tiny happy

fort unate

Hello! It's a beautiful spring day here as I type this, and a baby tui is singing outside from the power line. I hope you are well and you've had a good week.

I'm so grateful for these lighter and brighter days. When the sun is shining, it feels like everything is simpler and more possible.

In my last post I mentioned a jersey I had started making for Tom. You can see my progress in the photo above: it's constructed from the bottom up, and I've mostly finished the body knitting. The pattern is Fort Sweater by Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed and it's just a simple design in a checkerboard stitch (which i think is the same as double seed stitch?) In any case, it involves a lot of knitting. But I'm enjoying the project so far and it's quite fun to make something for someone who is excited about wearing the finished garment. When it's my turn to wash the dishes, he says, 'oh no that's okay, I'll do them so you can work on my jersey instead,' which of course is fine with me.

I've also been doing a bit of embroidery when time allows - I have a great new lamp on my worktable which makes it easier for me to stitch at night time. I am planning a small etsy shop update on Sunday September 30. Just a few things, and I'll try to have them listed by 10am NZT.

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Some things I've been enjoying this week are:

The latest collection of clothes by Australian label Nancybird. I absolutely love this online shop and have ordered a few pieces over the years, including a best dress and a big bag that I use everyday for work. But the latest collection is something really special I think - the designs are all inspired by the work of one of the world's first female architects - Marion Mahony Griffin and employ lots of earthy colours like olive green and orange. I ordered a treat for myself last week: the 'lace t-shirt' in a pearly grey knit. (You can see the lovely reusable packaging in the photo above).

This interview with my clever friend Elizabeth Barnett. Lizzie's latest collection of paintings, 'Preservation', is currently exhibiting at Modern Times gallery in Melbourne. In the interview she talks about her artistic process as well as the thinking behind these paintings and her favourite music. You can also glimpses of the work. I found it inspiring!

Castle Rock, a great but fantastically creepy TV series based on the stories of Stephen King and set in Maine, USA. It's on the edge of being too frightening for me to watch, but I feel compelled to keep going now I've started it.

Gratitude, a book of essays by neurologist Oliver Sacks, published shortly after his death in 2015. The writing is beautiful and uplifting, and sad of course, because the author knows he is dying, and is looking back on what has made his life meaningful. 

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hellebores + podcasts

We have some hellebores in our garden but their season is ending. I love them a lot. I went to embroider some but instead the thread became something that looks more like dahlias, but that's okay because I love them too. 

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Speaking of embroidered flowers, I'm planning a small-ish shop update with a spring theme. I'm thinking early October, but I'll give an actual date in my next blog post. Thank you to everyone who has emailed to ask about this and also to those who have expressed interest in buying my work - I really appreciate it! When it comes to making and selling my work, time is not on my side during the working/school year. But I have a few things in progress and it will be fun to celebrate spring by making a small collection of work for the shop.

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This week I made a soft corduroy bear for a new baby, and wrapped it up along with a book that was a favourite when my kids were smaller - The Kuia and the Spider by Patricia Grace. The illustrations are by Robyn Kahukiwa and are really evocative, I think.

I must have made fifty of these toys over the years, for nieces, nephews, my own kids and friends. The pattern is in this book. The design is purposely simple, to allow for maximum customisation (or not). My niece Phoebe sewed some fetching linen pants for her bear and I've also seen one with a beautiful hand-knitted scarf. I usually 'under-stuff' them so they're soft and squishy and nice to hold by the hand.

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Thank you for your podcast suggestions in the last post! Here is a list of them. I also want to add one I like, it's called Art, Life, Music and it's a Radio New Zealand programme featuring interviews with artists and writers who talk about their favourite music. I especially liked listening to Dunedin artist Kushana Bush - and have you seen her paintings? Amazing. 

Here is our collaborative podcast list (please feel free to add more in the comments section):

Journalism/news/crime

Caliphate
This American Life
Teacher's Pet
My Favourite Murder
BBC World Service: Documentary and Witness
The Daily
Stay Tuned with Preet
Gone By Lunchtime
Black Hands
Dr Death

Humour/comedy

The Guilty Feminist
The Alice Fraser Trilogy 
Adrift
Answer Me This
No Such Thing as a Fish

Arts/science

On Being
Love Stories with Dolly Alderton
99 percent Invisible
Radiolab
Dispatch to a Friend
Tea and Tattle
The High Low
Dispatch to a Friend
Lost in Translation

Music

WTF with Marc Maron
Song Exploder
Desert Island Disks
NPR's Fresh Air
Art, Life, Music

Craft (most of these are on YouTube)

Pompom
Fruity Knitting
The Green Bean
Curious Handmade
Yarnchix
Yarns at Yinhoo
Kammebornia
Truly Myrtle
The Gentle Knitter (this is one of my all-time favourites!)

spring things

It's properly spring here now - the first week of September - but we've had stormy weather with bitterly cold winds along with slightly lighter mornings and evenings. I hope you've been keeping warm, wherever you are!

My newest niece M had a small party to mark her 100th day on earth last week. I knitted her a hat from some pale pink alpaca yarn I'd been hoarding for just such a thing. The pattern is a free one from Tin Can Knits, called 'Barley', and comes in every size from newborn to extra-large-headed adult. I'm really pleased with how this tiny little hat turned out. Might have to make myself one to match.

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Tom has requested a handknit jumper and on the weekend we called in to Holland Road to choose some yarn. Tash kindly popped my purchase inside this great tote bag - yarn noodles + needle chopsticks! I know it will get lots of use.

And in other yarn-related news, I bought this beautiful Norah George hand-dyed yak/silk/merino on a destash page and have just had it sitting on my desk, admiring the colour (its name is 'mustard seed', which I think is perfect) 

I'm thinking this yarn would make very lovely socks, or maybe fingerless gloves? Haven't decided yet. And besides, that man-sized sweater is going to take me a while.

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This week I finished reading The Kindness of Strangers which is a memoir by New Zealand writer Shonagh Koea. I've read all her novels because I love the unusual style of writing - but think I loved her memoir even more, as it explains the non-fiction roots to her fiction, if you know what I mean. 

And I've been listening to the excellent and beautiful album LUMP, which is Laura Marling and Mike Lindsay. Thanks to Flora for alerting me to it.

In the comments section of my last post, Deb asked if I knew of any good podcasts at the moment. I'm afraid I'm not much of a podcast listener, because I like audiobooks if I ever have time to listen quietly, and music when there's no time or space to concentrate on a story. But I have enjoyed the Guilty Feminist and Tom is currently listening to one called Teacher's Pet. And I hear The Alice Fraser Trilogy podcast is good.

Do you have any suggestions for Deb? Please leave any recommendations in the comment section. Thank you in advance!

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in the slow lane

This week I finished a knitting project that I've been working on for months. I'm quite a slow knitter! But I'm very happy with my new cardigan, which I made from this alpaca and merino yarn in a darkish shade of silvery-grey. The pattern is designed by Joji Locatelli and is called 'Lanes'. It appears in the very first issue of Laine magazine. I hope to make my way through more Laine patterns eventually, as they're all very beautiful! Maybe I will within the next 20 years...

You can find a link to the pattern, yarn, and other details on my Ravelry page here.

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Another very small project: a pair of earrings, made by taking apart an old necklace and a broken pair of earrings. It couldn't have been a simpler or speedier project (quite the contrast from the cardigan), but I love wearing them.

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This week, Tom and I stayed up way too late watching the latest season of Orange is The New Black, which I think is such an excellent show. I found it really laugh-out-loud funny and cry-spontaneously sad at the same time. I really hope they make another season, so we see some kind of new resolution for the characters (especially, my favourite, Taystee!)

And I've been listening to an old song: The Rip, by Portishead. It's ten years old now, but just as good now in my opinion.

Have a lovely week ahead, and thank you as always for visiting here. X X X X X