tiny happy

all the greens

I finished my fluffy green sweater a few weeks ago and now of course it's mostly too warm to wear it. But its time will come around again, soon enough. 

For this garment I knitted with a strand of beautiful silverbeet-green 4ply merino that was a birthday gift from my mate Nikki (Dark Harbour Yarn) a few years ago. I held this together with a similar-but-not-the-same green silk/mohair yarn that I commissioned from Nikki. Together they created the most beautiful lightweight and deep green fabric - fluffy but very soft and warm. The pattern is called No Frills Sweater by Danish designer PetiteKnit, and you can find it on Ravelry (here are my notes).

About halfway through knitting this, I realised it would be a better fit on Keira (especially as I like my clothes to be quite loose fitting). It looked great on her, so I embroidered a 'K' on the back neckband for easy dressing. But after it was blocked it fitted us both well. So it's now a shared garment! That's fine with me - it makes the effort even more worthwhile. But I still might make another one in the next size up (I have in mind a pink/grey shade).

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Lately I've been thinking a lot about needle punching and how I might make some time for this craft - after all, I have all the materials and even a lovely new book on the subject - I just need to get into it! I found this video of artist Rose Pearlman talking about her work and process - you might like it too? This clip is one in a series about makers - the others are here.

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Also above: a linen lavender sachet I made for a friend, to wrap together with her birthday gift. The embroidery on the front is inspired by our spring garden, which is nearly electric with bees and birds and poppies about to pop. I hope all is well in your corner of the world.

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love is everywhere

I wanted to send a little handmade gift to a friend, so I made her a set of flower-collaged postcards so she can write to more friends! Snail mail forever. These pressed flowers are leftover from our late-winter garden and include hellebore, jasmine leaves and cyclamen. After arranging the pressed flowers, I covered each card in clear book seal and trimmed around the edges to neaten.

Tom and I took a mid-week break together last week which is a very rare occurrence! We went to Christchurch to listen to Zadie Smith in conversation about reading and essay-writing and generational understanding and so many other things. The trip was Tom's gift to me on my birthday last month and as well as a treat to hear Zadie speak, it was also lovely to escape 'normal life' for 24 hours. The next morning we went exploring around Christchurch and ventured as far as Lyttelton (which is my new favourite small NZ town) for coffee, a steep hill walk, some shopping and general old wooden house and garden admiration, before flying home again.

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Also pictured above: a new project I'm working on slowly in the hope of using up lots of leftover yarn from my stash. And creating a lovely squishy baby blanket in the process, of course! I got the idea from Stephen West's free pattern Garter Squish which is designed for 2 strands of worsted-weight yarn held double, to create a big blanket. My version will be more suitable for a baby, because i'm using one strand of DK weight possum/merino (from a cone I bought at the Woolyarns mill sale last year) held together with fingering-weight merino/silk yarns, of which I have many part-balls in my stash. When one ball of silk runs out, I just replace it with another colour and I really like the marled effect so far! The blanket has an i-cord edging along each side and I think it will be lovely and soft when finished.

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In the last photo, you can see my latest, extremely simple finished project: a new cushion cover. I made this to replace this one (with black swans) which I noticed had several holes where it had worn out! The new cover was made using a square of tree-print linen I found in a fabric market in Osaka when were in Japan earlier this year. So it has very good memories associated with it. You can't really see from this photo, but there are tiny gold buds on the ends of the branches of each tree. I used brown linen to create an envelope-style closure on the back of the cushion.

Have you heard Love is Everywhere? It's a newish song by Wilco that I first heard in a cafe last week. A new favourite that you might like too!

See you soon, lovely friends. 

shades of pink

Today's blog post is brought to you by the colour pink. Or shades of it, at least. 

I've been admiring pink a lot, these days, and found myself piecing together a second baby quilt (following on from this one) from leftover cuts of linen in grey, pink and cream. The finished quilt is a bit bigger than the previous one I made, and is backed in a pale pink linen. I have a baby in mind for this one, but have to wait for them to be born. I love making these small quilts and am already dreaming about the next one. And it feels great to use up some of my smaller pieces of fabrics, too.

One of life's (or at least, my life's) greatest joys is a new stack of library books brought home for an afternoon coffee and reading session. I thought I'd share a photo of last week's stack. Among them was a book about extracting colours from plants: The Wild Dyer, by Abigail Booth. I love this book and it's made me feel super inspired to try some natural dyeing of yarn, fabric and clothes this summer. I recommend it, if you're also interested in all things botanical dying. Abigail also keeps an inspiring Instagram page called Forest and Found - you can check it out here.

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Here's a new song I've been enjoying this week: The Kids Are Having None of It, by Frazey Ford. For me, FF's voice is the sound of summer. And this song and video in particular reminds me of my kids and their friends.

I haven't shared any recipes here in a long time. Probably because I try and get out of cooking whenever possible. But I have a new favourite dinner recipe - it's this lentil and coconut curry. Super easy to make and delicious too! And the leftovers are great for taking to work. I try and do some baking once a week because i think it's nice to always have biscuits in the house. These cookies (again with the coconut!) continue to be a strong favourite - they're very simple and comforting to have with a cup of tea. 

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Well I think that's all for this week. I hope you are well and finding time for the things you love to do, whether that's making things or eating biscuits, or making your way through a giant stack of library books. In my case, all three!