Well, this is a little later than planned, but here is my 2nd giveaway for my special anniversary year. There are two prizes in this giveaway: two little mice all snuggled up against the cold wintery winds that we have here this week; one in a removable dress, cardigan and scarf with knitted on stockings and shoes and one with removable sweater, shorts and pom-pom scarf. The first prize winner gets to pick which of these 2 mice they would like, and the second prize winner gets the remaining mouse. The prize draw is open to anyone, anywhere and I will post out the gift-wr ..read more

                              Firstly, thank you so much for all the kindness in your messages from my previous post, the words you have gifted to me have been like a big warm hug. In my journal of happy things Kit is still featuring, not daily, but every 2 or 3 days she's arrived for snacks and without a doubt she is pregnant. Twice her mate has accompanied her but he's very shy and has bolted for the bushes as soon as he's seen us. I've also jotted about the early evening sky, made beautiful by the plane ..read more

            Hello and wow! I am completely humbled by the response to the first giveaway of my anniversary year. Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments and outpouring of kindness on the previous post. I admit that I've not yet managed to read all of the comments and hope to do so by the end of this week, though with 2,179 of them I hope you can understand why I'll not be replying. Yesterday evening I used the random number generator to pick the winning numbers and these are now posted on the previous post. I've emailed each of the winners and will be ..read more

    Hello, I hope that your new year has got off to a good start. Toby has started back at college and so I'm just beginning to find my feet after the Christmas break. I am trying to ignore all of the household chores that have built up and instead have spent my morning photographing bears and mice - a much nicer use of time in my opinion. As I mentioned in the previous post 2023 is a big anniversary year for the Little Cotton Rabbits and me, being 20 years since I started making them and 10 years since I wrote up the bunny patterns. To celebrate I am planning a series of give-aways ..read more

                                  Although it's now melted away, the snow stayed for exactly a week - far longer than I can remember in previous years when it has started to melt within a day or two. Out in the woods it was magical, laying thickly underfoot and on the branches, bestowing a very Narnia-esque beauty to the trees. Toby adored stomping across the fields, squealing and laughing and running through the snow with obvious delight. I was so happy to be able to drive on the main roads (a ..read more

                                            Autumn is in full swing here and the leaves are now falling thick and fast, covering the woodland paths and the verges of the back roads with a carpet of golds, oranges and reds. It has been a fairly mild and damp autumn so far, and many of the toadstools have lasted well. I've seen such a huge variety of them this year and these are just some of the more photogenic ones. I do so love this season, it's a magical time for ..read more

        The changing of seasons from summer through to autumn is about midway through here, the leaves are yet to fully turn and drop but there are fungi everywhere out in the woods and the days are starting off with a definite chill in the air. For me this means a welcome return to prime knitting time and I've been busy sorting out the messy mass of projects that I started over the summer months. I'm hoping to have patterns for a small bear, small mouse and some small sweaters ready by the end of the year (I've set myself a long deadline to hopefully hit it and minimise ..read more

                            The much longed for rain has at last come, and it's come, and come. It's been wonderful to feel it on my skin and to smell that unique scent that the arid land gives up after rain - isn't it brilliant that there's even a special word for it - petrichor.  The land has soaked it up and quenched the parched plants and trees, and green has returned to the countryside all around us here, it is beautiful. I ran out of steam a little in August, hence the lack of posts here. Caring for T ..read more

                    Hello again, I still have to edit photos and write a post about how beautiful the bluebells have been this year but today I have news of three new patterns. These have been keeping me very busy all year and I've been very indecisive about almost every aspect, which is why they've taken me much longer than expected, though cramming my concentration time into the few hours that Toby is at college hasn't helped with speedy pattern writing progress. Still, they are at last done and as always I'm deeply grateful to my ..read more

        Did you know that the collective noun for a group of moles is a labour? Not that there's any reason why you should, because a group of moles is a rare thing as they are quite solitary little creatures who keep themselves to themselves. Anyway, there is a labour of moles on my table today and that word is doubly relevant because I have definitely laboured over putting this pattern together. It's not a difficult pattern, it's just that I seem to have lost my decision making powers. I have dithered and procrastinated and gone back and forth over almost every aspect ..read more