tiny happy

warmer shades

Warmer shades, tones and textures for autumn...

Here are a few photos I've taken over the past month or so.

I finally finished that 'No Frills' sweater! For this I used some Shetland 4-ply yarn in a charcoal shade, held together with a strand of black Camarose Midnattsol, which is a Danish yarn that blends together merino, tencel and wool. The resulting fabric is nice and light and has a matte, felted texture. This raglan sweater pattern is such a classic every-day style and I've worn it loads already. You can find my Ravelry notes here.

You can also see a crochet blanket-in-progress that I've picked up again - this is in essence a giant granny square, using up leftover DK (8-ply) wool yarns. For every second round, I'm using a cone of dark grey merino-possum yarn, which gives the multi-coloured vibe a bit of uniformity and I think brings it together nicely. I'm enjoying working on this blanket in the cooler evenings, watching TV or sitting by the fire.

My goal is to make it big enough to fit our spare bed (or until I run out of yarn) and I'm about half-way there.

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I've shared my latest cyanotype print - a large one I made to fit into a favourite square wooden frame. For this print, I used the last of the summer sunlight, and the last of some summer plants! Bees and other insects kept landing on the print while it was exposing in the garden which rather added to its late-summer charm. I was happy with the resulting print except for the grasses in the left-hand corner - I think they were a bit fine for the process. I've now put my cyanotype gear away until next summer as I've found it hard to get crisp prints at other times of the year.

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Finally, I included a picture of some sultana cake I made following a recipe in this great book about high-country farming (and cooking) life. You can find the recipe here.

I like it, but it made me wonder about my grandad's favourite sultana cake that I remember making for him as a child. It definitely didn't have walnuts or chocolate chips added - it was a very classic, British, slightly dense plain cake. That has led to a fortnightly sultana cake experiment (I have to wait until we have people staying over, to help us eat these cakes!) to rediscover his recipe. I think this one in the good old Edmond's cookbook is pretty close, but I reduce the sugar, add the grated zest of a lemon and use a bit more almond extract.

Please let me know if you too are a fan of the classic sultana cake - or is it just me? I love having a piece with a cup of tea and a chapter of whichever book I'm reading.

I hope this finds you well, dear reader! Until next time,

M X

 

 

summer fade

Kind of a bittersweet time of year, this one. It's always hard to say goodbye to the long, light days of summer and welcome in the darker ones. But looking back I can see it was a lovely autumn we enjoyed here at home, with some good social times and projects alongside a busy time of paid work.

In these photos, you can see a few things I made over the autumn and late summer time:

+ Some small botanical embroideries on silk. The fabric was formerly a favourite top of mine that wore out, and I didn't want to throw it away. I sewed the little embroideries up into pouches and filled them with dried lavender from the garden.

+ Summer pyjamas for Keira and I! I wanted to send Keira off to her second year at university with some nice new summer pyjamas, and ended up sewing her a set from some soft cotton. For this I used an old wide-leg pants pattern I had (cut short) and the 'Ogden Cami' pattern. I made myself a set too, from double gauze cotton - so comfortable and cosy!

+ More cyanotypes made in the full sun and light of Waitangi Day earlier this year. Toitu te Tiriti! And some coriander leaves captured, too.

+ This is a little summer top I knitted for Keira before she left home for another year in Auckland. The pattern is called 'Leaf Top' and I used some recycled cotton yarn to knit it, which was both manufactured from recycled garments and recycled from another knitting project of mine - double recycled! My Ravelry notes are here.

+ A simple raglan sweater in progress, for autumn wearing. The pattern is the classic 'No Frills Sweater' from Petite Knit and I'm using some Shetland fingering-weight yarn held together with CaMaRose's Midnatssol, which is an eco-friendly version of mohair-silk. It's creating a lovely soft + light, almost matte fabric and I know I will wear this loads! My Ravelry notes for this one can be found here.

I hope you are doing very well and finding time for the things you most love to do. Here are a couple of other special things I loved in the month of March:

+ Amiria Grenell's song and video for 'Lanterns' from her new album. So evocative and beautiful! And the setting reminds me of my childhood backyard.

+ 'A Study for Obedience' by Sarah Bernstein. A very moving and puzzling book that I'm still thinking about, a month later.

+ 1987's Babette's Feast which I had never seen until it popped up on my Netflix recommendations recently. It's my new favourite film, I loved it.

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