monkey business

April 26, 2015September 5, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)44 Comments

They’ve been a while coming, but at last I’ve finished working on the monkey patterns and they’re now available on Ravelry.

As usual there is a boy and girl version of the pattern.

The boy has shorts and two options for making a houndstooth patterned sweater – one that is worked in stranded technique using two colours on each row (shown in bottom of 3rd picture) and the other which is worked in single colour stripes and uses slipped stitches to create the pattern (shown in top of 3rd picture). I’ve included both because I know that not everyone likes working with 2 colours at once, so the second sweater is easier from this respect.

The girl pattern also has 2 clothing options – one dress that is worked in stranded technique with two colours on some rows and the second that has a textured dot pattern knitted in a single colour. There are also instructions for making a bow decoration and for adding decoration to her shoes.

Hopefully anyone who uses the pattern will have fun making their own little monkey and I’m really looking forward to seeing the first finished monkeys popping up in the Ravelry group.

We’re having a very quiet weekend here without the usual music that comes constantly from Amys room – she’s away for the weekend doing her Duke of Edinburgh Award practice expedition. She left yesterday morning in her walking boots and waterproofs with a rucksack almost the same size as her strapped to her back! She’s walking around 10 miles with a small team from her school and they then have to pitch camp, cook their own food, spend the night, pack everything away again (this will probably be the hardest part for Amy!) and walk the 10 miles back. Typically after weeks of dry weather this weekend has had a lot of rain so I’m expecting a very damp and tired daughter back at 5ish!

Hope you’re having a good weekend where you are, see you soon x

Happy Easter

April 2, 2015 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)36 Comments

Where did March go? I don't know how the last couple of weeks have been with you but here they have fairly flown by. I had meant to write more posts about the knitting I'm doing and about the chickens (who are settled in nicely now) and about garden stuff but time has run out and there are just a few short hours until the school Easter break starts, so those will have to wait until the children are back at school at the end of the month.

Until then I thought I'd pop in briefly with some spring-feeling photos…

Posie

Nesty

The plum tree is in blossom but we had some really high winds at the beginning of this week so some of the smaller branches and twigs have snapped. A few of these blossomy twigs paired with a handful of muscari from the garden are brightening up our table and happily the tree is still looking beautiful in its frothy white finery.

Snowytree

The tree blossoms look pretty at sunset too when, caught in the warm glow, they turn peachy.

Blossoms

Moon and venus

After sunset we've been planet watching as Venus has been especially bright just above the horizon to the west and the first visible star in the evening sky (seen here above the fingernail moon). I love star gazing – it makes me feel so small and humble in the face of the mind-boggling enormity of space. I find it a good way to hang on to a sense of perspective when life feels a little overwhelming.

Do you like the little knitted nest above? I am so happy with it, made in just under an hour this morning from scraps of yarn and using Annie's lovely and generously-shared free pattern (scroll to page bottom on the link). I'm not sure how long the little candy-covered chocolate eggs will stay in there though!

Nest

Nesteggs

Well, I'm off for a quiet cup of tea and some precious knitting time (and maybe one or two of those chocolate eggs) while I can enjoy the peace and quiet. Hope you have a lovely Easter, see you soon x

Happy easter

crafts & knitting

cosy (part 2)

March 6, 2015 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)82 Comments

Bedb

It has taken me ages to write this post, partly because the days have been dark and dingy and so no good for indoor photography but mostly because my bedroom was a complete pig sty and I was too ashamed to take photos in there before I'd tidied up a bit. Now however I have shifted the pile of washing that was beside the bed, gathered up the errant lego bricks and hoovered up the biscuit crumbs that Toby leaves everywhere in his wake and for a short while I have a neat and tidy room.

Misty2

Misty3

Misty5

The 2nd misty blanket has turned out well and I'm enjoying snuggling under it at night. I ended up making 11 x 11 squares so a total of 121 which is a good fit for a king-size bed. I've used more structure in the placement of the colours than I did with the first misty blanket that I made – alternate rows of pink and orange centres interspersed with aqua, green and teal. Each square has 4 rounds of mixed neutral grey, cream and beige tones and is topped off with one round of charcoal grey. Then the whole thing was ringed with 5 rounds of charcoal and finally 3 alternate single crochet rows of silver, cream and silver. It's big, pleasing to my eye and definitely cosy.

Misty

Misty bed

Bedroom

Having the blanket on the bed however has made me realise how much I want to change the paint colour in our room. H finished painting in there a few weeks before Amy was born so we've had this deep blue for nearly 16 years now and I'm tired of it. I'm feeling that a lovely soft, dove grey colour would be calm and perfect, anyone have any paint suggestions?

Happy weekend all, it looks like being a warm one here so I may have to go and take my blanket off again!