Happy Easter

April 2, 2015April 30, 2026 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)36 Comments

Where did March go? I don’t know how the last couple of weeks have been with you but here they have fairly flown by. I had meant to write more posts about the knitting I’m doing and about the chickens (who are settled in nicely now) and about garden stuff but time has run out and there are just a few short hours until the school Easter break starts, so those will have to wait until the children are back at school at the end of the month.

Until then I thought I’d pop in briefly with some spring-feeling photos…

The plum tree is in blossom but we had some really high winds at the beginning of this week so some of the smaller branches and twigs have snapped. A few of these blossomy twigs paired with a handful of muscari from the garden are brightening up our table and happily the tree is still looking beautiful in its frothy white finery.

After sunset we’ve been planet watching as Venus has been especially bright just above the horizon to the west and the first visible star in the evening sky (seen here above the fingernail moon). I love star gazing – it makes me feel so small and humble in the face of the mind-boggling enormity of space. I find it a good way to hang on to a sense of perspective when life feels a little overwhelming.

Do you like the little knitted nest above? I am so happy with it, made in just under an hour this morning from scraps of yarn and using Annie’s lovely and generously-shared free pattern (scroll to page bottom on the link). I’m not sure how long the little candy-covered chocolate eggs will stay in there though!

Well, I’m off for a quiet cup of tea and some precious knitting time (and maybe one or two of those chocolate eggs) while I can enjoy the peace and quiet. Hope you have a lovely Easter, see you soon x

crafts & knitting · general stuff

cosy (part 2)

March 6, 2015April 30, 2026 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)82 Comments

It has taken me ages to write this post, partly because the days have been dark and dingy and so no good for indoor photography but mostly because my bedroom was a complete pig sty and I was too ashamed to take photos in there before I’d tidied up a bit. Now however I have shifted the pile of washing that was beside the bed, gathered up the errant lego bricks and hoovered up the biscuit crumbs that Toby leaves everywhere in his wake and for a short while I have a neat and tidy room.

The 2nd misty blanket has turned out well and I’m enjoying snuggling under it at night. I ended up making 11 x 11 squares so a total of 121 which is a good fit for a king-size bed. I’ve used more structure in the placement of the colours than I did with the first misty blanket that I made – alternate rows of pink and orange centres interspersed with aqua, green and teal. Each square has 4 rounds of mixed neutral grey, cream and beige tones and is topped off with one round of charcoal grey. Then the whole thing was ringed with 5 rounds of charcoal and finally 3 alternate single crochet rows of silver, cream and silver. It’s big, pleasing to my eye and definitely cosy.

Having the blanket on the bed however has made me realise how much I want to change the paint colour in our room. H finished painting in there a few weeks before Amy was born so we’ve had this deep blue for nearly 16 years now and I’m tired of it. I’m feeling that a lovely soft, dove grey colour would be calm and perfect, anyone have any paint suggestions?

Happy weekend all, it looks like being a warm one here so I may have to go and take my blanket off again!

countryside · general stuff · winter

calmer

February 13, 2015April 30, 2026 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)59 Comments

Thanks so much for all of the kind and lovely comments on the previous post. This week has been a lot less dramatic and Toby has been happily at school without incident. For me there has been a lot of knitting, for in knitting my heart knows calm; some tea, cake and laughter with friends and a lovely peaceful woodland walk amongst the snowdrops which are just beginning to break bud.

I took 133 pictures on my wood walk (and got very muddy knees in the process) and there were just too many of them that I wanted to show you, so I made a little film.

Note: To see the snowdrops at their best it’s worth cranking it up to HD which you can do by clicking the little thing shaped like a cog and moving the slider to 1080p HD at the top, after a moment you should get a little HD in red by the cog and then you can re-start the film with better quality.