tiny happy

Spring's in full swing here in Wellington, which means, rather delightfully, some wild winds and bright warm days mixed in with Antarctic southerlies. So there's still plenty of need for handknits! 

I finished a hot water bottle cover a couple of weeks ago – it's made using the ''Haworth'' pattern (free on Ravelry here) and some beautiful Manos del Uruguay yarn in mottled green/blue shades. The yarn was a gift from my friend Lizzie, who showed me a picture of the hottie cover she was making, and i had to do one too! I'm quite suggestible like that.

I enjoyed knitting the cover – it was good to practice my cables and bobbles, which I hardly ever employ in my knitting – and the finished piece is very cosy. I think it would make a great gift, especially if you had a friend whose birthday was in autumn or winter. 

Also in gift-knitting news, I made the tiniest pair of socks for a new baby in our circle, which I sent along with a pink possum-yarn cot blanket (purchased, not knitted!) For these I used this pattern and some sock yarn leftovers. For more details about both the smallest-ever socks and the hot water bottle cover, you can click here to see my Ravelry notes.

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Are you after a little treat to accompany you on your weekend activities? Let me recommend a recipe for chocolate chip cookies, baked as one big luscious slice. My sister Sarah has a baking blog and she shares her recipe here. I decided I needed to make them late last night – and they're pretty good. So much easier and faster than rolling the mixture into separate cookies. You just spread it into a tray and then cut into squares while it's still hot and a little soft – the result is a bit like a brownie but with big chunks of chocolate. 

The plan is to take them on a walk up a hill today, along with a thermos of coffee.

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Music-wise, I've been re-visiting an old favourite album: this one by The Good, The Bad And The Queen, along with the same band's most recent album, a response to 2018 Britain, Brexit, and all that entails. It's wonderfully lush and poignant, to my ears, and I realise I've been listening to Damon Albarn's music in some form since I was a teenager with Blur albums on my disc-man. After Blur, it was Mali Music on the car stereo when my kids were preschoolers, then this solo album which I thrashed for what was probably several years after its release. My kids' first love of electronic pop came in the form of a Gorillaz CD played in their bedroom at volume, and now they are learning 90's Blur songs to play with their rock bands at school.

All of this Damon Albarn-related music comes highly recommended by me if you don't know it already. If you are after just one beautiful song, can I recommend this one. I love it.

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I hope you are doing well, wherever you are, and keeping warm too. See you again soon and thank you for reading my occasional musings!