tiny happy

inching towards spring

Hello there! 
It's been a while since my last post. I realised my fingers have been busy making things but I haven't been good at sharing them here on the blog. I don't like to be flippant about lockdowns because they're so hard on so many people. But one silver lining to our recent one was a bit extra time to work on projects.

In my last post I said I'd share my finished Vertices Unite shawl - and I'm happy to report it's already had a lot of wear! It's the perfect size and shape, I do love that pattern. I was quite inspired by hellebores when making this - we have a few different varieties in the garden and I tried to emulate their colour scheme. For more details about the yarns I used, and a link to the pattern, my Ravelry project page is here.

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As well as hellebores, this time of year in Wellington is all about the glorious flowering kōwhai tree. We have one in our garden and there are lots to be seen on the trip to work, too. I've always loved the outrageously cheerful nature of those flowers, hanging down like fancy earrings. I embroidered some and sewed the piece into a knitting project bag for a sweet friend of mine. 

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And the first photo in this post was taken on our first walk to the beach after a few weeks of not leaving our neighbourhood. The utter joy of those dogs meeting up wit their friends, splashing in the shallows and mucking around with sticks! I didn't want to forget them.

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morel + more

Kia ora, hello! I hope you are keeping well and safe. Crazy, heavy times in the world, eh?

The most I can offer with this blog post is some distraction in the form of handmade items and ideas... thank you for tuning in regardless. I appreciate you, dear reader!

The first thing I have to show you is a finished jumper - my late-winter pride and joy! The pattern is called the Morel Sweater, and it's by Danish designer Lærke Bishop-Larsen (FiberTales). I got drawn in to knit it the moment I first saw Lærke's version on Instagram - that honeycomb texture, the dropped sleeves and the little cherries running down each side! The actual knitting ended up taking me most of the winter. But now it's done I couldn't be happier - the fit is great and it's very lightweight yet cosy. I'm sure I'll get lots of wear out of it.

The yarn I used was hand-dyed mohair from Nikki (Dark Harbour Yarn), which I held together with some plain Holst 4ply (Danish pure wool) in the Almond colourway. My notes, including a couple of modifications and links to the yarns, can be found here on my Ravelry page.

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Since finishing the Morel, I've had a bit of time to get cracking on a shawl - I'm making another (my third) Vertices Unite by Stephen West. (Ravelry notes here). Because we're in lockdown and not able to receive mail, I've had to use what I have - but that's actually been great. I have a couple more colours to choose and hopefully, I can show you my finished shawl in the next post!

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In other making-news, I made a huge batch of orange marmalade (using this simple recipe) and have already been able to gift a few jars to friends (and eat a bit on my morning toast, too!) 

And Keira needed a new tote bag - I made her a mushroom one using this pattern - it's been on my blog for years but is still quite a handy size, I find! I only wish I'd added in some pockets to this mushroomy tote - next time I will.

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So how are you doing, lovely ones? I'd love to know what you're working on or enjoying reading these days. Take good care and see youa gain soon,

Melissa

cicada wing + leaf skeleton

Hello! I hope you are very well, wherever you may be.

It's been a little while (yet again...) but I thought I'd pop in to share some things I've been working on lately. This time of year is always busy, with work and other commitments. But as of yesterday many of us got some time in our days due to a nationwide Covid lockdown. My thought go out to everyone for whom this is really tough! It's not an easy time at all.

I'm always so grateful for my craft (and supply-building tendencies haha) so I've found a little more time for making this week.

I've been listening to the audiobook of Robert Macfarlane reading his recent book Landmarks. It's a beautiful work, filled with new and old ways of looking at and articulating the natural world.

Listening to him reading seemed like the perfect time to finish this embroidered piece I started in late summer, spurred on by the racket of cicadas coming through the window. 
For this, I used some single strand hand-dyed thread and worked free-form on cotton fabric. I'm not sure what I'll do with this piece - maybe pop it in a frame? It measures about 40 x 20cms.

Having a little more time for evening walks in the hills this week, I've started to get lots of new ideas for embroidered pieces, so I'm excited about that.

Other projects on the needles include another (my third...) Vertices Unite shawl - you can see the stiped beginnings of this one in the third photo above. Here's a Ravelry link to my second finished version, which was a gift for my sister. It's such a fun knit.

I also made myself a hat for winter - a little late, as it was the fourth of these I knitted and all that rib is a bit tiresome! This one is in the loveliest clay-pink shade of Rowan Felted Tweed and I used the Purl Soho Classic Ribbed Hat (free) pattern, found here.

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Do you like the sound of apple custard cake? I did, so when I found an Annabel Langbein recipe in the newspaper for one I decided to give it a whirl. It was a hit, and didn't take any unusual or special ingredients - I love recipes like that. The resulting cake was almost like a pudding - soft and vanilla-flavoured. I served it up with plain unsweetened yoghurt but it would also be pretty good with icecream. It looks like the recipe is behind a paywall unfortunately but this one is very similar, if not the same.

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Sending you lots of love, take good care,

Melissa

 

winter rainbows

I've not written here in a while - I'm going to blame the darker and shorter days! It is nice to be back today, though. I wanted to show you a bright colourful winter rainbow.

I've recently had the joy of getting to know an older woman through my work - she's a playwright and poet and we're working on a project together. Her deteriorating eyesight makes knitting impossible for her now, so I offered to knit her something for the winter. She asked for a rainbow scarf! 

It's fun to make something upon request, especially when it's something I wouldn't have done otherwise. For R's scarf, I used a mix of DK merino yarns: the red, orange, yellow and green are merino-alpaca blends I found at the local craft store. The purple and blue yarns were handspun by my Mum.

I wanted a squishy texture to my scarf, so used this Mistake Rib pattern by Purl Soho which I recommend! The finished piece measured about 7" X 74". You can see more of my notes here on Ravelry.

One of my favourite Sam Hunt poems is called 'Rainbows (and a promise of snow)'. I first got to know it by listening to the album the poet recorded with Dunedin band The Heavy Eights (you can hear this particular track here).

The poem is filled up with friendly idiom, the kind of things men say to each other, but it also somehow gives a real feeling of a New Zealand winter; almost comes with the smell of woodsmoke. The first half of the poem is: 

Winter means one side or other of

the shortest day. Our birthdays both

are on that good side, friend, of

solstice. Winter is a warm hearth;

rainbows, and a promise of snow.

Or so life’s been for me this last

half-life of sixteen years. Days go

so very slow they say, so fast.

It matters not. A good mate dies,

another goes abroad or mad.

It matters neither way. What does,

what always will, is that we load

the fire high with logs. She’s a

winter this! bull-seals barking in the bay.

If she don’t snow soon, I tell you

friend, she’s never going to.

- Sam Hunt 

To find the rest of the poem, you can click here to read the whole book it's from. It's on page 10.

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gingham dresses + small paintings

Ke te pehea koe? How are you? 

I'm sitting here typing this in a dress + sweater + shawl + tights + handknit socks combo. It's the first of July! I can't say I dislike having so many ways to wear wool, all at once. I hope you are keeping warm, or enjoying mid-summer, depending on where you are!

Here are a few projects I've been working on lately:

+ + A gingham linen dress, using my own pattern (really a mash-up of a few patterns - the skirt + pockets from this one, the sleeves from this and the bodice self-drafted. The fabric was a wonderful find from my local shop - The Fabric Store one Sunday afternoon. I think I used a bit less than 1.5 metres in the end.

= = A jumper for the winter (if I can finish it in time!) This is the Morel Sweater by the Danish designer Lærke of FiberTales. I'm knitting from a cone of natural (light fingering weight wool) from Holst Garn and am holding a strand of that together with a strand of hand-dyed silk-mohair from my friend Nikki's company, Dark Harbour Yarn.

I love this design and really want to wear the finished garment but I'm finding the knitting to be slow going! The pattern includes a few different charts, so I need to sit down and concentrate when I'm working on it. I've realised that so much of my knitting happens because I'm doing it around other things - talking, hanging out with friends, drinking coffee, watching TV or listening to something. My goal is to put some decent time aside to work on it this coming week.

::: This is not one of my projects per se, but rather a gift from Keira to me! I've been collected big landscape paintings from op shops and hanging together on one wall in our living room (you can see how it looks here). Keira made me a small painting of a nearby landscape - our street, looking towards the bus tunnel. It's a view I look at every morning on my way to work so I love this wee painting!

>> Finally, I've included a photo of a quick knit from the weekend: this is a wee baby bear bonnet made with two strands of yarn: hand-dyed merino-linen from Union Fibre and a strand of mohair-silk. I love making this pattern up for new babies in our circle! This one is a little big for its recipient, even though I made the smallest size, so I do hope it will fit next winter.

I hope you are keeping well and finding time to work on your creative projects! I'd love to hear what you're up to, if you have time to leave a comment. 

Spotify sent me this short piece of music on my 'Discover Weekly' (Who by Christina Galisatus) and it made me smile. I thought you might like it too! 

Till next time. With love,
Melissa

solstice mood

I love this time of year - the days are so short yet it's not properly winter-cold (at least here in Wellington) and I still like making and eating soup and tending the fire! It's nearly the solstice, which is special and always makes me think of our friends in Scandinavia and those long summer evenings we enjoyed when we lived there (although that was more than a decade ago now!)

Other than wintry food, wearing all the knitwear, and watching Netflix under the new crocheted blanket, here are some other things I've been enjoying these days:

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The Bloomsbury Cookbook by Jans Ondaatje Rolls, which is, as you might guess, all about the kitchen, picnics, parties, weddings, Christmases and everyday meals enjoyed by the Bloomsbury set and their families. I probably won't make many of these recipes, but I love looking at all the photos and letters and hand-written shopping lists in this book. Would make a great gift for a Bloomsbury fan you know, or yourself?

Knitting on small projects such as ribbed hats for all the family (I've nearly finished my third of the season, using this trusty pattern) 

A little embroidery - above you can see a couple of project bags I made recently. The one with colourful flowers was a gift.

I recently bought a piece of eco-printed silk from a little shop in Featherston called Perpetua Studio. I really wanted to buy a long silk dress but that's a summer dream! Ceara prints her fabrics using leaves, lichen and natural dyes, and it's so beautiful. I used my piece to line an embroidered project bag, so I can admire it every time I get my knitting out. And there was a small bit left for a luxe scrunchie.

Macrame! We needed a place to put two new house plants, so I decided to try making my own hangers. I've done this once before so I had enough cord stashed away to make the pot holder on the right (along with some wooden beads from an old necklace) and for the other one, I used some garden twine I found in the shed! I used a 1970s craft book to make my hangers, but I also found this YouTube tutorial useful for remembering how to do the various knots. 

Finally, I recently finished reading Patch Work: A Life in Clothes by Claire Wilcox. I wasn't sure about this book at first, but have since decided it's wonderful. The author is a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum. She writes in a poetic and moving way about her career, but also personal life by describing memories that are each sparked by a piece of clothing or fabric. If you love reading essays and/or memoir, I think you would enjoy Patch Work. 

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Thank you for reading, friends! See you again very soon. Happy solstice to you, whether your nights are short or long right now.

cosy makes

June is the month for reading, watching TV and working with wool. At least it is for me!

I was so happy to complete my second crochet project - a queen-sized blanket - last week. For this, I used two cones of possum-merino blend DK I found at a Woolyarns mill sale a couple of years ago - one cone in medium grey and one in a peachy-pink shade. Both had the spinning oil still on the yarn, so it was quite stiff and rustic to work with, but light and soft after washing at the end.

I worked them up with a size 4.5 crochet hook and used the Purl Soho granny square pattern to help me get started - for some reason, I just wasn't able to understand treble clusters until I read their pattern, and then something just clicked!

The design is basically a giant granny square. I kept alternating colours for each round, and worked in a square until the blanket was big enough for our bed. Then I worked some single crochet around the edge to make a simple border.

I found the clusters were very yarn-hungry and I nearly used up both cones of yarn. I think if you were to make one of these blankets with a finer or more expensive yarn, it could end up costing a lot. So I was very grateful for my possum merino stash!

To 'block' it, I washed the blanket in the laundry tub which was just big enough, in quite warm water to which I'd added a decent amount of hair shampoo. 

Then it went into the washing machine on the spin cycle. I realised I'd have to block it outside because of its size. So I used a tarpaulin in the garden (had to wash it clean first which was a mission) and pinned the crochet around the edge. After a day in the warm sun and fresh air, the blanket was beautifully soft and dry. And i's been keeping us warm on our bed ever since! I'm so happy with it and can't believe how warm it is. It might be the best and most useful thing I've ever made!

I'm keen to have a good break away from crochet now, though, I must admit.

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One of my goals for the year was to read more - I do love to read, but often find that I end up spending the evening knitting, listening to music and or watching Netflix instead! Especially when it's been busy at work or I feel like I've been reading all day on a screen. I thought that if I challenged myself to read more purely for fun, and kept track of what I was reading, I made pick up a book more often.

I guess I"m halfway through the year and I think it has been working! I'm still quite a slow reader, but I've read some wonderful books so far - Ben Brown's A Fish in the Swim of the World was one I recently enjoyed. If you're interested in what else I've been reading, I've tried to remember to share each book in my Instagram 'stories', and those stories are saved as a highlight at the top of my profile page, under '2021 reads'.

I'd love to know what you're reading at the moment if you feel like sharing that in the comments?

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Finally, I thought I'd share a recently completed hat - I made this one for my brother in law N who had a birthday last month and knitted it up in Rowan Felted Tweed. This is a classic pattern - it's another from Purl Soho and you can find it for free here. I've already started one for Tom (but in black) and I think I'll cast one on for Arlo too. 

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The lovely Sacha McNeil has a new site all about the handmade - it's called of small matters and I think you will like it! Sacha kindly featured me - I've offered up a beginner's embroidery tutorial and there's also a conversation we had about creativity for you to read. I also recommend the delicious caramel slice recipe from her friend (amazing chef and food writer Al Brown) that I can't wait to make myself!

Thank you as always for reading, friends. I hope this finds you very well and keeping warm and cosy wherever you are in the world.

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turning point

This time of year, at least in the Southern Hemisphere, is the turning point for crafting, I reckon- it's properly cool enough that knitting is always on the mind, and everyone seems to need new hats and jumpers. 

We're also lucky enough to have some new babies in our family and friend circle - which is the loveliest reason to get making, don't you think? I've been trying out different bootie patterns for some of these babes - in the first photo above you can see a set of three I finished recently.

These are: the 'suspension bridge booties' knitted up in cream DK wool (free pattern on Ravelry here), striped baby booties (from an old Debbie Bliss book I own) and a pair of 'greemy baby booties' in grey 4ply yarn (another free pattern - you can find it here). The latter is my favourite design because it's mostly seamless and I think they would stay on a baby's foot the best. 

In my last post I showed some beautiful black wool fabric with a sparkly thread running through it, which was a lucky find at the most recent Fabricabrac fair here in Wellington. I used it to make a new winter jacket - the Nova Coat from Papercut Patterns. I made one of these a couple of years ago and still get lots of wear from it, so it's nice to have an updated version - perhaps for slightly fancier occasions, given the sparkly nature of it. I lined the coat in a black silk/cotton fabric with an embroidered texture, a bit like a Swiss dot. A bit of everyday luxury for sure!

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And speaking of luxury, I bought myself a copy of Laine's 52 Weeks of Shawls, which is quite a special book, even just to look through, let alone knit from! As the title suggests, there are 52 patterns from designers around the world and there are many I'm keen to cast on. I also think I will learn a lot from these patterns as they have interesting design elements and construction methods. If you'd like to look through the different designs, you can do so on Ravelry here. I'm quite keen to cast on this one first - it's made using two strands of silk-mohair throughout. More luxury!

A song that is keeping me company these days is this one, which has been around for a few years now but I still love deeply. Cattails by Big Thief. 

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See you again soon, friends!

riddari sweater + new projects

Kia ora, hello!

It occurred to me that I never shared my major knitting project of autumn, aka Arlo's Icelandic jumper, here on the blog. I finished it up over Easter weekend and am really happy to have done so! It was a big project but I was happy with the result - and so was Arlo, which was the most important thing! Phew.

I knitted the Riddari Sweater, a design by Védís Jónsdóttir for Ístex and I used Icelandic yarn (Ístex Lettlopi) from Holland Road Yarn to make it. Arlo chose the colours - they have lots of good contrast and look quite classic I think. I've listed the colourway numbers and how much I used of each colour over on my Ravelry page if you want to check out those details.

The Riddari is knit bottom-up which is not my favourite construction, because I'm never quite sure how long to make the body and worry that my sizing is all wrong. For a long time, I thought that the sweater would be too small for Arlo so I went up a size and a needle size too. But the finished garment actually turned out to be too big. So I should have just trusted the pattern and relaxed! Next time I will.

I think the finished piece looks lovely on him and he seems happy with it though we haven't had any weather cool enough for it yet - I'm sure that will be here soon enough!

You can find more information about the Riddari Sweater here, and you can find a great 'Riddari-along set of blog posts by Pia Kammeborn here, if you'd like even more information! (I think the knitalong is long finished, but there's a lot of helpful info in those posts by Pia).

Other than that, I've been doing some knitting for babies - so many bootees! - and I've also been working on a very bright, rainbow project. I'll show you that in my next post.

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Autumn is always a good time for tidying up in the garden after the party of summer and so I've found myself pressing a few flowers and leaves after such gardening sessions. 

In the second-to-last photo above, I've captured some of the new making materials that have come my way (okay, that I've bought!) lately. A couple of weekends ago I attended a wonderful new yarn festival in nearby Lower Hutt called Woollington. There were a few of my favourite hand-dyers there and I couldn't resist buying a few new skeins. It was also an excellent opportunity to catch up with fellow knitting friends! The sparkly black wool fabric you see in the same picture has now become a winter coat. Will share soon.

I hope you are keeping well and happy, wherever you are in this world! Lots of love to you.

Melissa

 

faded hydrangea

Hello from a sunny Sunday in autumn. I hope you are doing well, wherever you are.

I thought I'd share a few of my recent projects, and some things that are bringing me happiness these days.

You might have seen the other day that I published my first knitting pattern to Ravelry - for a pair of simple fingerless gloves or hand warmers. I'm calling the design 'Seashell mitts' because the simple lace pattern is a bit shell or even wave-like to me, and because I love shells and their shapes.

I've made two pairs and for the second I used some beautiful merino-linen yarn I bought from Bonnie at Union Fibre. The colourway name was 'Limpet' but it makes me think of faded pink hydrangeas - it's very autumnal and lovely, I think.

You can find the seashell mitts pattern for free download in my previous post, and the design's page on Ravelry is here.

Other than that, I've been working on a few other projects, namely small items for expected babies, and I've also cast on something very colourful (and slightly unusual for me) as a gift for someone else. More about that in due course! 

Work on my crochet granny square blanket continues at a slow pace - I like to work a round every now and then when watching Netflix or listening to a podcast but it's nowhere near the size it needs to be for a bed! I've also found it's really yarn-hungry, so I might just keep working until I run out of the two yarns I'm using.

Over on my Instagram 'stories' I'm trying to share my non-work-related reading, as I finish books. These stories are saved as a highlight on my profile page. It's been a great way for me to keep track of the things I've read and what I thought of them. I recently finished Vesper Flights by Helen McDonald. I thought the writing was deep and beautiful and I'm still thinking about it.

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Do you like flapjacks? My Mum used to make them often when we were kids and we all loved them, but I just don't seem to be able to recreate her version, which was not too buttery or sweet, but rather dense, deep and chewy. I've made a few batches in the attempt, though, which haven't been too bad, using this recipe (simple but super sweet, and easy to over-cook!) and this one (also good but still not quite how I remember them in childhood). I need to keep practising. Please let me know if you have an excellent recipe!

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Would you like two and half minutes of mood-lifting jazzy deliciousness? I discovered this piece recently and you might like it too.

XX - Melissa