tiny happy

work in progress

I did have some recently-finished crafting to show you today, but the two things I finished have become lost in the mess that is our kitchen table and surrounding areas. But I read about the idea to show your "Work In Progress" on a Friday here, at the beautiful blog that is Hop Skip Jump, and thought that might be more appropriate for today's post, as there are little piles of fabric and sewing tools all over the house (poor Tom. How he hates that.)

Here's a stack of cut-out but not yet sewn baby shoes I'm getting ready to sell. I'm utilising a bit of a huge vintage curtain I got on Trade Me printed with the Smurfs for some of them, and others are being made from some hand-embroidered linens.

And here is my knitting basket (a mother's day present 'from Arlo' that I love) with much 'work in progress', including a big, brown jacket for my brother Tristan (this has been sitting here for a Long Time, and feel so guilty about it!) and a hat for me, of which I've only worked a few rows past the ribbing part.

I hope my weekend is the sort that allows a lot of opportunity for knitting. And yours is too!

giant redwood tree and a tea cosy

We had a picnic today at our closest park, which is a huge one in the middle of town filled with roses (looking a bit sad these cold days, mind you) and ponds with ducks galore. But right at the entrance of the park is a huge redwood tree, I think the tallest tree there. It's such a stunning colour, and stands there with so much dignity, I love it.

It was just recently though that I noticed a plaque underneath that reads 'planted and presented to the city by A. Wastney, 1951.' This was a moment of much excitement for Arlo and I as that is my surname, (and one of his) and justified giving the tree an extra hug, or at least part of the tree. I must remember to ask my father who this relative was.

And upon returning home, there was a parcel in the letterbox from Rachael, who reads this blog, and very sweetly sent a Hans Christian Andersen dvd for Arlo (which has allowed me to write this blog entry in peace, because he's totally engrossed in Thumbelina) and this neat tea cosy for me, something I have been meaning to knit for a long time, but now won't have to.

It already looks at home in our little tea-making corner. Thank you so much Rachael!

winter hands

I have the yuckiest 'winter hands.' They're puny and white, with chewed fingernails and dry skin cracked in two places. And I was horrified to discover chillblains on them the other day, ever since I misplaced my rainbow fingerless gloves my Mum made me (you can see them in this post.)

So I started knitting some very plain and basic fingerless gloves with a ball of aran-weight variegated wool I had lying around. I had almost finished them when Amelia gave me her beautiful pink ones I showed yesterday, so i've decided that hers will be for wearing when I go out and these basic ones, not at all as stylish or pretty, can be for doing jobs around the house- cooking, cleaning, etc. Here they are (photo by Arlo):

My sister and I have been making these gloves for a few years now- ever since discovering them in a children's knitting book- around the time we first started experimenting with our own handspun wool. These made the perfect project because they used such a small amount of yarn, and are at their warmest and best when pure wool is used. They are really quite plain and simple, I used an aran-weight yarn and 5.5mm needles.

Cast on 34 stitches, work K2, P2 rib for 10 rows. Change to stocking stitch, and work 18 rows. Then work another 10 rows in rib. Cast off. Make two the same, then sew up the side, leaving a small hole underneath the top band of ribbing for your thumb. Voila!

the kindness of strangers (and friends)

This little box arrived in the post today from Kate of Beadissimo in San Francisco:

Kate emailed me a couple of weeks ago to say thank you for the bag tutorial- she sent me some pictures of the fantastic bag she had made using my guidelines. And then this gorgeous parcel arrived in the mail as another thank you! A wee kit with everything I need to string my own necklace. I have no experience at all of making jewellery so I'm excited to have these beautiful beads in such lovely wintery colours. Thank you so much Kate!

And last night my sweet friend Amelia came to visit and use my sewing machine for a project she was working on. And she gave me this bundle of crafty goodness:

And right after I had been talking about these colours on my blog, like she did the other day. Vintage buttons, pink knitting needles (the heavy kind with the little raindrop shapes on the top) and some clip-on dangling earrings she made (woohoo!! I've never had my ears pierced but always dreamt about wearing such earrings.) Also a little kit to make a beaded ring like the one she shows how to make here, and... those lovely fingerless gloves! Very sadly, I lost the ones Mum made me last week. (I'm still holding up hope they'll come back to me!) And I'd nearly finished knitting some more which I'll show you on here tomorrow, but they weren't half as stylish or cute as these are. These are decorated with dark red velvet ribbon and big vintage buttons. 

Once again I feel totally overwhelmed by the generosity of this blogging community, and crafters in general- thank you so much!

pink and brown

I love the colour combination of pink and brown. It's as if the brown allows me to take the pink more seriously. Also seen in neapolitan icecream, pink roses fallen on the ground, soaps I bought at the weekend craft market:

Some embroidered wool fabric I found while op-shopping:

...and this little book bag I made for Arlo's friend Maia, also turning three this week. I used brown cord fabric and pink vintage cotton for the lining. Happy birthday Maia!

gift-giving

My absolute favourite thing about crafting is making presents to give to people- I've done this for as long as I can remember. I think it's the same with most people who feel the drive to make things, from what I've gathered. And being given a hand-made present is my absolute favourite thing. Just knowing that someone put that time and thought into making something just for me is so humbling! I know that in our current mainstream culture it's not so valued. (I'm not talking about you, dear bloggers and blog readers!) Tom likes to tease me about the fact I am always trying to please others with my crafts, so much so that if someone says they like something I've made, I quickly rush home to make them one too. When I was selling my things at the craft market in town, he used to joke that I would just give my wares away for free if a customer looked interested- and be so grateful that someone wanted something i'd made! I suppose there's a bit of truth in that. I'm trying to be better, though, because I know it makes people awkward sometimes.

This week it's been present-making time. I have a stack of projects to work on today for birthdays coming up next week. And over the last couple of days I made some belated presents: a brown wool and vintage-cotton bag for my dear friend Kirsty:

and a wrap-around fleece jacket for my just-turned-one year old niece Phoebe.

Now, back to the sewing machine- I've got a one-hour break from the children to get some crafting done! Hope you're having a lovely, warm Sunday!

trying to warm up

It's cold here; winter's marching all around the house. To cheer and warm us up, we went for a long walk around the local gardens where there are ducks (Keira's current favourite things.)

Then came home and made scones to eat warm with butter and the last jar of summer's plum jam:

And Keira-of-very-cold-feet needed a new pair of winter slippers, so I made these reversible dotty ones while she was sleeping this afternoon:

These were made from my own trusty pattern, which I actually think needs some modifying. I recycled two op-shopped wool cardigans and a pair of cord pants I made two years ago for Arlo. Now, to work out how to make some for me?!

who would have thought?

Funny the things you can come around to thinking- I made two 'plastic bag holders' today and was quite shocked at myself as I clearly remember hating the one Mum had in her kitchen when we were growing up. I can't seem to remember to take my cloth bags shopping these days and I've ended up with lots of plastic bags all squashed into a drawer and spilling out everytime I open it. Hence the idea for these (one is for my sister):

You might be thinking the psychedlic barkcloth is a strange choice of fabric, but, well, it had to be used up and also, it actually matches our new kitchen! (See wall behind.) Yup, lime-greeney-yellow walls and there's an even brighter 'feature-wall'. Strangely it's not as bad as it sounds. And all the cupboards and drawers are done in a dark-turquoise colour, so that fabric is just right.

It's my sister Tamsin's birthday in a couple of days so I made her a very unoriginal bag from my own pattern here to go along with her kitchen accessory and some nice handmade soap from a shop called Global Soap which has just opened down the street from our house! What's bad about this bag is I used the leftover fabric from the one I made for the tutorial but I think she liked it so no matter. I don't think she reads my blog, so here it is:

Those holders are so super-easy to sew up and I was completely inspired to make them by these cute ones by zus-punt.

discovering collage

Life has felt pretty crazy-busy since we moved into this new house last week. I've found it hard to make time for sewing or knitting, which has actually felt quite difficult! I am definitely a happier person when there's a bit of time each day for me to do some crafting or reading, or writing! The children are taking a wee while to settle into sharing a bedroom for the first time, and have been waking up all through the night. As a result I don't have much energy left in the evenings any more, and find myself thinking about going to bed at about eight o'clock! I'm sure everything will settle down soon though.

A month or so ago I signed up for my first ever group swap- a Postcard Swap organised by Nikkishell. I had lots of elaborate ideas for what I might do but the deadline drew close without me realising any of them- ha! Quite typical. So yesterday Arlo and I sat down and cut out lots of pictures and did some pasting and I came up with my set of cards and he made a few too. He also pasted and taped together a few things from his art supply box so it's a bit of a mess. But he seemed to have a great time, and so did I! I've never done collage before (although I've been collecting the bits I used for these for some time now), but always admired work done by others like Lisa, from a bird in the hand and Helen, from the now-finished Stripy Sock Studio. I had lots of wierd primary-school flashbacks and my fingers got that gummy, grubby look to them with bits of wool stuck everywhere, but it was so much fun. And it was quite a bit faster than knitting or sewing so definitely one of those instant-craft-hits which I so needed!

I made two sets of postcards: one set with a season/garden/undergrowth theme (I feel like I've been obsessed with the seasons and weather lately) Here are a few of them under the scanner (sorry, they're a bit blurry- no camera today!):

and the other with a pacific/sea/palm tree kind of theme:

Now to write all the addresses on, and post them off! I'm excited about getting postcards from crafters all around the world! There's a Flickr group here where you can see all the handmade cards.

three today

Happy Birthday Arlo!

We're having a lovely day in the winter sunshine, with lots of family and friends visiting. That was the fastest three years of my life so far!