Category: summer

garden stuff · general stuff · summer

summer hols

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)46 Comments

The school summer holidays have arrived here. Amy is excited and busy making all sorts of plans to be out with friends, while I’m doing my best not to feel panic at the thought of 43 days to fill with activities for Toby. Previous experience though has taught me to take each day as it finds us and go with the flow as much as possible, so in some ways I feel prepared and he does have a few CHIPs club and respite days booked in so I’ll definitely be putting my feet up with my knitting on those days. As usual we’re holidaying at home but I’m happy with that. With the new room at the end of the garden and the weather being so hot and sunny it feels just like being on holiday in the Mediterranean but without all the hot and bothered hassle of actually getting there 🙂

The warm weather paired with lots of watering has really helped the plants grow here. My little mixed bed of herbs, vegetables and flowers is doing very nicely, and I’m really pleased with the rusted iron plant support which is forming a frame for dwarf french beans to climb. H has worked so hard and completed all the paving and laid new grass. And the room itself is now completely finished and getting lots of use. It feels like a little haven of peace and a place for year round holidays for us all.

So that’s us for the holidays, what are you up to?

Whether you’re venturing afar or staying at home I wish you happy times. I plan to pop in from time to time so hope to see you soon x

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PS: If you’re a bunny knitter and have made one from my patterns then please come over and join the little cotton rabbits ravelry group. At the moment we’re have a fun and friendly contest 🙂 with the theme of bunnies on vacation.

autism · crafts & knitting · general stuff · summer

summer days

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)39 Comments

Summer has arrived here in this little corner of England. The last few days have been wonderful weather-wise and over the weekend our whole family has been outside  – the sunshine even coaxed Amy out of the teenage stereotype of preferring bedroom living 🙂

I’ve been sitting in the shade at the end of the garden and working on some end of term presents for Toby’s teachers. I plan to pair each strawberry bookmark with a pretty note book and pencil and wrap them up nicely.

Free pattern from Pezdiva (with a few adaptations).

Toby has of course been enjoying bouncing, swinging and paddling

even the chicken has been enjoying the hot weather with a paddle in her own pool

Poor H has been the only one not relaxing or keeping cool – he’s still been hard at work building paths and paving around the garden room.

I am also working on a little batch of knitted animals. It’s been a while since I offered any for sale so I hope to have them finished soon, I’ll post some pictures when they’re ready.

Talking of knitting, thanks so much to Love Knitting for featuring little cotton rabbits as their blog of the week last week.

Thanks too to all of the people who sent me emails and messages about the book of the week on radio 4. ‘The reason I jump‘ is written by Naoki Higashida an autistic boy living in Japan and takes the form of questions put to him and his answers. It is a fascinating and thought-provoking insight into the world seen from an autistic perspective. My copy arrived yesterday and I’m already halfway through (and scribbling notes to myself as I go). The introduction by David Mitchell is brilliant and any parent of an autistic child will be nodding in agreement and probably like me welling up with tears at reading things that so often go unsaid.

The book itself is revelatory and has again made me tearful many times, both in recognition of the huge implications it could have in the way that others perceive those with autism and because current state schooling often deeply underestimates and mis-interprets many autistic children. My head is literally buzzing and I’m trying to think where we go from here in order to give Toby a way of communicating all that is in his head (rather than just his basic wants), because there is a lot more going on in there than most people give him credit for. I’d urge anyone involved with any aspect of caring for autistic people to read this book, it is an eye-opener and has the potential to change lives.

Thanks as always for popping in to visit. See you again soon, J x

crafts & knitting · garden stuff · summer

Hello

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)45 Comments

Hello and sorry to have been away so long – I’ve become a pattern-writing recluse again! The response to the bunny patterns completely overwhelmed me and it’s been fantastic to see so many of them popping up on ravelry and to have so many lovely people come and join in conversations on the group. It’s clear that lots of people would like to make their bunnies different clothes so I’ve put the animal patterns on the back burner for a bit and have been drawing charts and writing instructions for a wardrobe of dress designs.

I’m almost done though I’ve gone a bit crossed eyed and brain addled from the process and of course I’ve fallen behind again with everything else that I should be doing, I am not terribly good at multi-tasking these days. I have made time in the evenings though to make a new cushion for the garden room. It matches the misty afghan that I made a while back which has found a new home on the sofa that was delivered last week.

The garden room is getting lots of use now that there is something to sit on but I’ll wait until all the furniture is delivered before taking more pictures. Outside is starting to come together nicely although there is still lots of paving and stuff to finish off. I’ve planted up one of my raised beds with carrots, lettuce, beetroot and french beans. Keeping the insect netting on just looked too scruffy so I’ve decided to try a bit of barrier planting instead.

I’ve used mostly strong smelling herbs (hopefully to distract any unwanted munchers like carrot root fly) and have also planted some flowers to attract the pollinators and hoverflies whose larvae feed on aphids and leafhoppers. We will see how it develops and how my veggies grow this year without netting.

Well I hope to pop back soon with news of the dresses pattern and I was hoping to have another animal pattern ready before the start of the summer holidays but time is fast running out, this year has gone unbelievably quickly. I’m also hoping to finish of a bunch of bunnies soon, so will keep you posted on that if you’re on the mailing list.

Hope you have a good week. Thanks for dropping in x