tiny happy

rare and exotic

The clematis that grows in our back fence has burst into flower this week, which is a very promising sign that winter is on its way out. The Māori name for this plant is Puawhananga, or 'flower of the skies' which I think is more beautiful than 'clematis.'

I hope you are well and keeping warm, wherever you are in the world. 

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This week I finished a pair of socks that I had been working on for quite a long time. The yarn is from Dark Harbour Yarns and the colourway name is the rather glorious 'Rare and Exotic Beast - grey with bits.' I've made this pattern lots of times and I love the design - it stays up, keeps its shape, and is nice and simple too. But I might try a different pattern next time. I'd love to master 2-at-a-time socks.

I do like to have a sock project in progress at all times though, as it's the perfect thing to fit in my work satchel for the odd bus knitting session or when I'm waiting to collect kids from somewhere.

This pair is a gift for a sweet friend of mine.

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This week I read a very small book: Notes of a Bag Lady by Margaret Mahy, a favourite NZ writer who died in 2012. In this essay, she describes how writing has given her many different ways of seeing the world and trying out different personas, from a detective to an adventurer, a princess and a witch. She eventually trained and worked as a librarian before writing full-time. 

Notes of a Bag Lady is a very funny piece of writing but, being a devout librarian fan, I particularly loved what she had to say about her profession and thought you might too:

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...I saw a picture in which the prim austerity of a female character was emphasised by the fact she was a librarian. Over the years librarians have been given a repressive image. Time and again they are shown as humourless women who, being largely sexless, have never escaped into the halcyon work of housekeeping and hanging out napkins.

Of course many people are unaware that Casanova was not only sexually prodigious but also progressed to become librarian for Count von Waldstein in Bohemia for 13 years, though admittedly this was towards the end of his career. We have no evidence that he progressed to be an efficient cataloguer.

Casanova to one side, I am here to assert that librarians stand dancing and pivoting on the tenuous ridge that separates chaos from order. That dancing librarian makes so much of the world accessible to others.

- Margaret Mahy (a small extract from NOABL, Four Winds Press, 2003.)

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the biscuit tin

Hello! Signs of spring are starting to appear here. I love these little blue flowers, the names of which I always forget. They don't seem to mind though and cheerfully come out of their bulbs regardless. The days are getting a little longer too, and the general bite of winter is not so sharp. 

I hope you are well, dear reader? Thank you for the lovely comments on my last post. Interesting that knitted rabbits are on your mind, too. I have started work on my angora version and will report back soon.

I also made the kimono jacket I mentioned in my last post. I used the Kochi Kimono design by Papercut Patterns and some drapey linen and it's already proven to be a useful garment to wear to work.

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This week I've re-discovered some music I hadn't heard in a long time: Joanna Newsom's Divers. I love this album, and was very pleased to find the entire thing online as I seem to have lost all the music I purchased on i-tunes a few years ago. 

I'm reading Women in Clothes by Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits and Leanne Shapton partly because of the beautiful cover design and the fact I love hearing about other people's clothes, and partly because of a terrible Guardian review that made this book compelling reading for me. 

Do bad reviews tempt you to read or listen to something, too? I'm not sure if this is a normal reaction.

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I wanted to tell you about some very simple, but delicious biscuits. I recently found a copy of this book that I thought I had lost. It's filled with recipes from old community cookbooks from around New Zealand. The recipes are lovely, and remind me so much of my paternal grandmother, who was a proper old-school Kiwi baker. But the scanned pages of old books, and historical insights are what make Ladies, A Plate extra special.

Anyway, I made some 'coconut whispers' from it which are very simple little cookies, a bit like macaroons. You can find a very similar recipe here. I flavoured mine with the scrapings of a vanilla bean. But you could use anything - almond extract or lemon or maybe rosewater? You can see them above in a great old biscuit tin that my friend Anna gave to me. Old-fashioned biscuits in a proper old tin. Must be time to put the kettle on.

midwinter dispatch

Hello! I feel like I haven't been here in ages. I've had a small, unintentional break from my usual weekly blog routine that can be pinned down to a general midwinter murk and lack of non-working time. I hope this finds you well, dear reader!

I've also found myself losing my usual verve when it comes to making, which has been a bit sad and strange. Doesn't often happen to me! No matter how busy I am, I still dream of projects and keep my sketchbook around. But not this winter, for some reason. 

Here are some photos from the past few weeks:

A crisp early evening from our front door step, with a pearl moon out early.

A batch of crumpets made on a quiet Saturday morning (so yum toasted with butter and with a cup of tea alongside... I used the recipe from a book I mentioned in this post, The Little Library Cookbook by Kate Young).

A stack of new linen in berry colours, sent by Susan of Loop for some new project bags to send to London in the spring. And a very sweet little pair of Japanese scissors for my embroidery toolbox, she sent as a gift. I love these! Very, very small but also sharp. And with a leather pouch to keep them in.

Other things I've been doing lately have included reading: I finished Motherhood by Sheila Heti which I really enjoyed. It explores the deepest thinking about the meaning of being a mother, or not having children, as the case may be.

Knitting: still working on the same slow projects (could these be the source of my dampened enthusiasm with making? Hmm). Hope to finish both garments soon, and move onto new things.

Projects planned for spring:

+ One of these Kochi Kimono jackets, in a fine black linen (I think it would be a very useful work garment, or to wear while lounging around anywhere else! 
+ A couple of tops like this one, for the warmer weather (do you like how I'm writing as though winter is almost over? It's not even close!)
+ Knitted rabbits. I have some soft natural angora yarn and would love to knit up a couple of soft rabbits for my baby nieces, but I haven't found a pattern like the idea I have in mind. I am going to try to make my own.

What about you? How are you feeling these days, and what projects are you planning?
Thank you for visiting, as always.

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