workshops

January 11, 2013 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)49 Comments

Well, I'm getting back into my term-time stride again: I've caught up with the washing, tidied up the house from the Christmas bits, started bunny making again in earnest and am now feeling settled after the flurry of unsettledness that dominates during school holidays. I'm also feeling excited at the thought of some new things that are happening here this year. We are planning big changes to the garden which will hopefully make family life a lot easier when Toby is having meltdowns, but more of that another time because today my head is full of thoughts about workshops.

Mini bunnies1

Towards the end of last year a wonderful new craft shop opened in one of my local towns and after chatting with Angela the lovely owner I am now going to be teaching a couple of workshops there. I'm really looking forward to passing on some of my tips for neat finishing techniques. I know I'm a bit unusual in loving seaming and the like but hopefully some of my enthusiasm will help others to enjoy the more fiddly bits of knitting.

Shop

The Creative Sanctuary, Hertford, SG14 1AS

My first workshop is on Tuesday February 5th and will be a 3 hour
session making mini bunnies*. I'll be covering various finishing
techniques including mirrored/paired decreasing, mattress stitch
seaming, i-cords and anchored french knots and hopefully everyone will
go away with a finished mini bunny ready for Easter. If you are
interested in booking a place the link is here: Finishing techniques workshop.

Minibuns1

The next workshop is in March and I'm planning to make knitted Easter eggs and there will hopefully be a hedgehog workshop in May, but I'll post details about them nearer the time.

If you are in Hertford any time please pop into the Creative Sanctuary and say hello to Angela. She's so knowledgable and entusiastic about crafts and always gives a very friendly welcome to any visitors. You may even bump into me browsing yarn or buying new needles!

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* My free pattern for a mini bunny is here and if you use different weights of yarn and needle sizes you can make a family of different sized ones. The three above were made from chunky yarn on 4mm needles, DK yarn on 3.25mm needles and 4ply yarn on 2.25mm needles.

2012 in pictures

January 5, 2013 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)50 Comments

Today Toby is at CHIPs club and Amy is out with a friend so I'm really enjoying the peace and quiet of a couple of hours all to myself. I thought I'd pop in briefly and share a few of my favourite pictures from the last year, a few of the things that brought me smiles and pleasure…

2012pics

1. edge, 2. a bundle of bunnies, 3. blossom, 4. Misty morning in autumn afghan, 5. garden, 6. waiting for arms…, 7. campout, 8. carrots, 9. line, 10. hedgies, 11. misty afghan, 12. packing

Hopefully there will be plenty to smile about in 2013.

We've had a good start here at our house, the first day of the year was bright and beautiful and Toby and I were awake at dawn to see the sun rise and then off to the woods for a lovely walk – a perfect start to a bright new year. Amy and I have been busy in the kitchen with our new years resolution to bake more…

Lemoncake

Lemonycake

These are little lemony yoghurty 'baby bundt' cakes from Nigella Lawson's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess'. Tomorrow we are making cheese scones – though all this baking does put in jeopardy my second resolution to loose a bit of weight! My only other new years resolution is to try to worry less about things I cannot change and focus on each day at a time. Have you made any resolutions this year?

I'll be back properly next week after the children are back to school and I've caught up with some much neglected housework – look forward to catching up with you then.

general stuff

christmassy snippets

December 31, 2012 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)47 Comments

On the last day of term I sent in my usual teacher christmas presents of peppermint bark

Pepbark2

we made some cakes for a charity fundraiser, and went a bit mad with the edible glitter

Christmascakes

H assembled our Christmas tree (with much cursing at the fact that all the colour coded stickers had dropped off the branches but I think the random branch lengths add to the 'realness')

and the lovely miss Amy decorated it.

Christmastree

I smile every time I walk past the tree because it is dotted with my growing collection of treasured handmade decorations from bloggy friends: the beautiful stained glass bird from Kristen, The sweet Christmas angel from Dottycookie and the lovely Miss Ivy Pecker from Jooles.

Christmas decorations

Anyway, we've had a relatively good Christmas and the day itself was
quite peaceful. As usual the excitement and magic of the festivities
passed Toby by completely but on Christmas morning, for the first time ever, he showed some interest in opening his pressies. It was lovely to see him working out how to get the paper off and being interested in what was inside. Even though it was a fleeting moment it brought a tear to my eye, in a good way – the perfect Christmas present for me.

Tobyprssies