Category: crafts & knitting

crafts & knitting · winter

cosying

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)53 Comments

It has been so cold here this week. We started the week with snow, have carried on with sub zero temperatures and it looks like we’ll be finishing off with another snowfall tomorrow. Not that I’m complaining. I like snow, a lot, especially when I don’t actually have to go anywhere and can use it as an excuse to park myself on the sofa with some wool and stay warm and cosy!

It’s given me time to finish those gloves, (full details on ravelry) and wear them! I’m really pleased with how comfy they are.

And some time for bunny knitting too. But the thing that is really entrancing my fingers at the moment is another crochet blanket. At the end of last year I became slightly obsessed with this wonderful blanket that I’d found on my travels around the internet. It really bugs me to not know the source of an image and therefore give proper credit and appreciation to the creator (and often tumblr and pinterest don’t link back to the source **) but by happy coincidence I did actually discover the original over on Ros Badger’s site.

I am so in love with this blanket – the colours are wonderful and remind me of old oriental carpets with their natural dyes like madder root, larkspur, weld, oak bark and indigo. I also love the way that each square looks like a little tile with that rim of lighter yarn looking like the grouting inbetween. Although I am informed by H (in slightly testy tones) that we really don’t need another blanket I have bought the yarn and made a start on a blanket inspired by these particular details.

I’ll show you where I am with it next time! In the meantime have a lovely weekend and if you’re in the snow zone – keep warm and cosy x

** Update: Happily, Solange has kindly updated the tumblr page and linked to the source. I’ve also had messages to let me know that the pattern is available in the current issue of Mollie Makes magazine and Ros’s book ‘Homemade: Gorgeous Things to Make with love’

crafts & knitting

workshops

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)49 Comments

Well, I’m getting back into my term-time stride again: I’ve caught up with the washing, tidied up the house from the Christmas bits, started bunny making again in earnest and am now feeling settled after the flurry of unsettledness that dominates during school holidays. I’m also feeling excited at the thought of some new things that are happening here this year. We are planning big changes to the garden which will hopefully make family life a lot easier when Toby is having meltdowns, but more of that another time because today my head is full of thoughts about workshops.

Towards the end of last year a wonderful new craft shop opened in one of my local towns and after chatting with Angela the lovely owner I am now going to be teaching a couple of workshops there. I’m really looking forward to passing on some of my tips for neat finishing techniques. I know I’m a bit unusual in loving seaming and the like but hopefully some of my enthusiasm will help others to enjoy the more fiddly bits of knitting.

The Creative Sanctuary, Hertford, SG14 1AS

My first workshop is on Tuesday February 5th and will be a 3 hour session making mini bunnies*. I’ll be covering various finishing techniques including mirrored/paired decreasing, mattress stitch
seaming, i-cords and anchored french knots and hopefully everyone will go away with a finished mini bunny ready for Easter. If you are interested in booking a place the link is here: Finishing techniques workshop.

The next workshop is in March and I’m planning to make knitted Easter eggs and there will hopefully be a hedgehog workshop in May, but I’ll post details about them nearer the time.

If you are in Hertford any time please pop into the Creative Sanctuary and say hello to Angela. She’s so knowledgeable and enthusiastic about crafts and always gives a very friendly welcome to any visitors. You may even bump into me browsing yarn or buying new needles!

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*  My free pattern for a mini bunny is here and if you use different weights of yarn and needle sizes you can make a family of different sized ones. The three above were made from chunky yarn on 4mm needles, DK yarn on 3.25mm needles and 4ply yarn on 2.25mm needles.

crafts & knitting

ingredients of a happy morning

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)34 Comments

the bright, clear light of a cold winter’s day,

smelling the woodsmoke from the fire in the stove,

knitting up a pattern that is well written and clever*

listening to Chill on my radio

eating hot buttered toast with tangerine marmalade

and drinking a good strong cup of English Breakfast tea, with one sugar please.

Added together, these equal a happy morning for me.

What are the things that add up to equal your kind of happy?

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* The pattern is Alfredo Gloves by Suzanne Stallard and with its well positioned thumb and neatly integrated shaping it’s the nicest pattern for fingerless gloves that I’ve knitted.

PS: the pattern is written for knitting in the round but I much prefer knitting things flat and seaming them with mattress stitch afterwards, so if you’re a clever in-the-round knitter please don’t let my pictures put you off giving a lovely pattern a go.

PPS: the yarn used for this pair was Madeline Tosh sock yarn in ‘mare’ and ‘smokestack’ full details on my ravelry page.