cosy (part 1)

January 27, 2015April 30, 2026 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)29 Comments

So far Winter has been quite mild here, with only one hour long snow storm and a handful of days with frosty beginnings. Even so, it’s been cool enough to warrant regular lighting of the fire and I’ve been keeping my pattern writing hands warm with new wristies (yarn and pattern details in the previous post). There’s also been enough of the mini skeins left to make a bunny cardigan and a teeny tiny bunny dress.

The lack of light is getting wearisome though. Some days it has hardly felt like we’ve had a proper daytime and more like we’ve gone straight from a dim dawn to a drab dusk. I really don’t envy anyone living further north. We’ve been compensating with some well-placed LED lights, one string in a strip on the wall, brightening a dark corner…

and a little set of battery powered ones sitting on the table and lighting up our mealtimes…

Happily this afternoon we’ve had a brief shaft of weak sunlight coming in through the side window, a welcome reminder that the days are starting to lengthen out and we’re on our way back to long, bright summer days. I don’t know about you but I’m really looking forward to some warm sun on my skin.

Cosy (part 2) will be about my second misty blanket which is now finished but it’s huge and is proving a bit difficult to photograph, especially on these dingy days. I hope to pop back with some pictures of it soon. Til then, keep warm and catch those rays when you can x

A gentle start

January 13, 2015April 30, 2026 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)51 Comments

After the coughs and colds that we all ungratefully received for Christmas I’ve been easing myself gently into this new year. Happily it’s been years since I’ve been so ill and I count myself lucky on that front, but this bug has definitely knocked the wind right out of my sails and I’m only just starting to feel myself again. Taking things slowly has definitely helped, as has knitting with gorgeous new yarn and drinking hot tea from a lovely new cup. The cup and the yarn were much nicer Christmas presents than the cold!

The cup and saucer are from potter Lars Soendergaard and the yarn is Pigeon Roof studios sock yarn from Loop which comes in sets of graduated mini skeins. I’m using the charcoal colourway to make a pair of long cosy wrist-warmers from this Churchmouse pattern. I had thought of knitting these flat but am now stepping outside my comfort zone and using the magic loop technique to knit them both at the same time. It takes some thinking about when you cast on but once you get going it works well and you don’t have to remember which row you changed to the next colour as you’re working each hand simultaneously.

So, here we are almost half way through January already. Have you made New Year resolutions? I’ve decided not to bother anymore – I don’t have a very good track record with them. It would be nice to loose a little weight (but since that involves more exercise and less knitting time it’s unlikely to happen in earnest – though I have been known to knit while bouncing on Toby’s space hopper so perhaps there is some hope for me. Come to think of it that would be a great idea for an exercise class – any fitness instructors out there want to come up with a knit and bounce routine?). I’m also aiming to worry less (hmm, that one will take a lots of work) but that’s the extent of my vague and wafty thoughts on things I’d like to do differently this year. I’m not going to dwell on failing to achieve them as peace and simple pleasures are the most essential things for well-being and we should probably all learn to go a little easy on our imperfect selves.

Hope your new year has got off to a good start, see you soon x

crafts & knitting · magazine features

magazines and a cuppa

December 12, 2014April 30, 2026 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)32 Comments

It’s rather dingy, wet and windy here today, so the best option is to snuggle up with some knitting, a hot cup of tea and some nice magazines.

And these magazines are particularly nice for me to flick through because I’m in them 🙂

Many thanks to Lizzie at Simply Knitting for the interview in issue 128 and to Danielle at the beautiful Artful Blogging for featuring my blog header in their ‘banners we love’ section of the Nov/Dec/Jan 2015 issue.

The gloves I’m making are Vagabond fingerless mittens by Misa Erder and I’m enjoying trying out the magic loop technique for the main part of them. It looks complicated but once you get used to it, it is quite straight forward. The pattern itself is lovely, I particularly like the construction of the thumb.

Ok I’m off to knit a bit more before Toby gets home. Wishing you a good weekend and hopefully a relaxing one – though it’s so often a manic time of year isn’t it?