I bought some beautiful possum/merino Dark Harbour yarn from my mate Nikki. When I picked it up and looked into its beautiful grey-blue depths, I couldn't leave it on her table (at the Social Wool Fair a few weekends back). I packaged it up for my sister who had a birthday last week, along with…

This week's knitting project: a delicate baby vest for the neonatal unit at Wellington Hospital. I'm using 4 ply white merino, and this pattern, as specified by the hospital (scroll down to find the pdf download link). I found this post on Facebook about how the Wellington NICU needed knitted woollen vests, blankets and cardigans…

Small things with happiness-generating powers: – carving stamps from rubber blocks to make wrapping paper. This one is brown parcel paper with X x xs of various shapes and sizes. – scavenging in the garden for whatever colour I can find. In this case, yellow pansies, some lavender and purple hebe flowers. – thinking about…

I struck retro craft book gold with this 1978 number called Creative Crafts. The projects certainly are… creative. Thought you might like to take a look at some of my favourites, (click on photos to enlarge), in order from top photo to bottom: – Described as a 'Matisse-inspired hand-appliqued dress', this is essentially a poncho…

Kept inside by the storms and cold, my kids have been picking up knitting needles and yarn this winter. Arlo is working on a small scarf (for one of his soft toy friends I believe) and Keira has finished one for her bear Pinky. She bought the variegated yarn with her pocket money. (My collection…

It was a very lovely weekend. We had friends and family visiting, went out to hear live music, did some shopping and cooking, eating and drinking.  And… it was light enough to take photos. (During the week I'm not home during the light hours). So I made the most of it and photographed a few…

Pieces of brightness from the weekend: – We celebrated Arlo's 12th birthday.That was a good day, for sure. You can see him in the photo above with his requested chocolate cake (with chocolate ganache layer inside) and candles glowing. Not pictured: his friends around the table and cold midwinter outside. – I found this colourful…

Someone asked 'why all the grey?' when they saw me knitting this week, and I can't really give a good answer for that, except that I just like it. I also like Wellington in the winter, which definitely puts me in a minority. There's no denying that the weather here is 'difficult' but that's okay…

I'm thrilled to be an occasional 'craft contributor' on my friend Nicola's beautiful blog Homegrown Kitchen, which is all about making lovely healthy and delicious food. My first post is about making a hot water bottle cover from cosy knit fabric. I hope to contribute a post each season from now on. This coming weekend marks…

Hello dear blog readers, how are you? I've been finding it hard to get to this space, lately. Life has taken on a new sort of pace, with fewer gaps for activities such as taking photos and cooking and making. I hope it won't last too long, because I really love those sorts of activities,…