Puffed out

May 21, 2015April 30, 2026 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)72 Comments

Firstly, thanks so very, very much for all the wonderfully kind comments on the previous post about Tobys hair. I was so touched to read them and wish I could share them with Toby and have him understand all of the lovely compliments you gave him.

Secondly, sorry to not have been around much recently. I seem to have done something to my elbow and it’s needed some rest as even typing for more than a short while has been a bit painful. Scraping down the chicken run every few days probably hasn’t helped but I think making these puffs may be the main cause…

A couple of weeks back I decided to start a cushion to match the blanket that I’m slowly working on (see below) and I’ve always loved Alicia’s Sunshine day afghan, so that seemed the perfect choice of pattern. Once I got going on the puff making I became a bit hooked on them and made lots in one day. The following day I paid the price for my puff over-indulgence with a very sore elbow and it’s taking ages to feel better.

Needless to say this project is now having a snooze at the bottom of my knitting bag. I really like how it looks and hopefully I’ll be able to pick it up when my elbow doesn’t hurt so much. In the meantime small bursts of knitting seem to be OK, which is a relief as I’d get incredibly grumpy rather quickly if I wasn’t able to knit!

And here’s where the crochet blanket is up to so far, but with my sore elbow it will be a while before it gets much bigger.

In other news, the garden is blooming. My squash and courgette plants are now in their permanent home and growing fast. The kale and broccoli are all doing well under the netting but the poor bean and pea seedlings have been decimated by slugs who come out to munch on them each night. Still most things are faring better and the chives are exploding like little flowery fireworks.

The chickens are happy and laying an egg each most days – evidently I need to make more things that use eggs as we’ve built up quite a stock! You’ll see there’s a particularly large egg in the middle which I’m pretty sure is a double yolker as we’ve had a few already. I’ve not yet been able to work out which of the ladies is laying these but I don’t remember having any with our previous hens so these are special.

The weather this week has been all over the place, sunshine one minute and huge cloud-burst downpours of rain and hail the next – not fun if you get caught out in it but the rainbows after the storms have been especially bright and lovely.

Next week is school half term break but I hope to be back with some knitting news once we’re back into our term time routines again. Until then, thanks for visiting and best wishes for happy times x

crafts & knitting · summer

an at home holiday (part 1)

August 19, 2014April 30, 2026 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)63 Comments

As you might have noticed if you visit with me often, I do rather a lot of knitting but sewing is never part of my days and in truth is something that I find slightly scary. I’ve never felt that I was much good at it – probably thanks to the disparaging comments of my teacher about the skirt that I made in needlework class (though they were not undeserved – it was an awful skirt and was never worn). I do envy those of you who can effortlessly whip up new outfits from beautiful and unusual fabrics but the intricacies of insetting a zip or hemming on the bias bring me out in a cold sweat. Sewing by hand though is something I can just about handle (though not something I’ve done for years and years) and when I saw the achingly sweet little animal kits that Alicia (Posie gets Cozy) created a few years ago I had to buy one. It has sat on a shelf ever since waiting for the perfect moment, and that moment arrived earlier this week.

Cutting into the first piece of pristine felt made me rather nervous – the kit is so beautifully presented and I really didn’t want to mess up, but happily I got all of the pieces snipped out safely and I settled down in the intermittent sunshine with my radio and a cup of tea for some quiet and therapeutic stitching.

On the first day I sewed miss Maggie herself and yesterday I worked on her clothes. The fabrics that came with the kit are lovely but I wanted to use some from my stash and so I substituted a dotty blue for her inner ears and used a different fabric for her dress (which is probably a little too heavyweight but I am in love with the pattern). I added a scalloped crochet edging to her cape and also made a little pair of woolly socks (which were not part of the pattern) as it gets a little chilly round here in the winter and warm socks are definitely needed, though they have made her boots a bit of a snug fit.

Working quietly on this little bunny over my two recent Toby free days has been so enjoyable and I feel a bit sad to have finished her. I’ve kept the pattern pages intact though (tracing the pieces onto baking parchment paper) so I may well make another one in the future. I am really thrilled that she has turned out so well and rather surprised (given my lack of sewing skills) though I shouldn’t really be as the pattern is exactly what I would expect from Alicia, well thought out, perfectly explained and very sweet.

Having a finished bunny on my shelf instead of just a kit is making me happy and I’m rather in love with her.

That’s item number 2 ticked off my ‘holiday at home’ list and I’ve found my two Toby-free sewing days very relaxing – it’s definitely been nice to do something that I’d not normally do. As a result I’m all topped up on positive energy and ready to tackle the upcoming Toby-full days 🙂

crafts & knitting · garden stuff · general stuff · summer

summery snippets

August 5, 2014April 30, 2026 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)37 Comments

Some moments from the first two weeks of our school break…

Amy’s summer hair, dip-dyed blue (which will hopefully wash out before she goes back to school or it will be time to get the scissors out!)
Days of absolutely torrential rain fall (with some local flooding) and others full of sun and red skies at dusk, all of which make for a lovely lush garden.
we’re having a good harvest of peas, lettuce and broccoli but the french beans have been rubbish thanks to the slugs back in spring. I’m rather excited about my kuri squash plant which is growing like stink and the squash themselves are like little balloons which get bigger each time I look at them. I’m looking forward to making squash soup if we get enough of them.
Toby is enjoying the garden too, kicking back in his swing with his lego and occasionally having a burst of energy on the trampoline. We’ve also been swimming a few times and had lots of walks in the cool woods which have been lovely on the hottest of days (no pictures yet as Toby doesn’t like me to stop – he likes to keep moving when we’re out walking.)
There’s even been a little knitting. This was taken at 10.15pm this evening when I was cowl knitting by candlelight in support of the #LightsOut campaign commemorating the start of the first world war 100 years ago. #LightsOut’s inspiration stems from the then foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey’s famous remark on the eve of the outbreak of the war. He said: “The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our life-time”. Britain declared war on Germany at 11pm on 4 August 1914.

So with that sobering thought, I’m off to bed feeling grateful that those dark days of 1914-18 are long distant and hoping that we don’t see the like of them again.