that was a little simpler to knit and construct than my regular sized animals (they are shown in the picture above for comparison), and I also wanted the little toy to be suitable for a baby or small child, so the clothes are all knitted on with no removable parts or buttons.

The pattern started out as a boy and girl version of a bunny but as I was working on it I thought it might also be fun to also have an option for an unclothed version and once I’d fiddled around with that it also occurred to me that it might be nice to do a bear as well. So what I have finally ended up with is two new mix and match type patterns:

  • There’s a girl version with instructions to make a bunny and a bear, with an attached dress and striped stockings but also has an option for a completely naked toy.
  • Then there’s the same for a boy version, again with instructions for a bunny and bear and options for a naked version or a version wearing attached jumper and shorts.

The mini animals work out at 14cm/51/2 inches tall if knitted with DK yarn on 2.75mm/US 2 needles, but you can make a smaller version with 4ply yarn and 2.5mm needles, or a larger version with worsted weight yarn and 3mm needles.

They are listed on Ravelry or on Etsy and the regular discount of 15% applies if you add 2 or more of my patterns to your basket.

With Easter coming up at the end of the month I though it might be good to share these patterns now as these little bunnies might make sweet Easter gifts. If you do use the patterns please come and share your projects on the ravelry group, I love seeing what people are making from my patterns and there are lots of friendly makers there who like admiring each other’s projects.

Well that’s it from me today. It’s the start of the school break here and Amy is back with us for Easter so I’ll not have much time to pop in here over the next few weeks, but I do want to share some other Spring things I’ve been knitting, so I hope to be back here next week with some pictures, ’til then have a lovely weekend x

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PS: There is a chart for the little heart on the dress in the foreground over on my post about duplicate stitch and at the bottom of that same blog post I’ve also added a chart for the rose pattern that I’ve used previously on some animal dresses.

 

crafts & knitting · general stuff

A perfect Sunday

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)14 Comments

The perfect Sunday morning. What would yours be like?

Mine would look exactly like the top picture and I was lucky enough for that to be part of my Sunday yesterday.

My idea of the perfect Sunday is

:: waking up when you’ve had enough sleep, rather than to the sound of an alarm clock;

:: padding downstairs in cosy socks and PJs to pop the kettle on;

:: taking a tray laden with brewing breakfast tea and a warm cinnamon bun back to a still-warm bed;

:: reading and knitting the morning away in bed with chill radio playing until everyone else is up and wanting some lunch;

:: pottering in the garden after lunch, tidying up the vegetable beds and enjoying the golden light from the setting sun blushing the spring blossoms on the tree;

:: making a roast dinner for family and curling up together for wine and cuddles by the fire afterwards.

It’s not often that everything is in alignment for a perfect Sunday, but I’m hoping for a re-run next weekend 🙂

My knitting projects above are:

‘Out of winter shawl’ by Tamy Gore, knitted in simply stunning ‘Owl Feather’ Grenouille sock yarn

A pair of simple ribbed wintery wristwarmers that I’ve improvised in order to let this beautiful hand-dyed neppy yarn take centre stage. The the rich earthy tones and light neps of the yarn remind me of a ploughed field in winter, so ribbing seemed appropriate. The yarn is ‘Need for tweed’ BFL/Donegal nep from Ocean By The Sea (the making notes on the wristwarmers are on my ravelry project page)

Reading: The Peregrine by J. A. Baker – beautiful written, evocative prose for quiet Sunday morning