tiny happy

Kia ora! How are you? I wanted to send a dispatch through the interwebs – a warm hello from my house to yours. From this second week staying home (apart from a walk around the block every day) I know one thing for sure: I'll not take the beautiful faces of my friends for granted after this stay-home period. Nor my family members' faces! I miss them all, and I know you miss your loved ones. 

I hope you are doing well and managing to stay calm and happy, despite the huge changes all around. My heart goes out to those who are ill or have family and friends suffering from the virus. Sending you strength and love!

I'm finding it comforting to look at pictures of other people's stay-home life right now, and nicely distracting to think about creative projects. If you do too, this post is for you. I'll try to post more often than usual.

I've got two projects to show today. The first is a pair of socks i knitted for my son Arlo who is now 16. He has really big feet! That's my excuse for why it took me nearly 5 months (!) to knit these socks for him. They were mostly sitting, half-finished, in the bottom of my bag and I worked a round or two every now and then. But with this extra time on the weekends not spent doing the usual busy things, I was able to finish them. The yarn is 'Honest Sock' by my friend and local dyer Bonnie (Union Fibre), and the pattern is one I always use: Wise Hilda's Basic Ribbed Sock, which is free on Ravelry. They are great everyday socks and the ribbed pattern means they stay in shape well. 

I like knitting for Arlo because he's always appreciative and wears handmade things all the time. The other socks I'd knitted for him were completely worn through, so he needed a new pair for winter.

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The other project you can see above is an almost-finished Tamarack Jacket. The pattern is by Grainline Studio and I bought it several years ago but really only felt like tackling it last month. I cut the pieces out then it sat on my desk until the weekend, when I fully immersed myself in the project. It's a lot of work – you hand-baste then machine quilt all the pieces, insert welt pockets, construct then cover all the interior seams with bias binding. 

Because I wanted to use only materials I already had, I ended up sewing scrap fabric together to make the lining pieces, including some floral Liberty cotton and fabric from two old shirts of Tom's. I also used up some Liberty bias binding I'd been saving for something, but made the rest of the binding from the same fabric as the exterior. That fabric is quite a lightweight black cotton dress fabric, with a fine black stitched embroidery to give it a bit of texture. I was worried my fabric choices would be too lightweight, but I'm happy with the weight and feel of the quilted pieces.

Hopefully I'll be able to show you the finished jacket in my next post! If you're looking for an ''involved'' make for these days, I'd recommend this jacket. You do need to have patience and a good space to spread your work out on, though. Just a friendly warning! 

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And lastly, Keira made a rather tried-and-true recipe over the weekend: this any-kind-of-fruit cake, first published on my blog in 2011. The recipe is super simple and makes two! You can use up any fruit you have, just by slicing it and pressing it on to the surface of the cake. Keira's version used up feijoas, berries and sliced almonds. We recommend it for breakfast, with coffee…

A few other things I enjoyed this week:

Getting Through a Pandemic with Old-Fashioned Crafts (on The Atlantic)

Novelists pick books to inspire you (the Guardian)

Revisiting this Fleet Foxes album (hard to explain why it's so soothing, but it is!)

Cressida Cowell reads her book How To Train Your Dragon (for any children who love being read to?)

This free hat pattern that I'm keen to cast on (simple rib, slipped stitches, a fast knit and looks so cosy)

This timeless and impossible to resist song by Bill Withers (RIP) 

Take care friends,

M XXX