tiny happy

more persistence

Hello from deepest winter! As I type, cold rain is tapping on the glass of the windows and what is probably a wind straight from Antarctica is whistling through. I hope this finds you well and warm.

Thought I'd share some of the things I've been doing this week. Snuggling under the new quilt reading, late at night. I've also been watching the miniseries Olive Kitteridge which I love. I know I'm terribly slow to both the book and adaptation. As usual! I'll get stuck into the book, which is by Elizabeth Strout, next.

My eldest, Arlo, turned 17! How can this be. We had a lovely midwinter celebration with family and he'll have a party with his friends soon. He was nearly born on the shortest day of the year, so even though I'm not keen on winter, Matariki will always be a very special time of the year for me.

It was also my sister's birthday and I've had a grand plan of knitting her a nice cosy shawl. Dreaming about it, even! But in the meantime, I made her a hat and posted it along with some ceramic earrings (from this lovely Golden Bay maker).

The hat was knitted from some soft blue Katia Concept yarn and this pattern from Espace Tricot which is free, quick and easy! I definitely recommend it. There's even a matching cowl - one day I might make a set. Both patterns can be downloaded here, (along with a good selection of others!) and my Ravelry notes are here. 

In the last photo above you can see the yarns I've chosen for the aforementioned shawl. I want to make another Vertices Unite design because I love wearing my first one so much. It might be one of my favourite projects ever. I checked in with my sister and she said yes please, and that greys and greens would be her colour preference. I just happened to have these colours in my stash, so it's obviously meant to be. I hope to report back with some progress in my next post.

The blackboard you can see above was one I walked past the other day outside this lovely homewares shop. I decided to take it as a sign that i should just keep knitting, and not get discouraged by how long my dream projects take to complete. But ''more persistence'' is meaningful in many other ways, of course.

Lastly, if you fancy something thought-provoking to read, I liked this recent piece by my friend Felicia Semple: Choosing Better Projects in Tricky Times. Felicia writes about how when we work on our craft with intention and consideration, we can help boost our wellbeing and connection with others. 

I also loved this piece on Vox: an interview with an author I deeply admire: Ta-Nehisi Coates. “I can’t believe I’m gonna say this,” he says, “but I see hope. I see progress right now.” In the piece, he asks the question: what would it mean to build the state around principles of nonviolence, rather than reserving that exacting standard for those harmed by the state?

It's a good read, and i'm still thinking about it.

Take care friends, and see you soon. 

X X X

hexagon-shaped hearts

Kia ora. How are you? I'm sending some hexagon-shaped hearts to you today, wherever you are.

A couple of weekends ago I finished a long-term project: my hand-stitched hexagon quilt. I've documented this piece of work here from time to time, so it might look familiar if you've been visiting here for a while. After two and a half years in the making, I sewed the last stitches of the binding, took a few quick photos before it got too dark, and threw it over our bed! It's a great feeling to finally sleep under it, and I love it.

To sew the patches I used the English Paper Piecing method and completely recycled or scrap cotton fabrics. Some of these were cut from pillowcases and old duvet covers but most were cotton clothing that had worn out in places, such as shirts and blouses. A few pieces were leftover scraps from other projects.

I did purchase some new fabric for the borders of the quilt, because I didn't have anything quite big enough. I also wanted to be sure the the border fabric would be strong and long-lasting. I bought a couple of metres of pale grey linen for that job, and hand-appliqued the finished hexagon edges to the border all the way around. I used a lightweight cotton/wool blend batting for the inside layer.

For the backing fabric, I sewed together some of my most previous and long-hoarded fabric pieces together. The piece with tiny coral flowers on a cream background is actually a fine wool fabric that I bought from Cloth House in London the last time I was there - 10 years ago! It's so good to have all my favourite fabrics gathered together in one finished piece. To quilt, I just hand-stitched some horizontal lines at various intervals.

For the quilt binding, I used one of Tom's favourite work shirts that had mostly worn out and found that I was able to make nearly enough binding for the whole quilt by sewing carefully-cut strips together. I used some leftover border fabric o make up the required length of binding.

One concern I had about this project was the longevity of the quilt top, considering it's constructed entirely from pre-used and washed fabrics. I am worried that they could tear or wear out over time. I could probably replace any damaged hexagons easily enough, though. And the softness of the finished quilt makes up for it!

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The sunset photo was taken at 5pm the other day, shortly after meeting some friends for an evening drink. Isn't the sky at Lyall Bay a beauty? What you can't see in my photo is what seemed like 100 surfers bravely waiting in the water for the perfect wave. 

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I'm sure I'm the last person in the world to come around to making bliss balls. There's probably nothing new about this quick improvised recipe I came up with yesterday, but they're quite delicious and very easy to make, so I thought I'd share my method here:

Quick energy balls

1 heaped cup dates
1/2 cup dried coconut
2 heaped tablespoons cocoa
pinch of sea salt

Soak the dates in boiling water for about 20 minutes. Then remove them from the water and place in a food processor with the other ingredients. Blend until the mixture is smooth.
Roll into small balls, roll again in desiccated coconut and refrigerate until firm. 

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What are you reading or watching at the moment? I haven't watched anything for a few weeks, but have just started re-reading Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and have also downloaded Angela Davis' Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003) to read this week. (You can find a copy here). I need to keep reading and thinking about oppression. Even though it's hard.

It's been wonderful to see so many book lists (such as this one) being shared during this time, which feels a bit hopeful, and like some real change might be coming soon. I hope so.

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connecting strands

This week brought such heavy news - on top of the coronavirus continuing to cause suffering and death in almost every country in the world, my heart is breaking for the United States and its most recent incidence of state-sanctioned violence and murder.

One small thing i can do is donate money to organisations that contribute to change and I'll be doing that. My fellow citizens of Aotearoa: we can also write to the police and have our say on the recent Armed Response Team trial here, letting them know that we don't support the arming of our police force.

This evening, a Black Lives Matter vigil will be held in Wellington and another in Auckland, I believe - more info here. Black lives matter. George Floyd's life matters. Diversity in our own political representatives matters, too. It seems this is to be an ongoing struggle and i want to be part of the fight.

For the next couple of days, a knitwear designer I love, Nat Raedwulf, is donating 100% of all proceeds from sales of her patterns to organisations working towards social justice in the USA. You can find her patterns here. (A couple of years ago I knit this one and I love her work).

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In this post, I wanted to show you my latest finished piece of work - a colourful shawl I knit from Stephen West's Vertices Unite design. I loved working on this and surprised myself by finishing it within a few weeks - I put that down to having more time during lockdown life, and enjoying the interesting design and wanting to get to the next section all the time.

I used a range of yarns that I've had for ages - mostly all 4 ply merino-silk, and together they work to create a lovely soft and drapey shawl. I wanted to cast on another immediately (and still might). My sister's birthday is coming up, and I'd love to make one for her. Here are my Ravelry notes, in case you're interested in the specific colours I used and a link to the pattern.

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Last weekend we celebrated my niece's 2nd birthday, and i wanted to knit her a little hat with ears. I thought that even if she doesn't want to wear it to keep her warm through winter, it could be a fun dress-up piece. And it looked unbelievably cute on her too.

Her's is the pale pink one - and I made a matching grey one for her baby sister. These were really fun to knit and quick too. The design is clever - the back is shaped with short rows and edged with an i-cord that extends into the bonnet ties. I held one strand of mohair-silk together with merino-silk (incidentally, leftovers from my Vertices shawl!)

The pattern is called Baby Bear Bonnet and is by a Danish designer Pernille Larsen.

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It's the first day of winter. Tom and I have just finished watching the TV adaptation of Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries which I enjoyed - such beautiful aesthetics in that production and even though it describes a dark and grim place I found myself wanting to visit the South Island's West Coast again.

Music-wise, I'm still listening often to this album, Out of my Province, by Nadia Reid, hearing something new each time. And everything by Anderson .Paak - especially his album Oxnard and this Tiny Desk concert of his.

See you again soon, lovely friends.

deep autumn

It feels like deepest autumn: a turning point before winter properly sets in. I hope you're keeping warm and well, wherever you are!

Here are a few images from the past fortnight here at my place. Our restrictions are being lifted and we're able to see small friends and wider family again. It's lovely to see faces and remember what it's like to have dinner with people outside of our immediate bubble. Hard to imagine we'll take it for granted for a while.

I've been gradually tidying things up in the garden, with the idea of 'putting it to rest' over the wintertime. I do hope to plant rocket, silverbeet, spring onions and some other salad greens in the sunniest spot to keep us in some fresh things over winter. I quite enjoy the autumnal jobs in the garden: trimming away spent plants and sweeping, washing out terracotta pots and stacking them in the shed until spring.

My friend Beth came to visit and she brought with her a giant bundle of bay leaves. They're so pretty, hanging up to dry. 

I ordered a copy of Bernadine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other (along with a good number of children's books as gifts for my small nieces) and it's the perfect autumn read so far.

My autumnal music of choice this week is the new album by Sufjan Stevens: Aporia (made with Lowell Brams). Ever-shifting and dancing soundscapes, a sonic tonic.

Next week I'll move my home office set-up to the actual office, in the city. I've been thinking about making a few new office clothes and started with a couple of tops from the Wiksten Shift Dress pattern. It's a great design - and so easy to make! It's also comfortable and loose-fitting, which is how I like my clothes for the most part.

Above you can see one of the tops I made, which I cut from a light brown seersucker cotton. I also made one from dark green linen. I plan to wear them with these Merchant & Mills pants (on my sewing list for this weekend - will report back!)

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jenny's cake + a new colour scheme

In the first photo above you can see my new plant friend. A beautiful ficus in a pot - a treat from my favourite local shop Next Stop Earth, bought to celebrate leaving my suburb for the first time in a while. I posted the same picture on Instagram, and a friend wrote that she had bought a similar-sized ficus a few years back, and now it was taller than her! I'm excited to see what will become of ours - I hope I can keep it healthy and happy.

In my last post I mentioned my new favourite cake, made from a recipe tucked into a hand-written letter from my friend Jenny. She kindly agreed to let me share it here, in case you feel like making it too! I like it because it has a lovely light texture and it's properly spicy and fruity. It's the best thing to eat with a cup of strong coffee on the side, for morning tea. It's also great to take on a hike or picnic, it probably keeps for ages in a tin and you can change up the fruit and spices according to what you have in the cupboard.

Jenny's fruit cake 

Simmer together for 10 mins:

175 grams butter
200 grams brown sugar
750 grams of mixed dried fruit (I usually use a combination of sultanas, mixed peel, currants, dried cranberries and dried cherries)
Grated rind and juice of one orange, and one lemon
100 mls brandy or black tea

Cool, then mix in:

85 grams of chopped toasted nuts
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
85 grams ground almonds
200 grams plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp each of cinnamon + mixed spice
1/2 tsp each of vanilla, almond extract and rosewater

Bake in a 20cm round tin lined with 2 layers of baking paper at 130 degrees Celcius for 2 hours, or until brown.

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In non-cake related news, I decided to start a new knitting project inspired by our shower curtain. I know, shower curtains are not exactly the stuff of mood boards, but I love the colours on ours (which, incidentally, cost $10 from the Warehouse last year). Every morning I look at the colours and wonder how I could use them in some sort of project. I had a look through my yarn stash and found some aligning colours, and settled on the Vertices Unite pattern by Stephen West. (Here are my notes so far).

I've loved working on it so far - and the colours really do bring me joy. 

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Last week I watched the newish TV series Normal People - have you seen it? I loved the book when I read it last year, but I must admit that i like the TV adaptation even more, and found it emotionally true to that age and stage of life (late teens - early 20s) and romantic of course. There's a Spotify playlist to listen to if you miss Marianne and Connell and their world! I've been listening to it while gardening.

I hope you're doing ok, and the stay-home life is manageable wherever you are. I'm missing people, mostly - my wider family and friends. And feeling so sad when I read the world news. I do hope you are well and keeping your spirits up.

See you again very soon,

M XX

a bunny and other comforts

Kia ora! How has your week been? It's stormy and cold here this evening - it has been for a while. Wintry weather makes it easier to stay at home I think - and harder, at the same time. Lockdown life is a bit darker when the days are short and the skies are gloomy. I hope you're keeping warm and well wherever you are.

One of my nieces had a birthday last month, and i wasn't able to send her a gift or go to her party due to the lockdown. But I made her a bunny instead and today I was able to send it on its way to her in the South Island. I used a ball of grey alpaca yarn and this pattern, which is called Bunny Odile and designed by Cinthia Vallet.

If you need a fun and super engaging project, I recommend it wholeheartedly! Even though it was a bit fiddly to make (the entire bunny is worked on a 2.5mm circular needle, and constructed as you go, with no seams to speak of) the pattern is so well thought-out and described that it is quite simple to knit. 

Once I'd finished the bunny, I made her a wee dress to wear from some leftover sock yarn. The pattern comes with a whole wardrobe of clothes to make for your bunny, including button-up one-piece pajamas, a textured jumper, and even tiny socks! Maybe I will make some more clothes if my niece enjoys playing with her bunny.

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A little while ago, my friend Jenny (who is a wonderful cook) wrote me a letter and included her favourite fruit cake recipe and since then I've made it quite a few times and it gets eaten up quickly around here! Jenny said she adapted her recipe from a Christmas cake on the BBC website - I wonder if it's this one? Her version uses half the quantities and a cup of black tea, some rosewater and almond extract instead of the alcohol - but I will try the BBC one at Christmas time to spice it up, literally!

A slab of Jenny's fruit cake with black coffee at morning tea time really has been lighting up my days lately. I'll ask her if i can share her magical recipe here on the blog soon, because i think you'd like it too.

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And in other news, I finally worked the border on my hexagon quilt. After some indecision, I decided to hand-applique the quilt top to 5" strips of grey linen. I had considered just trimming down the hexagons and attaching the border by machine, but I'm glad I went with the hand-sewn option as it's more in keeping with the style. And it adds a little more size to the quilt top, too.

Over the past week, I read Ten Minutes and Thirty-Eight Seconds in This Strange World, by Elif Shafak. I really enjoyed it - heartbreaking though it was. But it was also a welcome journey to Turkey, a country I would love to visit one day even if the likelihood of that is far into the future. The heroine of the story, Tequila Leila, is dead at the beginning of the book, and the story traces her journey from birth. 

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And finally, here's a song from my early teenage years that's still a comfort: Kare Kare, by Crowded House. It's about this place; a beauty.

 

 

homely things

The title of this post is a bit... obvious. But, here we are. Never has there been such a home-bound time for all of us, I expect. I hope you're safe and well wherever you are.

Here are some things from my past fortnight. 

I finished a pair of socks for Keira. The first of the pair took I think a whole year to knit, but then the second was done in a few days. Why do I drag things out like that? Never mind. The finished socks are quite nice actually - I used this yarn (from Holland Road Yarn Company) in a heathery pink and dark grey for the contrasting heels and toes, and this free pattern - Hermione's Favourite Socks on Ravelry.

In the second photo, you can see some books I've been enjoying over the past month. I've owned all of them (except Making is Connecting - that's on loan from my friend Miriam) for ages, but it's so good to have book-friends around the house to revisit when you need them.

You can also see a plate of pikelets (aka the simplest morning tea ever) just before they were quickly eaten with jam and butter. I've tried a few different recipes for these lately, but the plainest one is probably my favourite:

Whisk together 1 egg and 1/4 cup sugar / Sift in 1 cup flour and 1 tsp baking powder / Tip in 3/4 cup milk and whisk everything till smooth while heating up a frying pan / Drop spoonfuls of mixture into pan and cook on either side for a couple of minutes / Keep warm in a clean tea towel until ready to service with butter or cream and jam.

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I also took a day or so to work on my hexagon quilt top - a (very) long term project that I would love to finish soon! I had an idea to sew myself a small thimble from some soft leather scraps and that's really made the job easier. The piece is nearly as big as a queen-sized bed now, so I need to work out how to add a small border and then quilt it. Not daunting at all! Haha.

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The kids and I spent a lovely morning digging through boxes of my old CDs. Lots were from their early childhood (Elizabeth Mitchell's You Are my Little Bird, Putamayo folk song collections, Bob Marley and the enduring favourite that played in our car for several years, Colors Are Brighter). It made me realise how much music I bought back in the days before streaming services. 

Even though we can stream all the albums we own on CD and vinyl, we agreed that it was fun to have a stack by the stereo to remind us to play them in their entirety.

In that box of music, I found my Fiona Apple albums - such treasures to me in my teenage years. That same day, I saw that she had released a new one - Fetch the Bolt Cutters. It's pretty powerful and addictive to listen to. This is a great track to start with.

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I've been watching a little TV - last week it was Unorthodox - have you seen it? I found it really engaging and haunting and of course it led to lots of background reading immediately afterwards. We've also watched Roma - the story of a family in 1970's Mexico, which I thought was beautiful too.

Take good care, and I'll see you again soon, XX

light coming in

Hello! 

Here are a few scenes from my past week. Looking back through the photos I took, I seem to have had a thing for light - there are lots of pictures of sun shining through the windows and golden afternoon light in the garden. On the weekend I walked to the top of Mount Victoria and looked out over the city and harbour. It was nearly silent, with no boats in the water and very few cars on the street, and light reflecting off the windows of the buildings.

Are you on the look-out for light, too? These days can feel very dark when you tune in to what's happening to so many people around the world. My heart goes out to everyone who is sick and those who have lost loved ones. It's such a scary time for so many families.

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I'm sharing a few projects in this post - diversions that have kept my hands and heart occupied between the work days and Zoom calls and what feels like endless cooking and dishes. I really feel very lucky to have a well-stocked craft supply stash to dive into in the evenings! And of course I've been staying up way too late to work on projects.

The knitted set is for a new baby in my family. I made a possum yarn cardigan (from a very well-used book: Simple Knits for Cherished Babies by Erika Knight) and sewed on some pearly buttons and a small embroidered sprig as well. The hat is from the Tin Can Knits ''barley light'' pattern, and the socks are these ones. (Both the hat and sock design are free patterns and great for using up leftover yarns.)

Because we haven't been able to post things for a month, it's possible these clothes will be too small for their intended recipient. So I might make another set in time for when we can use the mail system again. No real hardship - I love making baby things.

On the weekend, we had a bit of a family session of drawing and painting at the kitchen table. Everyone joined in except Arlo, who refused. I did a bit of lino cutting but the results weren't very good. Keira carved rubber stamps with her favourite band names and printed t-shirts with them, and Tom did some wood-cutting. It was a very nice day and an unusual family activity but we might do it again next weekend.

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Have you listened to Dolly Parton's America? It's a 9-part podcast and I loved every episode. 

Take care friends, and thanks as always for visiting me here.

easter scenes

Kia ora friends, how are you doing this week?

I wanted to write a little something here, but now I'm sitting at my screen, i can't think of the right words. I'm not sure that i have much to say, really, except hello and thank you for visiting me here.

Instead I thought I'd share a few scenes from my weekend. Tom made hot cross buns (from this recipe) and they were delicious! Especially toasted the next day, with butter and marmalade and black coffee. 

I started knitting a rabbit from the Bunny Odile pattern which is very cleverly constructed and written. I'm using some grey alpaca yarn. I had this dream of making one for all of my baby nieces for Easter but failed that goal on so many counts. Instead, I'm half way through one bunny, and Easter has now passed. Never mind!

And I finished the jacket I was working on in my last post. This one was made using the Tamarack pattern by Grainline Studio, and various pieces of scrap fabric - some old work shirts and Liberty lawn leftovers. Wooden buttons stolen from a skirt I don't often wear. I used a wool/cotton batting inside, lightweight black cotton on the outside, and quilted it in a diamond pattern. The finished jacket is roomy and light and my new favourite thing to wear on my daily walk about the neighbourhood. 

I share these projects with you not because I think we should be maximising this unusual stay-at-home time to be as productive as possible. If anything, I feel quite the opposite. I think that working on my creative projects has been an unconscious way of calming my mind and helping me to concentrate on one day at a time. I hope that you're able to spend this time in the manner that suits you best, and that you have everything you need right now.

See you again soon.

X X X M

 

through the mist

Kia ora! How are you? I wanted to send a dispatch through the interwebs - a warm hello from my house to yours. From this second week staying home (apart from a walk around the block every day) I know one thing for sure: I'll not take the beautiful faces of my friends for granted after this stay-home period. Nor my family members' faces! I miss them all, and I know you miss your loved ones. 

I hope you are doing well and managing to stay calm and happy, despite the huge changes all around. My heart goes out to those who are ill or have family and friends suffering from the virus. Sending you strength and love!

I'm finding it comforting to look at pictures of other people's stay-home life right now, and nicely distracting to think about creative projects. If you do too, this post is for you. I'll try to post more often than usual.

I've got two projects to show today. The first is a pair of socks i knitted for my son Arlo who is now 16. He has really big feet! That's my excuse for why it took me nearly 5 months (!) to knit these socks for him. They were mostly sitting, half-finished, in the bottom of my bag and I worked a round or two every now and then. But with this extra time on the weekends not spent doing the usual busy things, I was able to finish them. The yarn is 'Honest Sock' by my friend and local dyer Bonnie (Union Fibre), and the pattern is one I always use: Wise Hilda's Basic Ribbed Sock, which is free on Ravelry. They are great everyday socks and the ribbed pattern means they stay in shape well. 

I like knitting for Arlo because he's always appreciative and wears handmade things all the time. The other socks I'd knitted for him were completely worn through, so he needed a new pair for winter.

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The other project you can see above is an almost-finished Tamarack Jacket. The pattern is by Grainline Studio and I bought it several years ago but really only felt like tackling it last month. I cut the pieces out then it sat on my desk until the weekend, when I fully immersed myself in the project. It's a lot of work - you hand-baste then machine quilt all the pieces, insert welt pockets, construct then cover all the interior seams with bias binding. 

Because I wanted to use only materials I already had, I ended up sewing scrap fabric together to make the lining pieces, including some floral Liberty cotton and fabric from two old shirts of Tom's. I also used up some Liberty bias binding I'd been saving for something, but made the rest of the binding from the same fabric as the exterior. That fabric is quite a lightweight black cotton dress fabric, with a fine black stitched embroidery to give it a bit of texture. I was worried my fabric choices would be too lightweight, but I'm happy with the weight and feel of the quilted pieces.

Hopefully I'll be able to show you the finished jacket in my next post! If you're looking for an ''involved'' make for these days, I'd recommend this jacket. You do need to have patience and a good space to spread your work out on, though. Just a friendly warning! 

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And lastly, Keira made a rather tried-and-true recipe over the weekend: this any-kind-of-fruit cake, first published on my blog in 2011. The recipe is super simple and makes two! You can use up any fruit you have, just by slicing it and pressing it on to the surface of the cake. Keira's version used up feijoas, berries and sliced almonds. We recommend it for breakfast, with coffee...

A few other things I enjoyed this week:

Getting Through a Pandemic with Old-Fashioned Crafts (on The Atlantic)

Novelists pick books to inspire you (the Guardian)

Revisiting this Fleet Foxes album (hard to explain why it's so soothing, but it is!)

Cressida Cowell reads her book How To Train Your Dragon (for any children who love being read to?)

This free hat pattern that I'm keen to cast on (simple rib, slipped stitches, a fast knit and looks so cosy)

This timeless and impossible to resist song by Bill Withers (RIP) 

Take care friends,

M XXX