A couple of wintry months ago I bought a daphne plant. The first snippable flower is currently in a miniature bottle on the kitchen table. The scent is so great for such a small thing. Also pictured above: a finished needlebook on my cluttered worktable. I used some very old linen with top-notch French-knot hand…

  I received two packets of sunflower seeds in the post after visiting a really fantastic project just outside of Wellington: Common Unity Aotearoa. I was visiting with camera and notepad for work (I'm a journalist writing about science education when I'm not writing this blog), because i wanted to write an article about teaching…

Some primroses I planted in the autumn popped up this week; small bursts of colour in the grey garden. They reminded me of some vintage fabric I found a while back: black with colourful embroidery. Perfect for some springy baby shoes for the shop. Happy new week to you! Can you believe it's the last…

Check out my new (old) sewing book: Dressmaking with Liberty by Ann Ladbury, published in 1984. It's so great: it has a pocket with all the patterns needed to make up the clothes, each design beautifully modelled and styled in some pretty full-on 80s Liberty prints. The dress with tie-on collar from the cover is…

 Thank you to Homespun magazine who included this embroidered needlebook I made a while back in their latest issue. I like the idea of a pinterest page in print- sort of like the opposite of a magazine shown on pinterest. Before Homespun contacted me, I had completely forgotten about this needlebook. It was one of…

I would really love to go to the Greek Islands this week. But I can't see it happening. Instead I'm enjoying this book: Greek Islands Embroidery, by Pauline Johnstone, that Tom bought for me at a second-hand book fair.  The book was published in 1961, and has those beautiful loose colour plates at intervals throughout,…

We have a junior knitter in the house. One stormy Saturday when her soccer game was called off, Keira and I sat down with needles and yarn and practiced the 'in, over, through, off' pattern until she had it sorted. She had started knitting when she was about 4 or so, but I think it…

I rediscovered an album I used to play constantly when Arlo was a baby: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips. Had a small epiphany at these lyrics. It could be the only song to have on my ipod, ever.  

I made this little wrap top/cardigan for a soon-to-be-born baby of an old friend. I started out knitting something different entirely, but after making a few mistakes realised I wasn't in the frame of mind for a knitting challenge (work, etc.) But I was however in the mood for some garter stitch and a lovely…

One sunny weekend morning recently, we celebrated the birthday of our resident teenager. On the table, we had garden flowers, coffee, pancakes made by R and K, hand-written menus and stewed rhubarb. I knitted one of these in black and made a makeup bag a bit like this, among other gifts.  Family mornings like this…