Little Cotton Rabbits

a diary for your dates and a giveaway

Over the last couple of weeks I've had a lot of fun sorting through images of some of my favourite little cotton rabbits and putting them into a calendar for 2010. I'm going to be giving some of these to my friends and family at Christmas time but I thought I'd also make the calendar available to buy for those of you who'd like a copy.

You can preview or purchase it here over at the very excellent Redbubble.

If you've thought yourself of doing a calendar, greeting cards or T shirts with your own images then I'd definitely recommend Redbubble. Their print and paper quality are great (my photos don't do them justice thanks to a murky day!) and their prices are good compared to other online print companies. They also have a great range of existing designs for cards and calendars to buy from some very talented artists and photographers.

Anyway, I thought I'd have a little giveaway to celebrate my own little calendar launch and I have 3 copies to send out to winners. If you'd like to be in with a chance of winning one please leave a comment below and next Monday (November 16th) I'll draw the 3 winners at random.

flitting knitting

I don't know what is wrong with me at the moment but I just can't seem to settle to anything. I have over 20 different projects on the go and none of them getting finished! Here's a case in point - wrist warmers that I started ages ago from Eunny Jang's wonderful pattern Endpaper Mitts.

Instead of having one finished pair to wear I have the beginnings of 4 pairs! I'd like to blame the weather with it's one-minute-sunny-next-minute-wet-and-rainy inconsistency but I am beginning to suspect that it's just me and I'd better get my act together and finish off some things before starting anything else new! For those of you interested there will be some animals in my etsy shop before the end of the month - hopefully some hedgehogs too!

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PS: Earlier this week the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (CEOP) launched a new campaign to try to uncover more information about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. They've put together a video on youtube called a minute for Madeleine.

rainbows

Well, I'm glad that half term is over and everyone is happily back in the term time routine. Toby has really struggled recently with any kind of change and so half term with it's major change of routine was a tough week for him resulting in lots of outbursts and stress. It wasn't helped by the departure of the sunny, golden side of autumn and the arrival of the wet and windy one as he's really not a happy boy outside in the rain. Still, it wasn't all bad and we did have something to brighten the end of our week thanks to the arrival of a beautiful package from Jenny as part of Trash's rainbow swap.

Amy and I were delighted with all of the wonderful goodies and really touched that Jenny had put so much thought into everything that she'd made and collected. There were even jelly snakes for Toby which definitely brightened his mood!

Amy has staked a claim to a fair portion of the goodies and is having such fun filling all of the pockets on the gorgeous bunting with all of her treasures. Those pockets really are clever and Jenny's attention to detail is wonderful with the colours phasing in order from one to the next starting with the button and ending with the outside of the pocket - I love clever details like that!

 

Thanks for all of the goodies Jenny. I feel very guilty now as my own package isn't ready to be sent yet - I better go and get my act together!

acorns

Earlier in the week the postman brought me a wonderful package from Lilfishstudios containing a little present to myself to celebrate autumn.

It was so beautifully packaged in a vintage sewing pattern bound with twine, with a felted autumn leaf and owlish card as lovely little details.

Inside were pretty muslin bags topped with felt leaves and inside those a collection of gorgeous felted autumny acorns!

I've had my eye on these for a while and they are greatly admired by all here as you can see - I just hope the hodgers don't gobble them up!

baking time

Here in the UK it's national baking week (19th - 25th October). So I thought I'd share a link to my current favourite cake recipe - Dorset Apple Cake.

It's the perfect autumn cake made with fresh-from-the-tree apples (I'm very lucky that our neighbours share their apple harvest with us).

I like to add 1 heaped tablespoon of mixed spice (cinnamon, coriander seed, caraway, nutmeg, ginger and cloves) to the recipe which gives it a wonderful smell.

What's your favourite thing to bake?

autumn

I know I've gone on about it before but autumn really is my favourite time of year. I love the colours on the trees, the picking of blackberries, apples and chestnuts, the cold mornings and the bright crisp days.

I also love the first daytime lighting of the fire after the summer, then curling up with my knitting and just enjoying being peaceful.

Hope you have a peaceful, relaxing weekend where you are.

PS: I took the pictures to remind myself how nice the room looks when it's tidy - it doesn't often look like this I can tell you!

tidy up time

The last few days have been spent in the garden where everything is winding down. We've picked the last of the tomatoes, courgettes, raspberries and carrots and have lots of onions now in storage. There are a few beans still producing, a couple of potato bags left to dig up and the cabbages, kale and broccoli are still going strong. But it definitely feels like we're getting down to the last of the yummies our garden has to offer us for this year.

We've had a bumper crop of grapes this year - although we mostly leave them for the birds as they're not very sweet.

 

Now the garden is being tided and cleared ready for digging in some compost to get everything ready for next season and then a nice winter rest. The chickens have been helping me tidy up - they do a great job of breaking up the soil!

 

It's been lovely to watch them roaming around outside of their run which is possible once again now that Toby isn't spending so much time in the garden (a small boy who likes to put anything in his mouth and run around barefoot does not mix well with large quantities of chicken poo on the grass!)

 

caught in the act!

Toby has always had a sweet tooth but up to now has been more of a biscuit boy than a sweetie fiend. Last week however that all changed when he discovered Colin Caterpillars. He's been leading me to the cupboard all week and it doesn't matter how many times I move them - he always seems to suss out my hiding place! On Sunday I finally decided it was time to give him a PECs card for them so that he can add to his growing vocabulary (it also reinforces the concept of communication for him and using his latest desires is a great way of building on his communication skills). So there I was setting up my photo shoot and look who found me and made off with the props!

Now Toby has a proper way of asking for Colin Caterpillars and I have a cupboard full ready and waiting!

thanks

Thanks so much for all of the kind and supportive messages. I'm glad now that I didn't continue festering on in silence - that old 'a problem shared is a problem halved' adage is true. This kind of thing must happen daily to people posting images, ideas, creative writing, designs on websites all over the world. Hopefully though by sharing information and shaming the people who have no regard for right and wrong we can send a message that it's not acceptable to take what doesn't belong to you just because you can.

Just for the record I wanted to say that I wrote about this because there is no doubt in my mind that those are my images and my designs. I have however never had a problem with anyone copying any of my designs for their own pleasure, to make for their own children or to give to friends and loved ones - no problem whatsoever and I'm very happy to think that others might be inspired by something I've made. Where I do get upset and angry is when others either take my images, cut and paste my writing or make replicas of something I've made in order to sell it as their own work. I do have a problem with this because it is dishonest and quite frankly stealing.

I also want to stress that I am not laying any claim to knitted animals in general, I did not invent the idea and neither did I invent any new knitting stitches or techniques. What I did do is create a pattern with a 'look' (a signature if you will) which is distinctly mine and that is all I'm trying to hold on to. There are many, many other knitters who've created their own animal patterns which are distinct to them and I know that they would defend their rights to their own designs and rightly so. I suppose the message in essence is to go your own way, make something of yours, take inspiration from others but not the whole enchilada.

Anyway, thanks again for your very kind support and comments. A couple of people asked about my bunny egg cosy situation from earlier in the year. It is partially resolved in that Tesco took their product off the shelves following my blog post but that's all I can say for now.

Well, the weekend approaches and I'll be going into it with a smile - sharing a happy after school snack with my two lovelies, enjoying the autumn sun in the garden and thinking happy thoughts (helped out by my lovely new snack tray from ISAK which makes me smile everytime I look at it.)

Hope your weekend is a happy one and once again, thanks x

naff stuff

A few posts ago I alluded to the negative and depressing side of blogging and having anything on the internet. I've had a really bad year for having my designs, images, writing etc copied and it's been festering in my mind so I thought I'd purge it by writing about it. 

Basically it's stuff like this. This person* has cloned over 400 of my images from flickr, my blog and my redbubble page and posted them as their own on a picassa account. Not only that but they've made replicas of some of my knitted animals and are using my images as their printed tags, business cards and on listings on taobau (which seems a chinese version of Etsy). This is only the latest occurance of many and some days it truly makes you just want to jack it all in. I guess I continue because knitting is really what gets me through the day!

I know that I'm way too sensitive but it hurts a lot and I get so upset by this kind of thing. I started making the animals in 2004 as an antidote to some of the difficulties in raising a son with severe autism and I worked very hard to make my designs different to other knitted animal designs that were around at the time. I started the blog in 2006 and quickly discovered that as soon as you post images and people like what you're making then others will steal from you. I'm lucky that there are lots of people who look out for me and let me know when they see things that are copied. I'm lucky too that my work is distinctive and so copies stand out a mile.

In the UK the legal rights of designer/makers are protected by unregistered design right. In the UK you do not need to register a copyright for something that you create. This right is automatic and the instant you make something unique (ie not copied from something already in existence) it is protected by law. The organisation A.C.I.D (Anti Copying In Design) are an excellent source of information and they are strong in championing creative rights. But, regardless of the legalities I see it as more of a moral issue. How you can blatantly copy something you have no creative claim to is beyond me. If people had an ounce of creativity, imagination or integrity it wouldn't happen but in the 'want it now at any cost' culture we've arrived at, the honest, hard working people who just want to make something of their own are the ones that suffer both financially through lost business and emotionally.

*hopefully these links will be disappearing soon as Google's legal team are currently looking into the matter.

PS: It's not just my images and work that have been taken but Dilka's beautiful work has been copied too and another artist who created this image. I know I've seen it somewhere but have searched flickr in vain. if anyone recognises it and know the artist please let me know so I can contact them. Perhaps between us we'll be able to get Google to terminate the offender's account.