tiny happy

more persistence

Hello from deepest winter! As I type, cold rain is tapping on the glass of the windows and what is probably a wind straight from Antarctica is whistling through. I hope this finds you well and warm.

Thought I'd share some of the things I've been doing this week. Snuggling under the new quilt reading, late at night. I've also been watching the miniseries Olive Kitteridge which I love. I know I'm terribly slow to both the book and adaptation. As usual! I'll get stuck into the book, which is by Elizabeth Strout, next.

My eldest, Arlo, turned 17! How can this be. We had a lovely midwinter celebration with family and he'll have a party with his friends soon. He was nearly born on the shortest day of the year, so even though I'm not keen on winter, Matariki will always be a very special time of the year for me.

It was also my sister's birthday and I've had a grand plan of knitting her a nice cosy shawl. Dreaming about it, even! But in the meantime, I made her a hat and posted it along with some ceramic earrings (from this lovely Golden Bay maker).

The hat was knitted from some soft blue Katia Concept yarn and this pattern from Espace Tricot which is free, quick and easy! I definitely recommend it. There's even a matching cowl - one day I might make a set. Both patterns can be downloaded here, (along with a good selection of others!) and my Ravelry notes are here. 

In the last photo above you can see the yarns I've chosen for the aforementioned shawl. I want to make another Vertices Unite design because I love wearing my first one so much. It might be one of my favourite projects ever. I checked in with my sister and she said yes please, and that greys and greens would be her colour preference. I just happened to have these colours in my stash, so it's obviously meant to be. I hope to report back with some progress in my next post.

The blackboard you can see above was one I walked past the other day outside this lovely homewares shop. I decided to take it as a sign that i should just keep knitting, and not get discouraged by how long my dream projects take to complete. But ''more persistence'' is meaningful in many other ways, of course.

Lastly, if you fancy something thought-provoking to read, I liked this recent piece by my friend Felicia Semple: Choosing Better Projects in Tricky Times. Felicia writes about how when we work on our craft with intention and consideration, we can help boost our wellbeing and connection with others. 

I also loved this piece on Vox: an interview with an author I deeply admire: Ta-Nehisi Coates. “I can’t believe I’m gonna say this,” he says, “but I see hope. I see progress right now.” In the piece, he asks the question: what would it mean to build the state around principles of nonviolence, rather than reserving that exacting standard for those harmed by the state?

It's a good read, and i'm still thinking about it.

Take care friends, and see you soon. 

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hexagon-shaped hearts

Kia ora. How are you? I'm sending some hexagon-shaped hearts to you today, wherever you are.

A couple of weekends ago I finished a long-term project: my hand-stitched hexagon quilt. I've documented this piece of work here from time to time, so it might look familiar if you've been visiting here for a while. After two and a half years in the making, I sewed the last stitches of the binding, took a few quick photos before it got too dark, and threw it over our bed! It's a great feeling to finally sleep under it, and I love it.

To sew the patches I used the English Paper Piecing method and completely recycled or scrap cotton fabrics. Some of these were cut from pillowcases and old duvet covers but most were cotton clothing that had worn out in places, such as shirts and blouses. A few pieces were leftover scraps from other projects.

I did purchase some new fabric for the borders of the quilt, because I didn't have anything quite big enough. I also wanted to be sure the the border fabric would be strong and long-lasting. I bought a couple of metres of pale grey linen for that job, and hand-appliqued the finished hexagon edges to the border all the way around. I used a lightweight cotton/wool blend batting for the inside layer.

For the backing fabric, I sewed together some of my most previous and long-hoarded fabric pieces together. The piece with tiny coral flowers on a cream background is actually a fine wool fabric that I bought from Cloth House in London the last time I was there - 10 years ago! It's so good to have all my favourite fabrics gathered together in one finished piece. To quilt, I just hand-stitched some horizontal lines at various intervals.

For the quilt binding, I used one of Tom's favourite work shirts that had mostly worn out and found that I was able to make nearly enough binding for the whole quilt by sewing carefully-cut strips together. I used some leftover border fabric o make up the required length of binding.

One concern I had about this project was the longevity of the quilt top, considering it's constructed entirely from pre-used and washed fabrics. I am worried that they could tear or wear out over time. I could probably replace any damaged hexagons easily enough, though. And the softness of the finished quilt makes up for it!

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The sunset photo was taken at 5pm the other day, shortly after meeting some friends for an evening drink. Isn't the sky at Lyall Bay a beauty? What you can't see in my photo is what seemed like 100 surfers bravely waiting in the water for the perfect wave. 

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I'm sure I'm the last person in the world to come around to making bliss balls. There's probably nothing new about this quick improvised recipe I came up with yesterday, but they're quite delicious and very easy to make, so I thought I'd share my method here:

Quick energy balls

1 heaped cup dates
1/2 cup dried coconut
2 heaped tablespoons cocoa
pinch of sea salt

Soak the dates in boiling water for about 20 minutes. Then remove them from the water and place in a food processor with the other ingredients. Blend until the mixture is smooth.
Roll into small balls, roll again in desiccated coconut and refrigerate until firm. 

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What are you reading or watching at the moment? I haven't watched anything for a few weeks, but have just started re-reading Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and have also downloaded Angela Davis' Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003) to read this week. (You can find a copy here). I need to keep reading and thinking about oppression. Even though it's hard.

It's been wonderful to see so many book lists (such as this one) being shared during this time, which feels a bit hopeful, and like some real change might be coming soon. I hope so.

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connecting strands

This week brought such heavy news - on top of the coronavirus continuing to cause suffering and death in almost every country in the world, my heart is breaking for the United States and its most recent incidence of state-sanctioned violence and murder.

One small thing i can do is donate money to organisations that contribute to change and I'll be doing that. My fellow citizens of Aotearoa: we can also write to the police and have our say on the recent Armed Response Team trial here, letting them know that we don't support the arming of our police force.

This evening, a Black Lives Matter vigil will be held in Wellington and another in Auckland, I believe - more info here. Black lives matter. George Floyd's life matters. Diversity in our own political representatives matters, too. It seems this is to be an ongoing struggle and i want to be part of the fight.

For the next couple of days, a knitwear designer I love, Nat Raedwulf, is donating 100% of all proceeds from sales of her patterns to organisations working towards social justice in the USA. You can find her patterns here. (A couple of years ago I knit this one and I love her work).

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In this post, I wanted to show you my latest finished piece of work - a colourful shawl I knit from Stephen West's Vertices Unite design. I loved working on this and surprised myself by finishing it within a few weeks - I put that down to having more time during lockdown life, and enjoying the interesting design and wanting to get to the next section all the time.

I used a range of yarns that I've had for ages - mostly all 4 ply merino-silk, and together they work to create a lovely soft and drapey shawl. I wanted to cast on another immediately (and still might). My sister's birthday is coming up, and I'd love to make one for her. Here are my Ravelry notes, in case you're interested in the specific colours I used and a link to the pattern.

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Last weekend we celebrated my niece's 2nd birthday, and i wanted to knit her a little hat with ears. I thought that even if she doesn't want to wear it to keep her warm through winter, it could be a fun dress-up piece. And it looked unbelievably cute on her too.

Her's is the pale pink one - and I made a matching grey one for her baby sister. These were really fun to knit and quick too. The design is clever - the back is shaped with short rows and edged with an i-cord that extends into the bonnet ties. I held one strand of mohair-silk together with merino-silk (incidentally, leftovers from my Vertices shawl!)

The pattern is called Baby Bear Bonnet and is by a Danish designer Pernille Larsen.

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It's the first day of winter. Tom and I have just finished watching the TV adaptation of Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries which I enjoyed - such beautiful aesthetics in that production and even though it describes a dark and grim place I found myself wanting to visit the South Island's West Coast again.

Music-wise, I'm still listening often to this album, Out of my Province, by Nadia Reid, hearing something new each time. And everything by Anderson .Paak - especially his album Oxnard and this Tiny Desk concert of his.

See you again soon, lovely friends.