Category: crafts & knitting

crafts & knitting · garden stuff · wildlife

June days

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)52 Comments

Wetgarden

 

Garden

 

Chive

 

Seedling

 

Cake (3)

 

Pyra

 

There's been a fair bit of wet and stormy weather around lately but that's been good news for the garden where everything now has that early summer vibrancy and is growing vigorously. In some cases a little to vigorously as my little veg patch is getting swamped by the herb edging. This year I'm growing beetroot, broccoli, kale, french beans, peas, courgettes and lettuce and I'm looking forward to a green feast in another month or so.

Happily we've had a taste of summer too with a few days that have been warm and sunny enough to sit outside. There's something so very calming and relaxing about an afternoon outside with something nice to eat and drink, a little knitting and a good book (Knitlandia by Clara Parkes is a great read if you are a knitter, though my copy has already lost it's pretty dust-jacket to Toby's paper tearing obsession). Hopefully there are more sun-filled summer days to come.

My knitting has been very influenced by the colours of a summer garden too. I was so thrilled when I managed to buy this wonderful skein from Maya at The Wool Barn. Her yarns are exquisitely hand dyed so it's not surprising that they sell out so very quickly. This colour-way is called Rose Garden and I'm knitting a crescent shawl from it, Helen Stewart's Spindrift Shawl. I'm almost finished now and just need to choose between pink and green for the edge, as I fancy a contrasting border.

There have been some happy days working on this in the summer sunshine and it's been lovely to escape some of the stresses of exam time (Amy's GCSE's have spanned most of the last month) with a little gentle and undemanding knitting. We're all looking forward to next Tuesday when Amy has her last exam. She will be so relieved and it will be nice to have a more relaxed atmosphere here. It's been a bit exhausting trying to keep Toby quiet in his middle-of-the-night-awake periods but essential in order to make sure that Amy has had the sleep she needs to do well in her exams.

 

Woolbarnyarn

 

Rosegarden

 

Garden knit

 

Rosegardenshawl

 

Sorry that I've not been around much recently, I've not felt like I've had much of interest to say or to share. Life has been full of ordinary family stuff with it's ups and downs and we live day to day, which is the best way to approach life with Toby, but so often the day seems to whizz by without much getting done. I do try to take photos when something interesting presents itself (like this wonderfully tender swan family encountered on a walk a few weeks back), but I seem to have lost my blog voice a little. Hopefully I'm just a little hoarse rather than completely voice-less and I'll be back soon with more words. 'Til then thanks for visiting x

 

Swans

 

crafts & knitting

may makings

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)34 Comments

Thanks so very much for the warm reception you've given my newest patterns. It's lovely to see so many finished projects popping up on Ravelry and to know that people are having fun making little bears. If you've made one please come and share pictures on the Ravelry group as we love admiring new projects.

Since the patterns were released I've been enjoying the freedom of knitting as the mood takes me, roaming through my basket of unfinished projects on a whim and starting off a few new ones too.

 

Gloves

 

These recently finished mitts are my new favourite pair, though with the weather warming up now I will have to tuck them away until the autumn (there's another of my favourite things in this picture – a new mug made by Sam Andrew).

The mitts started out as a skein of Ysolda's wonderfully soft and sheepy Blend No. 1. This yarn is really beautiful with an interesting tonal depth, gentle halo and lovely stitch definition and happily there's plenty left for another project.

 

Blend1

 

The pattern is Alicia Plummer's Antiquity, which is simple to work and beautifully textured. I wanted a longer cuff so this is double the length suggested in the pattern. My notes are on my Ravelry project page.

 

Mitts

 

I couldn't post this picture without mentioning the beautiful bud vase made by Pip Wilcox. Unsurprisingly whenever she updates her shop everything sells out very quickly, so I was over the moon when I managed to bag one and it is now sat on my bedside table, ready to make me smile when the alarm goes off in the mornings.

 

Blend gloves

 

There are many other projects in my basket at the moment but I'll show you more of those next week, when I've sorted out the tangled mess. Until then I'll leave you with the two little kitties I'm knitting from Cascade 220 Superwash Effects, with the varying tones it's perfectly suited for tabby cat knitting.

 

Cats

 

Have a great weekend, see you soon x

 

crafts & knitting · new patterns

…and bears, oh my!

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)79 Comments

It feels like I’ve been working on these latest patterns forever. In truth I think it’s just over a year but there have been a lot of distractions that have required I spend my time on other things and so it feels a very long and drawn out affair. Still, I am pleased to announce that I now have boy and girl bear patterns available.

Part of the complication with this pattern was that I wanted to incorporate different kinds of bear: a brown bear, a black bear with a light muzzle, a Polar bear and a Panda. The tweaks to make each of these are simple enough but laying it out within the pattern without the whole thing becoming too complicated was fiddly and more time-consuming than usual.

The boy pattern includes shorts and a Fair Isle sweater which is worked flat from the neck down to the shoulders and then in the round for the body and arms. Because I know that there are those who really don’t like stranded knitting or working in the round I’ve also included a pattern for a top down striped sweater that is knitted completely flat and then seamed. You can also combine elements from the 2 different sweaters so that you can make the Fair Isle design flat if you prefer and vice versa.

The girl pattern comes with a plaid dress that is worked flat to the waist and then in the round for the skirt part. Again, I’ve included a simpler striped dress for those who don’t like stranded knitting and/or knitting in the round.

Both patterns include the options for making all of the different bear types.

At the same time as working on the bear patterns I’ve been finishing off the shoes supplement pattern that I’ve been fiddling around with for ages too. This has different feet options that you can substitute for the feet in any of the animal patterns. There’s a pair of bunny slipper clad feet and 2 options for the trainers/sneakers: a simplish one and a more fiddly one.

All of the patterns are uploaded to Ravelry where they’re supplied as instant digital downloads or you can purchase via Etsy where you’ll have to wait a short while for me to email the digital files to you.

Now comes the fun part for me as I always look forward to the first finished animals popping up in people’s Ravelry project pages. It’s always such a pleasure to know that the patterns are being enjoyed. I hope that if you give any of them a go you’ll let me know how you got on.

Thanks so much. I’m off now to do some gardening in the spring sunshine, it’ll be nice to be spending more time outside. See you soon x