crafts & knitting · garden stuff

longest day

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)35 Comments

Can you believe the longest day of this year has already been and gone?

My Summer solstice was a quiet one with Toby in respite for the day, Amy out with friends and H off cycling. I made the most of the peace by settling myself in the shady spot at the end of the garden with my knitting, notes and computer and I worked on getting the seasonal sweaters pattern finished.

 

Sweaters

It's pretty much done but later today I need to take a cover photo and give it all a final check through and then it should be ready to share. I'll tell you more about what is in the collection later in the week.

 

Sweaters2

 

Being outside feels so good and the weekend weather gave plenty of opportunity to do just that. There were some pretty interesting skies too, with perfect conditions for contrails which took ages to disperse, the sky above our house soon becoming criss-crossed with them.

 

Skywriting

 

Yesterday was also a garden day. Toby had lots of fun on the trampoline while H and I pottered around, tidying up some of the shrubs that have become overgrown and weeding out the chicken run. A few months back we lost Butterscotch, the last of our 3 original chickens to a mystery illness and we thought we'd wait a while before getting ourselves a new flock – just incase there were still some germs lurking around. I think enough time has passed now so we've tidied up the run and I'm hoping we'll have some new clucky friends very soon.

The garden is very green and fresh looking at the moment. We've not had intense summer heat yet and although there's not been much rain of late the water butts are still quite full and I've been diligently watering each night. I love all of the different shades of green in the various corners of the garden…

 

Pyracantha

 

Pyra

Plums

 

Hydrangea2

 

Well, I'm off to get everyone ready for their respective day and then I'm going to try and take that cover photo for the sweaters pattern. I hope to be back later in the week with news of that, so until then have a good week x

 

crafts & knitting

Déjà vu

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)52 Comments

 

Misty3

 

If you've been reading my blog for a while you may have a slight feeling of déjà vu in seeing this post. Don't worry, it's not you it's me – I have made a virtually identical blanket in the past.

I'm not by nature an obsessive person, in fact ask H and he'll tell you I'm a natural slob when it comes to housework and there's always a small pile of discarded clothes next to my bed rather than neatly folded in drawers and cupboards. But when it comes to making woolly things it seems I do have compulsive leanings. I've been fighting this particular urge for a while but a few weeks back I began to wonder what harm there would be in giving in to something that is going to give me pleasure and contentment and so I have started work on a second misty blanket.

 

Misty4

 

I'm essentially using the same colour palette as before – I had quite a bit of yarn left over from the first which helps and there is something about this combination of colours which I find peaceful and that makes me rather happy. This time though I'm making some changes:

  • adding an extra round to each square
  • being more structured with the coloured centres
  • using more subtle shades in the beiges and greys
  • only chaining 4 at the corners instead of 5
  • working groups of 3 stitches into the corners on all rounds (previously I'd used 2 stitches on the first few rounds)

 So, this is how the Misty Mark 2 currently looks

 

Misty2

 

And this was the mark 1 about the same stage:

 

Misty mk1

 

It's not that I don't like the first one but there are a few bits of it that do niggle me. In particular my misguided use of a dark brown yarn (which I remember being unsure of at the time) and I now notice leaps out in a very inharmonious way. Also, whilst I'm feeling critical, the gaps at the corners are just a bit too gappy if you ask me.

See, gappy corners and standy-out dark brown bits…

 

Misty1

 

The first misty will still be loved as a snuggly throw in the garden room and the second misty will be for our bed. All in all I'm much happier with how the new version is starting to look and it's nice to be crocheting again in the evenings when the lights are low and I feel sleepy. I just have to deal with telling H that there's going to be yet another blanket in the house – he's not actually noticed it yet 🙂

……………………………………………………………..

PS: if you want any yarn/hook details I've added this to my ravelry project page and will keep that updated as I work on this.

garden stuff · general stuff

planting, tick

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)15 Comments

Do you ever get the feeling that you're travelling through life on an escalator going the wrong way and although you're working pretty hard you are just not making any progress? I'm sure you do as there can't be many of us who escape feeling swamped from time to time. I've certainly been feeling that way lately – for every bit of paperwork I fill in another drops through the letter box, for every blog post I catch up with another 2 appear in my blog reader, for every email I answer another 3 pop into my inbox… you get the picture I'm sure.

 

Chive

 

Not a lot was ticked off my to do list this weekend either. In fact the only tick was vegetable planting with help from Toby and we spent a lot of lovely time in the garden together yesterday (hence the pictures of the chives which were planted last year and are now in full and glorious bloom and attracting a lot of bees).

 

Bee

 

So far this year I've not sown as much as I had planned to. I did have grand vegetable planting plans but they've been scaled back to more manageable proportions and this weekend Toby and I just planted some beans and peas (a little late in the year but hopefully not too late to get a harvest).

 

Chives

 

We've also got earlier plantings of garlic, broccoli and lettuce which are coming up nicely.

 

Raisedbed

 

There are a few little seedlings too which should be ready to plant out soon and with any luck will give us some delicious onion squash in the autumn. Courgette and squash seeds are my favourite to grow. They look just like a childs drawing of a little sprout and they are pretty robust – which is a good thing when Toby is involved in the planting out!

 

Sprouts

 

So that's the news from the garden at the moment. In knitting news there is lots going on with pattern writing but nothing yet finished, just a big old tangle of sample bits – the result of testing out different yarns and tweaking bits and pieces. If you've emailed me for an E.T.A on the next pattern I'm afraid I can't give one yet but I am working on the sweaters, the sneakers and all of the other animals, so they are on the way.

This week is the week of Toby's annual school play so he goes to school from 4pm – 9.30pm which throws everything out of kilter in a big way. And hot on the heels of this week is the school half term break, so I won't be getting on top of my to do list anytime soon and my email backlog is already of embarrassing proportions – I really am sorry if you're waiting for a reply from me.

A couple of people emailed to ask about how I constructed the cushion cover – by the way thanks so much for all of the kind comments about the bench in the previous post. Here is a picture of the back.

 

Edge

 

012

 

The crochet top extends a little way underneath where I've sewn it to a rectangular piece of fabric and left one side open (held in place by saftey pins) incase I need to take the cover off to wash it. In terms of advice for fitting the crochet top I can't give much other than to make a top piece the same size as your foam pad and then make side pieces, checking the fit as you go. It was all a bit make-it-up-as-you-go-along but it seems to work and so far it is standing up well to daily Toby use.

Hope you have a good week, see you soon x