Category: crafts & knitting

crafts & knitting · foxes in my garden · garden stuff · general stuff · wildlife

Spring, maybe?

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)17 Comments

 

 

It’s been so wet here, rain has fallen for weeks on end and many of our familiar pathways through the woods are now well beyond muddy and are completely flooded and impassable. It’s been mild too, we’ve only had a few frosts here this winter and everything now seems to be sprouting and proclaiming the arrival of Spring. Hopefully it’s not too soon and there are no snow storms just around the corner.

The old plum tree in the garden is currently in blossom, though with all the rain it’s been hard to get good pictures. Usually I post with pictures of it’s beautiful frothy white blossom against bright blue skies, but this year it’s rain soaked blossom. It’s still a lovely sight though and has been a magnet for the growing local population of green parakeets, who’ve been enjoying feasting on the unopened flower buds, sometimes 6 of them in the tree at a time.

We’ve also had daily visits from Squidgy the squirrel who now scrabbles at the back door to get our attention each morning and who loves Brazil nuts best of all. Up until a couple of weeks ago Kit was also visiting frequently and always in daylight. Now however it seems as if we have a new friendly fox, who always visits in the dark. It’s so unusual for a wild fox to tolerate being visible to humans, usually as soon as they see or hear you they disappear into the shadows and are gone. But this new fox is much bolder and, like Kit, stays in the garden when we come out of the house, she sits a safe distance away, ready to run if the need arises but looking hopefully for a snack of one of Toby’s cocktail sausages, which I’m more than happy to share with her. Amy has named her Kira and she’s been visiting every day for the last week. I’m not sure if that means Kit has been turfed off her territory again (a while back she disappeared for many months) and we are wondering, because of the bold behaviour, if Kira is actually one of Kit’s cubs that were raised in our garden in 2020. No way to know of course, I’m just delighted to be able to see these beautiful wild creatures up close.

In between planning for Toby (hopefully we’re nearing the final stages of that all now) I have of course been knitting. I’ve been wanting to knit a lamb in spring green colours, I’m so drawn to green as a colour at the moment, but am dithering about what shade to knit in, I find it’s one of the more difficult colours to choose tonal shades in. Hopefully I’ll reach a decision and finish a spring lamb soon.

Hope that you’re finding small joys in your days, J x

 

countryside · crafts & knitting · in the woods

A little lull

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)17 Comments

There’s currently a lull in our planning for Toby and a temporary reprieve from paperwork, so I’m enjoying decompressing a little with regular walks out in the woods.

Although winter still has the countryside in it’s grip, there are signs that a change is coming, and the first flower of the year is now in bloom, the glorious snowdrop. I never feel right picking wildflowers to bring home, they all have an integral part in the wild eco-system, so I take only photos when I’m out and about, but the snowdrops in the little glass jar (clothed in beautifully made crochet by my friend Esther) were garden-grown and gifted to me by my cousin-in-law Nicky and are a beautiful reminder of their wild kin that are carpeting the woods right now.

Inspired by their delicate colouring, I have also enjoyed knitting myself a new hat. It’s the Alpine Bloom hat from Caitlin Hunter of Boyland Knitworks and I’ve used some lovely Hampshire 4ply yarn from The Little Grey Sheep (colourways ‘hellebore’ and ‘naturally’).  I don’t often wear green but I’m feeling drawn to it as a colour at the moment, probably because there is such a lack of it in the countryside over winter. Spring is on the way though, and long summer days will be following, all things to look forward to on a dark winter’s evening.

There is a little gentle-paced pattern writing going on here again too, I’ll show you more when it’s a little further along, ’til next time I hope life is treating you kindly, J x

crafts & knitting

End of year ponderings

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)36 Comments

small boots (for 7 inch animals):

Large boots (for 9 inch animals):

 

At the beginning of 2023 I had such big plans: I was going to write lots of patterns; make lots of finished animals, some to sell and some to give away; reply to all of my emails; reply to all instagram, facebook and blog comments; comment on everyone’s projects on Ravelry and the facebook group and write some new tutorials.

As always I was overly ambitious and didn’t factor in that the time I have available to work in and the time it takes to do all of these things simply doesn’t match up. I still have the pictures for the tutorials sat here waiting for the words, I was erratic at best at commenting on other people’s projects and replying to comments and I still have unanswered email in my various inboxes. There was only one give-away and a handful of (OK, three) finished animals (including the one above which I can now show as she has arrived in her new home with one of the kindest people I know). If someone was writing my report card, they would say ‘must try harder’.

Still, I did do pretty well on the pattern writing front, with new patterns for small mice, small bears, small sweaters, horses and cows.

And last week I upgraded both the 7 inch and 9 inch removable shoes patterns to include 6 styles of boot: There are 2 main boot options: a hiking boot and a fur topped boot, and by changing some of the details on these (as detailed in the pattern) you can also make a pair of wellies, Yeti style apres ski boots, saftey work boots and iconic DMs. So in total there are 6 boot options in both the 9 inch and 7 inch sizes, see pictures above.

Rather than releasing the boots as a new pattern I’ve decided that I wanted to gift them to everyone who has previously bought a copy of the removable shoes patterns:

  • If you bought either of the removable shoes patterns on Ravelry or my blog then you should already have had a message in your Ravelry inbox (or in your email) with a link to the upgraded version of that pattern.
  • If you purchased via Etsy please log into your Etsy account and send me a message there, then I can access your details and manually email you a new download link.
  • If you’ve not bought either pattern yet then buying it now will give you the new boots pattern included at no extra cost, though I will be putting up the prices to reflect the extra that’s included on these 2 patterns in January 2024. 9 inch shoes and boots are here, 7 inch shoes and boots are here.

Well, I’m going to sign off now until the new year. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be spending time with my family, just pottering around without much purpose and enjoying a slower pace to my days. Thank you so much for visiting me here, for all of your kind comments and messages over this year and for supporting my work and enabling me to provide for my family through my pattern writing,

my very warmest best wishes for the season to you and yours, J x