Thanks so very much for all of the comments on my giveaway post. I’ve really enjoyed reading all of the different ways in which we each take pleasure in our free time. I’ve left the choice of winners to the random number generator (see bottom of post) which has come up with…

359 Far From Harm Farm

178 Thistle

Sorry that the chance of winning was a slim one, I’d have liked to give something to everyone who regularly visits here and hopefully the knitters amongst you can make use of the cupcake dress design – I do hope to write up some more free supplements for the animal clothing in future too.

Last week I did manage to finish off the fox patterns which are available now.

The Patterns are on Ravelry though an account is not needed if you want to purchase. The patterns are also on Etsy for anyone who prefers to purchase that way.

Generally though I’m not very well organised on the knitting front at the moment (or on any other front for that matter) and I can’t seem to decide whether to knit and finish more animals or press on with more pattern writing.

I have been enjoying playing around with designs and comparing stranded knitting with Swiss darning / duplicate stitch. I definitely prefer duplicate stitch when working in 5 colours for these dresses.

And I have a lot of animals on the go, mostly heads though as I’m flitting between working on the elephant, monkey and mouse patterns and still have a lot of bodiless fox and bunny heads, poor things!

These are just the stuffed heads I have knitted, I have a lot more empty ones – a bit like my head at the moment!

Anyway, the result of my indecision is that both pattern writing and animal making are getting done but neither one very quickly. Hopefully I shall settle into a more structured way of working once we are fully back in our term time routines. Toby has started back at school in a new class (he’s now in the senior part of the school rather than juniors) and though he seems to be coping OK on the whole he is more unsettled than usual which is putting us all a little on edge. Things will calm down once the new becomes the familiar 🙂

Thanks again for taking the time to leave comments on my giveaway, I really appreciate you stopping by x

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Competition random numbers:

Well the patterns for the seasonal dress collection are done. I’ve bundled 14 different designs into one PDF pattern which includes 3 designs each for Spring, Summer and Autumn attire, 4 for Winter wear and a pretty lace dress for parties and special occasions.

The pattern has 19 pages including a single page with both colour charts and written instructions for each design, an index indicating level of difficulty (most are fairly easy with one or two trickier knits) and full construction details with pictures to show two different options for the sleeve. But if you’re worried about printing all of those pages out you only need to print the 2 pages of instructions and the single page for the pattern you’ve chosen to work on in order to make a dress. The rest of the pattern can sit on your computer for reference and like my bunny patterns all photos are zoomable if you want to see more detail on the fiddly bits. The pattern is available as instant download either on Ravelry or Etsy

I hope everyone who buys a copy really enjoys making their little cotton rabbits a wardrobe of dresses to wear throughout the year.

Now I’m off to do some quiet knitting, rest my brain and catch up with some blog reading – I’m really missing seeing what all my favourite blog people are up to. Thanks as always for dropping in and for supporting my work x

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PS: Lots of people have asked about the other animal patterns (fox, elephant, mouse, monkey etc) and I will be writing up these over the coming months.

They are ready!

Over the last few weeks I’ve been completely immersed in writing up these patterns, knitting test bits, scribbling and crossing out notes all of which my brain has found a bit taxing as it is out of practice in thinking in such detail! Now I feel a little like a mole who has just tunnelled through the last few inches of earth and emerged out into a bright sunny day and I’m feeling a bit disoriented. Still, a few weeks of gentle paced knitting and low brain activity should sort me out and then I should be ready to tackle another couple of patterns. Though I will also be writing some ‘knitting tips’ posts over the coming weeks as there were lots of tips for things like fairisle knitting that were too wordy to go into the patterns.

Anyway, the first two patterns (a boy bunny with a piebald patch and a bunny girl with a dotty dress) are done and ready to share. I’ve listed them on both Ravelry and Etsy as instant downloads which are available directly after payment – no hanging around waiting for me to email files.

Things have been a bit crazy here over the last week too. Building work started on the garden room and it’s been exciting to see it starting to take shape. We now have a floor and the start of walls, though it’s been all swathed in tarpaulin over the weekend against the wind and rain.

Toby has loved exploring and been crawling in through a wall space to sit inside. He is going to have such fun out there when it is done. I’ll tell you more about it all when it’s finished.

Well, I’m off to knit and rest my brain. Have a good week where you are and thanks for all of the encouragement and support for my pattern writing. I just hope that everyone enjoys using the patterns and is pleased with what they make from them. See you soon x