October ramblings

October 9, 2017 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)23 Comments

Void2

Slowworm

Slow worm

Slowworm2

Cows

Cows3

Cows2

Woollies

At the end of last week I went walking in a local nature reserve at Broxbourne woods where I was delighted to come across a slow worm sunbathing on the path. Although he looks very snake-like and does have a forked tongue he is actually a legless lizard (apparently his ability to blink and shed his tail make him not a snake). He was so blissed out in the patch of sunlight that I had to step over him and even though I took lots of photos of him he didn't seem bothered by me. He'll probably be starting his winter hibernation in the next month so I expect he's extra bold on these last sunny, warm afternoons while he tops up his tan!

I also met a group of lovely ladies. These beautiful Red Poll cattle have been introduced to the pasture in a habitat conservation project involving legacy grazing. The Red Poll breed is native to the East of England and they certainly looked very at home and were completely relaxed about me walking through their field.

Whilst out and about I've been enjoying the cosy warmth of the void shawl (pattern and yarn details in link on my Ravelry project page). The yarn is really soft and comfortable to wear and the shawl is pretty flexible, looped twice or three times depending on how cold the breeze is. The pom-poms are still in place despite Toby's attentions and I'm hoping he'll be able to help me to make him some pom-poms of his own to play with as a distraction from playing with mine.

Back at home I've been finishing off patterns, starting new socks and getting winter woollies out of storage ready for wearing. I've also been enjoying the October issue 79 of Knit Now magazine which has an interview with me as part of the Knitter of the year awards that I won a prize in earlier in the year. The awards nominations for 2017 have just opened so if you'd like to nominate someone then head over to their page for more details.

Well, I'm off to continue with pattern writing, won't be long now I promise – hopefully I'll be back with news in the next post, til then keep well – there seem to be coughs and colds everywhere at the moment so fingers crossed you avoid them x

crafts & knitting · magazine features

knitting constancy

July 3, 2016 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)47 Comments

Throughout all the ups and downs that life can bring, knitting is always there as a comforting part of my days. Though I might have temporarily misplaced my blog voice I can always find something knitted to share with you, so I thought I'd pop in and show you what has been occupying my needles lately.

Bunnypair

As always there have been bunnies. This pair are mostly knitted from a discontinued ball of Rowan Scottish Tweed in 'porridge' that I had stashed. I love the little brown neps peppered throughout and am feeling rather sad that this is now all used up. Here I paired it with a strand of cream Rowan Kidsilk Haze for fuzziness and used a brown alpaca yarn for contrast.

Yarns do come and go and it's always a bit disappointing when a favourite is discontinued. My favourite yarn for knitting animal clothing has always been Rowan 4ply cotton (which was discontinued years ago) and although I still have a fair amount of it stashed I have been hunting around for a good replacement ever since. Happily I've now found it in BC Garn's Alba. This is a soft, matt, organic cotton yarn (not mercerised) and comes in a beautiful range of colours, some and bright and jewel-like and some muted, subtle tones (which are the ones I like the best). The knitted fabric drapes beautifully and I'm having fun playing with ideas for new dresses in this lovely palette of colours (the blue swatch below is a discontinued Rowan 4ply).

Bcgarn

I bought the colours above from Loop and Love knitting stock some of the colour range.

Clothes

There's also been excitement recently at the arrival of the morning post which in the last two weeks has brought me two wonderful magazines kindly mentioning my work. The first was the June edition of Australian Homespun which had a lovely write up about the cat patterns and the sweaters.

Magazine articles

The second is the current Issue 148 of Simply Knitting which has an interesting article on blogging, featuring interviews with 4 knitting bloggers (of which I was one). It's always a lovely feeling (and a little surreal) to see yourself in print and I'm hugely flattered to have been included in both of these publications.

Well, I'm off to make some breakfast and rouse the rest of the family, who are all still snoozing. See you soon and until then best wishes for a very happy 4th July to all my friends in the USA x

crafts & knitting · magazine features

magazines and a cuppa

December 12, 2014 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)32 Comments

It's rather dingy, wet and windy here today, so the best option is to snuggle up with some knitting, a hot cup of tea and some nice magazines.

Magazines

And these magazines are particularly nice for me to flick through because I'm in them 🙂

Many thanks to Lizzie at Simply Knitting for the interview in issue 128 and to Danielle at the beautiful Artful Blogging for featuring my blog header in their 'banners we love' section of the Nov/Dec/Jan 2015 issue.

Cuppa2

The gloves I'm making are Vagabond fingerless mittens by Misa Erder and I'm enjoying trying out the magic loop technique for the main part of them. It looks complicated but once you get used to it, it is quite straight forward. The pattern itself is lovely, I particularly like the construction of the thumb.

Ok I'm off to knit a bit more before Toby gets home. Wishing you a good weekend and hopefully a relaxing one – though it's so often a manic time of year isn't it?