tiny happy

Even typing the word 'autumn' feels a bit sad, but its imminent arrival is the only way I can explain my motivation for knitting on a big grey blanket, possibly the warmest thing I've ever knitted, and certainly the largest.

I finished it a couple of weeks ago, and finally managed to get a couple of photos of the whole thing. It's a good size for a queen bed and comprised of 9 panels, which are each made up of 4 squares, knit in alternating stocking stitch and reverse stocking stitch. So, it couldn't be easier! I wrote a bit more about it here, and you can find more details on my Ravelry project page. The project was one started by my Mum nearly 20 years ago, from a pattern in an old Erika Knight homewares knitting book. The grey Rowan yarn was discontinued a while back, and I realised I wouldn't have enough to finish it. A very kind Ravelry user from California let me buy 3 balls from her stash! After knitting the 9 panels, I began the long task of blocking each square to the same shape, weaving in the ends (there were many, many ends) and mattress stitching everything together as neatly as possible (don't look too closely – it's really not that neat).

The blanket edging was a bit rough looking, so I picked up around each side and knit 6 rows in garter stitch, using a different yarn. I'm quite happy with how it looks now it's all finished, and I know it's going to be an Extremely Nice Thing to have on the bed when it gets a bit colder. It almost makes me look forward to winter! Though I know I'll get over that nearly straight away… 

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I took the last two photos on a recent weekend away to visit friends at their place in the country. It was really beautiful: dry and hot, with a soundtrack of cicadas. We swam in the river and picked many wild blackberries. I had to take a photo of the small cabin we slept in, which was furnished with an excellent collection of vintage bedspreads, pillows and curtains. A dream!

I hope you're well, dear reader.

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I made this loose-knit, loose-fitting top over the summer break. It took me a while to get a photo of it – it always seemed too bright or too dark to capture it properly, though that was probably my rubbish camera skills. The pattern is Deschain by Leila Raven, and I knitted it from Erika Knight Studio Linen yarn in black. 

The pattern is written for an aran-weight yarn, but the studio linen is a DK, so I made a few modifications such as knitting more repeats and changing the numbers around a bit. I think the finer yarn resulted in a more open texture too, but i like the amount of drape it has and it's comfortable to wear. I am really happy with the finished result and it's already proved useful to wear over dresses to work. If you're interested in the other modifications I made, and thoughts on the pattern, there are some notes on Ravelry.

I think Leila is an amazing designer and I would love to try another of her patterns sometime. You can see them all here.

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In the first photo above, you can see some small things I'd gathered to send along with some letters last week. I do love to receive handwritten letters (and am lucky enough to have friends who write to me from time to time!) so try to remember to write some back. This time I also sent a few hand-knitted cotton facecloths and soap too, and some hand-embroidered lavender sachets. Just because.

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Some things I've seen and liked lately:

Nicola's zucchini blossom feta fritters

A little woolen kitchen animation

Skovbær Shawl – a free one-skein pattern by Fiber Tales (video tutorial)

The Guardian's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

This page of Nigel Slater summer salad recipes

Thom Yorke's Desert Island Disc interview

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I hope you're having a good week! See you again soon.

Thank you for reading my previous post, and for your thoughtful comments! I loved reading them. I also had some great chats on Instagram and want to thank everyone who shared their thoughts with me.

Mostly I was just wanting to express the strange way I have been feeling lately. I don't think I will ever stop being creative and making things with my hands. It's very important to me and really a huge part of my life. I also love to share my work with others. 

My lovely friend Felicia wrote under my last post: Especially now when things are feeling so overwhelming, we have a need for grounding, for solidity and for intentional materiality. We have a need for active engagement over passive consumption. We have a need for purposeful work – even if that purposeful work is now an optional activity.

I love that thought – that rather than be dissuaded from what we love, we can instead take the opportunity to use our passion and skills in more meaningful ways.

I do think though that I will try and make some small changes in how I work. These are my ideas for 2020:

 * Make more gifts. I've always loved to make gifts, especially for babies and children. This year I'd like to make more of them, even if they're just small acts, such as knitting socks for my kids and partner and Dad and father-in-law, newborn baby socks and booties from the leftovers. Stripy baby cardigans from small amounts of precious yarns. Wee winter hats for my nieces.

I was invited to give a talk about making gifts at Soul Craft in 2018. In her comment, Felicia wrote: "The reason I asked you to talk about giving your work away last year is because I believe that this is part of the answer for all of us life-long makers. I don't need another frock but there is someone I care about who needs a pair of handknit socks. So many of us are needing comfort and the things we make offer us this by reminding us of our connection to others. These socks remind them each time they put them on of our connection in a way that a transient phone call or a store-bought gift cannot because they represent my time and intention. The material has a semi-permanence that offers us the solace of connection in the absence of the actual human."

* Make more and stronger connections with others. Share my materials, knowledge and skills more freely. Make more time for meeting up with other makers. My friend Bonnie wrote me a lovely message about this. She said: "I make because it's how I express myself. Making is my way of contributing positive energy into the world. I know we end up with 'things' in the process. But when we consciously make something with intention and meaning, it becomes more than just a 'thing'. It becomes a connection in some way. I think there is a big difference between mindless making, and creative making. One has ego and disconnect and the other seems to bring us into the present moment with a desire for purpose and meaning."

* Work my way through my ''saved'' craft materials. I've realised that over the past few years, acquiring materials has almost become a pastime separate from my actual making. I don't regret that. I have had so much fun and enjoyment talking about yarns with friends, going to markets, online shopping, op-shopping and planning my purchases. But I'm also aware that I now have enough yarn, fabric and other supplies to keep me busy for the next year or two, and I really do want to use these lovely things, rather than just collect them. So I am going to start using up my very favourite supplies, in particular, the ones I have been ''saving''. After all, that's why I bought them in the first place.

* Keep re-using, recycling and buying secondhand wherever I can. Catherine left an excellent comment about this on my previous post. She wrote that she's now aware of having a well-stocked wardrobe, so instead of making something completely new, she'll consider embellishing an existing garment, such as embroidering a shirt, etc. She also mentioned that she tries to slow the making process down, in order to enjoy it more and be less material-focused. For example, feeling okay about un-ravelling knitting if it's not right, or re-doing something. I would like to work on this as I can be very impatient with my work at times. Another reader, Laura, wrote: "Mindfully creating and repurposing and reusing materials is great and I hope you continue to make things that bring you joy." She mentions the way children draw over and over on paper that may or may not end up in the recycling bin, as an essential way to express themselves or even just to pass time and practice mark-making and pen-holding. On a very similar note, Felicia has an interesting post on her blog: Craft as a project vs craft as a practice which is definitely worth a read. As is all of her blog.

* Start again slowly. I'm trying to re-introduce some creative practice each day, and not put too much pressure on myself to start/complete or even make much progress on projects.

If you're feeling the same way these days, I hope these ideas might work for you too. Thank you as always for visiting here.

Happy New Year to you! I hope this new phase of the calendar finds you happy and well-rested. The family and I spent nearly two weeks in the South Island as we always do, visiting family, swimming, walking, and eating berry ice-cream among other things. It was a lovely time, though it felt too fleeting! We came home earlier than we usually would, because of work and other commitments. The photos above are some I took on our adventures. You can see how lush and beautiful it is down there. I'm so grateful to have had that time to rest.

Mid-January, when people are slowly re-entering their work and other ''everyday life'' patterns, usually makes me feel excited and curious about what the year ahead will bring. This year though, I haven't felt very positive. The fires raging in nearby Australia, international politics and war, the pettiness of our domestic politics when poverty and racism is still bad here, our changing climate and many other things are worrying me. As I know they are concerning many people. The things that usually bring me inspiration and joy are my creative work, and enjoying other peoples' creativity through books, music, films, art and even social media. But these things haven't lit any sparks in my mind lately. I keep wondering, ''what's the point of it?"

I think part of the problem has been a growing feeling about my creative work that I can't shake off. That is: in a time that I, as an extremely privileged person, believe I should be trying to simplify and limit my material desires and consumption, what can be done about one of my main joys, making things? My creativity has for many years taken this form. Embroidery, knitting, sewing, and other crafts too. But all of these pursuits involve buying materials and creating more things from those materials. Even when I've tried to hard to use only recycled materials, I'm still making new things. And I really don't believe the world needs more things.

I know these are not new ideas or concerns. This topic has been discussed at length, and brilliantly, on other blogs and last year on Instagram I read some really thoughtful pieces written by other makers. I'm still forming my ideas around this. I may or may not write more on the subject. In the meantime, I would love to know your thoughts, if you feel like sharing them below.

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Somewhat related, yet also contradictory: in the last photo above, you can see one of my current works-in-progress. This is a blanket given to me by my mum over the Christmas period. I remember her starting to make it in the early 2000s and I also remember coveting it. I could knit back then but wouldn't have called myself an actual knitter, if you know what I mean. But this was a project that re-sparked my interest in making things in my early 20s.

The project is called 'squares blanket' and the pattern is from Simple Knits for Easy Living, a book by Erika Knight published in the year 2000. The blanket is made up of 9 squares, which are knitted in a checkerboard pattern, with two panels in stocking stitch and two showing reverse stocking-stitch. The design calls for Rowan Chunky Soft yarn, a bulky alpaca-blend which is now discontinued. 

Mum had completed three of the required nine squares for the blanket, and sent me home with them and the book, needles and remaining balls of yarn. For some reason, I've become slightly obsessed with finishing this blanket and imagining how lovely it will be on the bed this winter. It's really the simplest of knits but somehow the right thing for this month and how I'm feeling about making these days. I did have to invest in some 7.5mm Chiaogoo tips to knit these squares though, as the old plastic needles were not doing it for me! 

See you again soon. 

M XX

Around the summer solstice: some knitting, some reading and a jar of summer flowers. I hope you have a very happy and relaxing Christmas, New Year and holiday time with your friends and family.

Thank you for reading my blog this year. See you back here in January!

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I was going to share some of the summer clothes I've made lately, but no-one's around to help me take a photo or two! Never mind, I'll get some photos over the summer holidays.

In the meantime, I thought I'd post about some of the small things made for Christmas present and end of year gifts.

As always, the kids and I have given teachers, friends and neighbours edible gifts like marmalade, fruit mince pies and cookies. I also packaged up jars of chutney with other edible things in bento wraps (from this tutorial) as reusable packaging. For the chutney, I used this recipe – couldn't be easier!

I didn't make as many gifts this year as I usually do at Christmas, choosing instead to gift books, mostly. But I did make some foraging satchels (pattern from my book) for two of my preschooler nieces, and the usual handmade soap and knitted facecloths for a few people who (I hope) like such things! 

Another project finished recently was my ''garter squish'' baby blanket (started back here). We had a beautiful new niece born last week, so I was thrilled to be able to wrap up the blanket and give it to her on her birth day. To make this, I used the instructions set out in this Stephen West blanket pattern, but on a slighter smaller scale. I held together a strand of possum merino with silk yarn in various colours, knitting until the silk ran out and was replaced with another colour. My Ravelry notes are here. The resulting blanket is really soft and a little drapey from the silk content. I wouldn't mind a bigger version to put on my bed in autumn and I just might cast one on sometime soon.

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I hope you're enjoying some shopping or gift-making or not, depending on your own holiday traditions! 

Here's a favourite seasonal song for you: Sufjan Stevens' Silver and Gold.

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It's been a while since I wrote anything here. I've missed it! But for some reason, I haven't felt such an interest in making things, photographing things or even talking about them, lately. Here are a few photos, regardless.

We went walking in a suburb we don't often visit (Thorndon) and admired all the artist and author quotes everywhere. Especially the one you see in the photo above, by one of my favourite NZ artists, Rita Angus. There's a new(ish) mural of Rita in the city, near where I work. I look at it every day from the bus window and she says hi to me. 

Since I last wrote here, our garden has been exploding with growth. Mostly weeds, but also the most beautifully bright and papery light poppies. One morning recently I went out and the wind had knocked over most of them. So I snapped this photo to remember them by.

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With the usual December rush of work, social engagements and general last-minute life admin, I've not made as much time for making things as I would like. I'm working away (albeit slowly) on a pair of socks that I'd like to give Arlo for Christmas. I would say that project is 60% finished, so it's not looking too promising. But perhaps I'll find some extra knitting time shortly before Christmas. I've also sewn a few things for my summer wardrobe. I'll show you those in my next post.

I did make the pillowcases you can see above, for a family member's birthday gift. For these I used the nicest linen I had – a smooth medium-weight pure linen with narrow blue and cream stripes. I used the usual tutorial from my own blog (you can find it here – it's super easy and quick!) but incorporated French seams throughout – I will post another tutorial sometime with some quick steps for achieving that – if for no other reason than to help me the next time I attempt them!

I do love making linen pillowcases for gifts. I feel like they're very practical but also a bit special. 

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Even though they're ''grown up teenagers'' now, the kids still enjoy a Christmassy preparation day in early December. We had one last week, where they put the 5-disc Sufjan Stevens Christmas album on the stereo (''all the childhood memories''), pulled out the Christmas ornaments and coloured lights, and helped me bake fruit mince pies. It was a truly lovely way to spend time together!

For the pies, I made my own fruit mince this year and tried a different recipe for the pastry and was really happy with both. The pastry recipe was this one and I followed this recipe for the fruit mince, though changed it up a bit to use what I had, including dried cranberries + apricots, granny smith apples, zest of several limes and lemons, cherries and orange juice. In the end, I mixed up a giant batch to keep in jars and give away. And make approx 530 pies to be eaten by teenagers.

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I've been listening to the new album by Angel Olsen, All Mirrors, which I love. This song, Lark, is a good place to start: so cinematic, with soulful strings!
And my reading for this month has been largely focused on Coventry, by Rachel Cusk. Beautiful, honest writing and the kind of essays that follow me around for days, in particular, the one about driving. This is a great review, if you're interested in finding out more.

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I hope to be back with another post or two before the summer holiday. I hope this finds you well and enjoying this last bit of the year (and decade, even…)

I finished my fluffy green sweater a few weeks ago and now of course it's mostly too warm to wear it. But its time will come around again, soon enough. 

For this garment I knitted with a strand of beautiful silverbeet-green 4ply merino that was a birthday gift from my mate Nikki (Dark Harbour Yarn) a few years ago. I held this together with a similar-but-not-the-same green silk/mohair yarn that I commissioned from Nikki. Together they created the most beautiful lightweight and deep green fabric – fluffy but very soft and warm. The pattern is called No Frills Sweater by Danish designer PetiteKnit, and you can find it on Ravelry (here are my notes).

About halfway through knitting this, I realised it would be a better fit on Keira (especially as I like my clothes to be quite loose fitting). It looked great on her, so I embroidered a 'K' on the back neckband for easy dressing. But after it was blocked it fitted us both well. So it's now a shared garment! That's fine with me – it makes the effort even more worthwhile. But I still might make another one in the next size up (I have in mind a pink/grey shade).

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Lately I've been thinking a lot about needle punching and how I might make some time for this craft – after all, I have all the materials and even a lovely new book on the subject – I just need to get into it! I found this video of artist Rose Pearlman talking about her work and process – you might like it too? This clip is one in a series about makers – the others are here.

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Also above: a linen lavender sachet I made for a friend, to wrap together with her birthday gift. The embroidery on the front is inspired by our spring garden, which is nearly electric with bees and birds and poppies about to pop. I hope all is well in your corner of the world.

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I wanted to send a little handmade gift to a friend, so I made her a set of flower-collaged postcards so she can write to more friends! Snail mail forever. These pressed flowers are leftover from our late-winter garden and include hellebore, jasmine leaves and cyclamen. After arranging the pressed flowers, I covered each card in clear book seal and trimmed around the edges to neaten.

Tom and I took a mid-week break together last week which is a very rare occurrence! We went to Christchurch to listen to Zadie Smith in conversation about reading and essay-writing and generational understanding and so many other things. The trip was Tom's gift to me on my birthday last month and as well as a treat to hear Zadie speak, it was also lovely to escape 'normal life' for 24 hours. The next morning we went exploring around Christchurch and ventured as far as Lyttelton (which is my new favourite small NZ town) for coffee, a steep hill walk, some shopping and general old wooden house and garden admiration, before flying home again.

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Also pictured above: a new project I'm working on slowly in the hope of using up lots of leftover yarn from my stash. And creating a lovely squishy baby blanket in the process, of course! I got the idea from Stephen West's free pattern Garter Squish which is designed for 2 strands of worsted-weight yarn held double, to create a big blanket. My version will be more suitable for a baby, because i'm using one strand of DK weight possum/merino (from a cone I bought at the Woolyarns mill sale last year) held together with fingering-weight merino/silk yarns, of which I have many part-balls in my stash. When one ball of silk runs out, I just replace it with another colour and I really like the marled effect so far! The blanket has an i-cord edging along each side and I think it will be lovely and soft when finished.

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In the last photo, you can see my latest, extremely simple finished project: a new cushion cover. I made this to replace this one (with black swans) which I noticed had several holes where it had worn out! The new cover was made using a square of tree-print linen I found in a fabric market in Osaka when were in Japan earlier this year. So it has very good memories associated with it. You can't really see from this photo, but there are tiny gold buds on the ends of the branches of each tree. I used brown linen to create an envelope-style closure on the back of the cushion.

Have you heard Love is Everywhere? It's a newish song by Wilco that I first heard in a cafe last week. A new favourite that you might like too!

See you soon, lovely friends. 

Today's blog post is brought to you by the colour pink. Or shades of it, at least. 

I've been admiring pink a lot, these days, and found myself piecing together a second baby quilt (following on from this one) from leftover cuts of linen in grey, pink and cream. The finished quilt is a bit bigger than the previous one I made, and is backed in a pale pink linen. I have a baby in mind for this one, but have to wait for them to be born. I love making these small quilts and am already dreaming about the next one. And it feels great to use up some of my smaller pieces of fabrics, too.

One of life's (or at least, my life's) greatest joys is a new stack of library books brought home for an afternoon coffee and reading session. I thought I'd share a photo of last week's stack. Among them was a book about extracting colours from plants: The Wild Dyer, by Abigail Booth. I love this book and it's made me feel super inspired to try some natural dyeing of yarn, fabric and clothes this summer. I recommend it, if you're also interested in all things botanical dying. Abigail also keeps an inspiring Instagram page called Forest and Found – you can check it out here.

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Here's a new song I've been enjoying this week: The Kids Are Having None of It, by Frazey Ford. For me, FF's voice is the sound of summer. And this song and video in particular reminds me of my kids and their friends.

I haven't shared any recipes here in a long time. Probably because I try and get out of cooking whenever possible. But I have a new favourite dinner recipe – it's this lentil and coconut curry. Super easy to make and delicious too! And the leftovers are great for taking to work. I try and do some baking once a week because i think it's nice to always have biscuits in the house. These cookies (again with the coconut!) continue to be a strong favourite – they're very simple and comforting to have with a cup of tea. 

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Well I think that's all for this week. I hope you are well and finding time for the things you love to do, whether that's making things or eating biscuits, or making your way through a giant stack of library books. In my case, all three!