Autumny

October 19, 2010 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)37 Comments

Walks in the woods are definitely best at this time of year and Toby & I collected lots of different leaves on our walk last weekend. It got me thinking about hedgehogs and hibernation and made me want to come back home and get cracking on a little batch of autumny hedgehog pincushions with leaves on them.

I had lots of fun last year with shrinkle sheets and leaf shapes but couldn't find the sketches I made back then so I've made some new templates which you're welcome to use too.

Just trace them onto a shrinkle sheet (my favourite are the frosted ones – which make it easy to trace an image underneath), colour in with coloured pencils, punch a hole and bake them in the oven to shrink them into tiny little leaves. I use mine as pin toppers for the hedgehogs but they'd work as jewellery, keyrings or phone tags too.

Red & Green

October 15, 2010 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)34 Comments

It's tidy up time in my garden. The last of our potatoes, tomatoes, carrots and squash are gathered in for another year with just the parsnips left to be pulled after Christmas, as apparently they grow sweeter after a couple of frosts. I'm left with a bowl of green tomatoes which will probably get turned into chutney.

Around the rest of the garden greens are turning to reds – I do love autumn leaves.

There's even a spot of green and red knitting going on inside. I'm really enjoying playing around with new ideas for a batch of nordic animals which will be ready to find new homes in time for Christmas.

Next week it's forecast to be turning colder and I'm looking forward to getting our fire stoked up and curling up with my wool. Hope you have a snuggly weekend!

crafts & knitting

wool week

October 11, 2010 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)26 Comments

Today marks the start of National Wool Week – a celebration of all things woolly. So, if you needed an excuse to add to your woolly stash, then this week you have the perfect one (not that I know many knitters who need an excuse). I've treated myself to some pure, undyed organic gorgeousness in named breed colours from Garthenor in Wales

Of course if you're not a knitter you could always celebrate by supporting the lovely creatures that produce our wonderful wool. Saving Rare Breeds are aiming to raise awareness of declining rare breeds and their wonderful work deserves lots of support. You can even sponsor your very own sheep, I've chosen Noah No-Ears to be my special friend for this year but they are all equally lovely.