first signs of spring

February 8, 2013 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)30 Comments

Thanks so much for all the kind comments, emails and suggestions for helping Toby get through the rest of the winter. I am hopeful that things will improve once the warmer weather and longer days of spring arrive and seeing as the first blossoms have opened on our old plum tree in the last few days this now feels a little closer!

Blossom

It's been a busy week here and I had a lovely day on tuesday at my first ever workshop 'teaching' session. I woke up really early in the morning and was feeling really nervous before we started, but I was lucky to have the nicest group of ladies turn up and we all chatted and knitted and made mini bunnies. Thanks so much to Susan, Jackie, Emma, Esther, Iolanda and Rose for coming along and making my nervousness evaporate!

To help take my mind off feeling nervous I had a play around with some yarn at the crack of dawn on tuesday and came up with a little teeny tiny dress pattern for the mini bunnies. If you'd like to make one the pattern is over here with the rest of my free patterns.

Minibun

Thanks again for all of the kind messages about Toby. He'll move on from this rocky patch when he is ready to and in the meantime I'll just do my best to keep life calm and reduce stress for him. If there is one thing I've learned in the last 11 years it is to take
each day one at a time and not assume the bad bits will last forever, so far that kind of thinking has worked anyway 🙂

Have a good weekend x

itty bitty dress free pattern

February 8, 2013October 17, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)8 Comments

This is a pattern to make a dress for a very tiny toy (see here).

It can be made from scraps of yarn, sock yarn or 4ply is best. In order to make it fit, please use the same needle size that you used to make your mini bunny. For instance, the mini bunnies above were knitted from Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran yarn on 3.25mm needles and so I’ve used 3.25mm needles for the dresses.

Abbreviations:

K: Knit

P: Purl

K2tog: Knit 2 stitches together.

YFON: Yarn forward over needle – makes a stitch. Start with the working yarn at the back of the work, bring it over the top of the right hand needle to the front and back under the right hand needle again to the back so making a loop them work the next stitch as indicated in the pattern.

SSK: Slip, Slip, Knit. Slip a stitch (as if to knit it) to the right-hand needle, slip a second stitch in the same way, slip both stitches back to the left-hand needle and knit them together through the back loops.

Pattern:

Cable cast on 28 stitches, leaving a long tail for seaming the back of the dress with later.

row 1: Knit

row 2: Knit

row 3: Knit

rows 4-8: Beginning and ending with Purl rows, work 5 rows of stocking stitch (alternate purl and knit rows)

row 9: K2, (k2tog) 12 times, K2 (16 stitches)

row 10: Purl

row 11: K4, yfon, ssk, K4, K2tog, yfon, K4

row 12: P4, purl into back of next stitch (leaving an eyelet for the arm hole), P6, purl into back of next stitch (leaving another eyelet for the arm hole), P4

row 13: Cast off knit wise

Cut the work from the ball leaving a long tail. Using a fine crochet hook (around 2mm) make a chain of 5 stitches with this tail and join it back to the start point with a slip stitch to make a small loop. Sew a tiny button on the opposite side as a fastening for the dress.

I use micro buttons like these:

Weave the remainder of the cast off end along the edge to the point of the row 9 decreases and leave the end hanging for now. Re-thread the needle with the cast on edge and use it to close the seam at the back of the dress with mattress stitch. When you reach the shaping on row 9 tie both ends together and weave along the inside of the seam before trimming off excess.

And there you have a teeny tiny dress for a bunny or a bear.

crafts & knitting

a visitor

January 31, 2013 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)31 Comments

Firstly I wanted to say thanks to everyone who has voted for Saving Rare Breeds or made a donation, I know that they are hugely grateful. There is still time to vote for them (until the end of today) so if you've not already done so please pop over and lend your support, it's free, just takes a few moments and would make a great deal of difference to the animals that Stephen and Tracy are caring for, especially if we could vote them into second place.

edited Feb 1st: It's now closed.

A few posts ago I mentioned a special crafty project that I am involved with. It was dreamt up by Emma from Silverpebble and Ros Badger in order to raise money for Red Nose Day and involves lots of other crafty and creative people making 4 little dolls, each with a collection of clothes, playthings, blankets, jewellery and all sorts of other delights. I can't wait to see all of the wonderful things that are being made for them and when they are finished each one will be auctioned off.

My involvement began last week when a special visitor arrived in the post…

Lily

Her name is Lily, she was designed and made by Jodie At Ric Rac and she normally lives with the small Silverpebbles but she has come to stay with me for a while and fulfil the important task of modelling. I have measured her up and she's been very helpful in trying things on as I go along and so with her help I am making a dress and a cardigan for one of the Red Nose Day Dollies. I'm also making some teeny tiny teddies for each of them.

Dolly2

The Red Nose Day Dolls have their own blog where you can read all about the project, how it came about and who else is involved and they're also tweeting updates and news and are on facebook too.

It's lovely to be involved and hopefully they will help raise lots of money and spread some goodness to those in need.