Meet the designer: Little Cotton Rabbits

I think I was around 9 years old when I first learned to knit properly, but I’d always been surrounded by knitting and crafts. My Gangan (gran) was a skilled seamstress and knitter and made a lot of her own clothes as well as things for my brother and me. My grandfather was very good at carpentry and my dad has always painted but it’s mostly my mum who encouraged me to knit, she clicked away most evenings. I seem to remember being given a knitting kit for Christmas one year – a little bag with plastic chunky needles and two balls of squeaky acrylic yarn, my mum showed me the basics, and I was off.

A garter stitch scarf in that squeaky acrylic yarn mentioned above – it was bright red and was never worn

My Grandparents have been a huge influence on how I try to live. They were both quite crafty and loved making things, baking, gardening and the countryside. I think that two of the keys to living a happy life are finding pleasure in some of the simpler things and making things with your own two hands.

I never really set out with the idea of making something new and look for inspiration, it’s more the other way round and the inspiration finds me. I love browsing and following links on the internet and I quite often come across things that I bookmark. Sometimes I’ll come across an image and it sparks off an idea that grows into something new.

There are many. My queue list just gets bigger and bigger. I like working on things on a whim, so I always have lots of different things on the go - interspersed with a lot of bunny knitting.

I don't think that I have any

I started the blog on September 3rd 2006 which was the day before my little boy started school. I was dreading him going and wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my time. I had been away from professional work for over six years and so wasn’t keen on resuming a challenging career and I still wanted to be there when the children got home from school and in school holidays. But being at home most of the time can feel isolating and none of the mums I’d got friendly with were crafty in any way, so to satisfy my need for crafty companionship I’d been following a few creative blogs. It was mostly Hilary Lang’s 'Wee Wonderfuls' blog that got me thinking. There was a mum, writing about her makes and sharing her creative thoughts with a community of like-minded people and it seemed a great idea to start a blog and see where it took me.

My misty afghan. I love the muted colours and the geometric design. I’ve not been crocheting long so there are lots of errors in it but it’s nice for snuggling in on a cool evening.

Most of my focus at the moment is on writing up the patterns for all the different animals that I make. I am really looking forward though to just knitting some again – pattern writing is hard work on the brain!