tiny happy

plant life and mist

Our city has been hiding under a blanket of mist for the past couple of days, which (I think) looks beautiful (especially from our front door) but it's not fun for travellers stranded at the airport. It's supposed to clear later today.

I've been doing some preparation for Slow Stitching in the Barn which takes place from tomorrow - very exciting! The plant life embroidery you can see in the photo above was done as a custom order,  but I'm predicting a lot of chain stitches, couching and French knots in my near future. 

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Here is a favourite song that Arlo and I listened to while we were doing the dishes last night. Very cheering, and it's called Darling.

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late summer landscapes

I feel as though I don't have much to say these days. There's certainly a lot going on - work being done, washing hung out, schoolbags packed and groceries bought... but I don't know how much there is to say here on the blog.

It's feeling quite autumnal all of a sudden. The mornings are darker, the nights are cooler, and the vegetable garden needs to be dug over.

I have been doing a bit of knitting and embroidery... I've made a couple of dresses, and am knitting socks - just what you might expect. I've also made some baby slippers for the first time in ages. A few pairs are now in my etsy shop, and I have tucked some away for two babies in the family we're expecting to arrive any day now - very exciting!

Lately I've really enjoyed watching Aziz Ansari's Master of None on Netflix, and I'm currently reading Some Rain Must Fall by Karl Ove Knausgaard. I must confess the latter is taking me a very long time to complete.

I hope this finds you well, dear reader.

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small animals and cases

Three small animals friends were finished recently for a small friend who turned one. 
I used some handspun silk/merino to knit them, along with some leftover yarn from this project for their little outfits. I really like knitting these little animals - I've made them for a few other babies in our world - using this pattern with some adaptations.

I also made a little drawstring bag for the animals to live in, because babies like to put things in containers then take them out again. For the bag I used some hand-dyed linen and embroidered an initial in pink thread.

Also pictured above: some recent sewing I did, using vintage linen and some with hand-printing. I do love recycling old fabrics.

I hope you are well!

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This is a sad + beautiful song I like. I was lucky enough to see and hear Nick Cave live a couple of months ago!

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a seed-stitch tie

Tom wears a tie to work most days, and a while back he asked if I would knit him one.

After a bit of online research I settled on this pattern and started knitting. The first version I made wasn't quite right, as I used a yarn with cotton content, and the end result was too long, wide and prone to stretching. 

So I tried again with the recommended yarn (Quince & Co 'Chickadee'), and used an existing favourite tie as a template to copy as I knitted, and had success! He’s already worn it to work lots of times. 

I realise now it’s important to create a tight but lightweight fabric when making ties. (Here are my Ravelry notes for the project.)

I do quite like knitting for Tom, as he's so appreciative and keen on wearing handmade things- although I must admit I haven't offered to knit anything as ambitious as a sweater or cardigan for him yet.

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The last photo shows him with Keira on a walk we took recently around the South Coast of Wellington. It was a rare windless day here in the capital and absolutely beautiful.

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tansy days

In the spring I planted a small tansy plant in the garden, never realising how big it might grow. Now it's early autumn and the plant is taller than me and threatening to take over the flower bed. I really only planted it for embroidery purposes. 

I've also been reading that dyeing with tansy can produce a beautiful earthy yellow, so I'll try that when more flower heads appear on the plant.

Imagine a garden planted specifically for embroidery and dyeing? I'm intrigued by this idea and am going to start doing some research. Have you planted anything in particular for these purposes?

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Hope you've had a lovely weekend. We've had family staying, wood stacking, friends visiting, kids playing music and coffee brewing. Not bad at all.

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recent acquisitions + hebes

a) Scandinavian and Scottish winter weather feels very far away at the moment, but that doesn't mean I don't love looking through the windswept and grey photos of my latest book purchase, Knitting from the North by Hilary Grant. I first heard about this book on Nicole's podcast and fell in love with the aesthetics of it. I hope to try some colour-work knitting from it this winter (I think this hat will be my first project). You can see all the projects in the book here.

b) We have a lot of native plants in the garden, especially hebes as they seem to be the only flowering plants who are unpeturbed by our stormy hilltop conditions. At the moment, we have little hebes growing from cracks in the concrete, through the bricks in the courtyard, and big hebes growing like wild in the garden. I love their delicate-yet-sculptural flowers.

c) Both Keira and I (but especially Keira) like to make sure we have a good supply of wrapping paper, cards and tape on hand at all times. This is our latest order of washi tape (from here) - we have a lot of fun carefully choosing a few rolls each a couple of times a year. That mushroom tape was my choice, though.  

Hope you're having a lovely weekend so far, dear readers! 

for a new mum

My littlest sister is expecting her first baby soon, and I wanted to make her something useful for everyday Mum-life. She said she had her eye on a particular tote bag and zip case that our sister-in-law used with her first baby. So I took measurements from those items and tried to reproduce them - well, rather, make my own versions of them.

The result is this denim tote bag which involved a bit more trial-and-error than I care to admit, and a hand-printed linen case, which is quite large - big enough for nappy-changing essentials and other bits and bobs you carry everywhere with a new babe.

The bag was sewn from denim twill fabric (originally bought at Fabricabrac) and lined in striped grey and white cotton. It has a recessed zipper and some recycled leather details. The original bag had leather straps but I used some webbing tape instead, after getting some great advice and guidance from Maryanne at Made Marion Craft - thanks Maryanne! I also bought the zips and interfacing needed for the bag there.

To celebrate my new niece's imminent arrival, we joined Sarah and her friends at Martha's Pantry, which I can recommend for beautiful teas (served in vintage teapots with hand-knitted cosies) and cakes of all kinds.

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