A thank you from the heart

April 23, 2012 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)20 Comments

It’s been an emotional weekend here and I’ve been reduced to tears many times. But they’ve been tears of the good sort, brought on by kind messages from people I’ve never met and the hugely generous donations to the CHIPs fund. There are no words to adequately express the gratitude and sense of wonderment that I feel right now, the generosity and kindness of everyone is quite overwhelming.

Shawl

Today I’m having a quiet start to the week with my knitting. I’m mostly working on bunnies at the moment but the Old Mossy Wall Shawl is also gradually growing when time and inclination coincide. This is about a weeks worth of gentle paced knitting.

Shawl5

Amy calls this the ‘mouldy old wall shawl’ – she is most unimpressed by my colour choices but I think a mother and daughter probably should have different tastes in accessories and I’m quite pleased with how it’s turning out.

Thanks again to everyone for the messages, emails and donations, I am so very grateful and truly moved by the support that everyone has shown.

Fundraising for CHIPs and a giveaway

April 19, 2012 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)58 Comments

On April 29th Amy and I are going to take part in a 10k sponsored walk to help raise funds for CHIPs CHIPs (Childrens Integrated Playschemes). For a couple of years now Toby has been going to a regular saturday morning club organised by this charity. Although it's only held every couple of weeks it has become part of Toby's routine and he always gets excited when I get his CHIPs T-shirt out because he really enjoys his visits there.

All of the team are hugely dedicated and work so well together to keep the children happy and entertained. Toby's visits there in term time and the school holidays give him a chance to interact with others and while he's having fun H and I have time to spend with Amy and each other. But the costs of running such schemes are of course huge and although parents pay towards the sessions most of the money needed to fund special equipment and one-to-one staffing is raised by charity events and donations:

Imagine, as a child, having nowhere to play, rarely going out and having few friends to have fun with. Horrible isn’t it? Yet that is the situation facing many disabled children today due to the continuing lack of support and understanding of disability in society. It is CHIPS goal to provide a fun, safe and integrated environment for children of all ages to play and socially interact.

CHIPS is only part funded by Councils which mean that we rely heavily upon fundraising and the kind generosity of people like you.

Source: CHIPs website

We have just heard the the council have reduced their funding to CHIPs from this year and so the need to raise funds is even more urgent than in previous years.

That is why my lovely friend Hazel (herself the mum of a sweet autistic son called Jack) has organised this sponsored walk and why Amy and I will be joining in. We have set up a fundraising page and would really appreciate any sponsorship donation that you're able to make, however small because any money raised will really benefit families like ours and CHIPs now supports over 225 families with children like Toby.

I am also having a little giveaway and will include anyone who makes a donation in a random draw to win this spring bunny.

Charitybunny

On Monday April 30th I'll draw one name with a random number generator from all of those who have donated and that person will win her.

Thanks so much x

crafts & knitting

a new one-a-day

April 16, 2012 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)36 Comments

We did have a good Easter break, I hope you did too. We saw family and friends, had days out, a posh lunch and a fiftieth wedding anniversary party. Toby really enjoyed his few days of respite over the 2 weeks and with him out of the house having fun I even had some time to knit. There was of course some bunny knitting but I also had the urge to work on something new.

Koigu

I've really been missing having a one a day project on the go, a simple and uncomplicated something to slowly nurture in the quiet moments at the end of each day. I have been pondering crochet projects and I did make a tentative start on a cushion but I'm not finding crochet satisfying at the moment and I think I'm back in knit mode again. I sat for a while browsing on ravelry and flickr, musing through favourited projects and it occurred to me that although I've favourited lots of shawls I have never actually made one, so I think a shawl may be just the thing to fit the bill for my next one-a-day project.

I have picked out a pattern; Whippoorwill by Carina Spencer, my needles are primed and my chosen yarn has just arrived…

Koigu2

I've opted for Koigu's Painters Palette yarn in 'stone mix' and 'dark khaki'. Though I love the natural tones in both of these colourways, I'm not sure if this combination will work out so I also have some Madeline Tosh sock yarn which will play understudy to the khaki and step in if it's a little discordant. In view of the colours I think I shall call this project the 'Old Mossy Wall Shawl'.

Koigu5

I've wound my first skein and I'm all set. To begin with I'll work a few rows a day but once I'm on the long edge it will definitely be one a day – I'm not especially looking forward to those 300+ stitch rows!

Yarn2