Hello, I hope that your new year has got off to a good start. Toby has started back at college and so I’m just beginning to find my feet after the Christmas break. I am trying to ignore all of the household chores that have built up and instead have spent my morning photographing bears and mice – a much nicer use of time in my opinion.

As I mentioned in the previous post 2023 is a big anniversary year for the Little Cotton Rabbits and me, being 20 years since I started making them and 10 years since I wrote up the bunny patterns. To celebrate I am planning a series of give-aways across this year and this is the first of them.

Free Patterns giveaway…

This giveaway will be for 10 people to win free copies of all of the new ‘Little Cotton Rabbit’ patterns that I produce in 2023 (I’m hoping for at least 5 new patterns). As always I’ll use a random number generator to pick the 10 winners, so to be in with a chance of winning one of these 10 prizes please just leave a comment below, you can simply write enter, or if you have time to spare tell me about something that you are looking forward to this year.

Important note: Only comments left on this post will be counted in the draw. I’m not able to add in comments sent by email, left on a blog reading service or on any location other than this post on my blog. Can I also please ask that you only post once in the draw in order to give everyone a fair and equal chance. Thanks for your kind understanding of these conditions of entry in this free prize draw.

I’ll draw the 10 winners on Monday January 9th 2023 which will be just before the release of the 3 new patterns that I’ve been working on. I’ll be back next week with full details of those.

Enjoy the tail end of your week and thanks as always for dropping in to visit with me, J x

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Edited to add: Comments are now closed, 17.08 Monday January 9th

Here are the winners (I’ve now emailed the patterns, so if you are one of the winners and have not received your first 3 patterns please let me know) J x.

 

57 Alice Smulders said…

You knitted animals are so delightful and they bring joy to all that see them. Thank you.❤️Alice

 

169 Christine Lewis said…

I’m looking forward to being able to sit down and knit some more LCR animals now Christmas is over. Thank you again for such awesome patterns

 

698 Jan said…

I love your patterns (and the company name!). Currently making a lot of mini bunnies for an Easter Garland for my Granddaughter. Can’t believe it’s been 20 years – well done and thank you for all the super designs.

 

1025 Julie Paquet said…

Thank you for this nice giveaway. Happy anniversary!

 

1048 Abby said…

Love your animals! I’m always hoping for a horse 😊

 

1241 Christine Agnew said…

I am now officially obsessed with your little cotton rabbits! My 3 yr old granddaughter insisted on a pink bunny tail on her rabbit so I now ask her what other colours she wants in the dresses. Truly custom made rabbits (though the answer is mostly pink) I have 7 other grandchildren under 6 and they all want one so I am knitting at every opportunity!
Christine

January 05, 2023 at 08:08 PM

 

1248 Teresa said…

Love your cute patterns! I am looking forward to the 2023 new Creations.

 

1623 Roxanne Vanslette said…

I’m so excited for your new patterns! I knitted my first Little Cotton Rabbits pattern last month and I have knitted 6 different animals since and I cannot stop!

 

1892 Beatrice said…

Thank you so much for this beautiful blog, so inspiring, and you marvellous patterns.

I wish you a very happy new year, for you and all your family.

And I hope I will be one of the happy winners. Your patterns are so nice and clearly written.

 

2025 Lisa said…

Love your patterns! Always look forward to seeing your new patterns!

Back on September 3rd I celebrated my 15th blogging anniversary. In previous years (up until 2018) I have held a little celebratory giveaway of finished animals, but the last few years I’ve been so busy with writing patterns that I’ve not actually managed to fully finish many animals (I’ll show you my rather large collection of unfinished ones another time).

To be honest I have deeply missed the joy of just making, because knitting samples for pattern development and step-by-step photos simply does not hold the same peaceful and relaxing pleasure. At heart I am a maker and making these two animals has given me the most knitting pleasure that I’ve felt for quite some time. I hope that they will also bring pleasure to their new owners, which brings me to announce a giveaway.

 

The Giveaway:

To win either this little black bear or grey rabbit all you need to do is leave a comment below.

You can write anything you like (just the word ‘enter’ is enough) but if you have time, I’d love to hear about something that has brought you some recent pleasure and enjoyment.

Your comment is automatically given a number and on Monday November 15th at 12 noon UK time I’ll close the post to further comments and use a random number generator to pick two numbers from all of the entries.

The first number picked will be the first prize winner who will get to choose between the two animal prizes and the second number picked will win the remaining animal.

 

Here’s a more detail description of the prizes:

The little black bear is knitted from Camarose Snefnug yarn in 7313 and comes with a pair of brown dungarees knitted from Krea deluxe organic cotton shade 53, a little cream blouse knitted in Krea deluxe organic cotton in shade 02, a light brown cardi knitted in hand dyed yarn from the Wool Barn, a scarf knitted in The Uncommon Thread Lush worsted yarn in ‘Belle Epoch’, a cream dress with knitted leaf design and two pairs of shoes; a light brown pair with eyelet detailing and a plain dark brown pair. The extra outfit will be packed in a little tin suitcase from Maileg.

The little grey bunny is knitted in 1 strand of Rowan Alpaca Classic in ‘feather grey melange’ held with 1 strand of Rowan Kidsilk haze and comes with a pair of brown dungarees knitted from Krea deluxe organic cotton in shade 53, a little cream blouse knitted in Krea deluxe organic cotton in shade 02, a light brown cardi knitted in hand dyed yarn from the Wool Barn, a red scarf knitted in Rowan kidsilk haze in ‘ruby’, a brown dress with embroidered toadstools and two pairs of shoes; a red pair with eyelet detailing and a plain brown pair. The extra outfit will be packed in a little tin suitcase from Maileg.

Wooden toadstools, pinecones etc. are not included and are just used in the pictures as props.

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To recap: Leave a comment below to be in with a chance of winning one of these two animals and their assorted clothing (giveaway is now closed). Giveaway closes at 12 noon on Monday 15th November.

Please can I ask, only one comment per person, thanks J x

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The number for the first prize is:

 

 

The number for the second prize is:

 

 

 

Back on September 3rd it was my 12th anniversary of starting this blog, and in keeping with tradition (which admittedly lapsed a bit last year) I'm going to celebrate (a little belatedly) with a giveaway.

In this crate are fourteen little animals that have been patiently waiting for me to finish them for most of this year and I am now nearing the point of completing them all. I will be putting them up for sale soon, but before I do I'm going to pick 2 comments at random from any comments left on this blog post, and those 2 people can each pick their favourite one as their prize. The draw is open to anyone and I'm happy to post for free anywhere in the world. If you'd like to be included just leave a comment below. You can write anything you like, it really doesn't matter, but if you have time I'd love for you to tell me about anything that has made you happy this week.

Please can I just ask:

A. Just one comment per person, and

B. Make sure you fill out you email address in the space provided (not in the actual comment field as there it will be displayed for all to see) so that I can contact you if yours is the comment picked.

This post will be open for comments until 12 noon on Friday 26th October (a week from now). At that point I will close the comments and use an online random number generator to pick 2 comments, the first drawn will have 1st choice of the available animals and the second drawn will have 2nd choice. Oh, and please don't leave a comment on bloglovin or any other blog following service, as those will not be counted – only comments left right here on this post will be eligible for the draw.

Thanks so much for following me here, I know some of you have been popping in almost since the beginning of my adventures in blog land and some of you are new visitors. Whoever and wherever you are, please know that I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to stop by and I love reading your comments when you have time to leave them. This blog is such a source of support and friendship to me and I hope to keep it going for a long time yet. I hope you'll continue to join me when you can,

J x

 

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Thanks so much to everyone who has taken the time to leave a comment here, together all of the comments are a wonderful collection of diverse, heartwarming, moving and personal accounts of what happiness can be. Thanks for sharing xxx

Here are the winners:

The first number that has been generated is 498, which is Nina Chester

Thanks again to all who entered, J xxx