tiny happy

Hello there! How has your week been? 
Mine has been a lovely one, even though we've had some proper wintry weather including hail and storms.

Something very exciting happened last week – a new baby was born into our family so I have a new niece. I knitted her a little set comprising of a pair of booties and a hat. They probably won't fit for long, but I wanted to make something that she could wear right away.

For the hat, I used this pattern and held a strand of alpaca/silk with some sock yarn – the effect is a very soft and light little hat. (Just like these ones I knitted for 2 of my other nieces recently.) And for the booties, I used the same cashmere sock yarn, and a free pattern on Ravelry called 'Greemy Baby Booties.' It's a great little pattern and I noticed baby M was wearing them pulled up (rather than folded over like in the photo above) so they work as little shoes or socks.

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Also this week, I made a couple of embroidered knitting project bags. Both have garden sampler-type designs on the front, and are quite similar but not the same. I've listed them in my etsy shop – poor old shop has been neglected for ages!

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The Auckland Writers Festival took place recently, and I was sad not to be able to attend, as I'd wanted to see one of my favourite writers there, Karl Ove Knausgård. But then I saw that the festival had uploaded a podcast of his talk! You can find it here, along with podcasts and videos of lots of other interesting talks, including those by Nigella Lawson, Witi Ihimaera, Shashi Tharoor, Robert Webb and others. A treat!

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In other news, I had some questions about my last post, and I thought I'd answer them here as my comments don't seem to be publishing properly at the moment. A few people wondered about making the Sapporo Coat I wrote about, and whether I had any more tips for sewing it.

I'm not really an expert in sewing, but I did make my coat three times over, and here are my tips. They mostly relate to being more careful/smarter than I was:

+ Wash your fabric first, then iron it carefully before cutting out the pieces (don't worry if you plan to dry-clean your coat) but it's important the fabrics are ironed to get an accurate pattern piece! 

+ It's probably best to trace the paper pattern pieces from the original pattern, rather than cut it out and fold over the edges for your size. The patterns are printed on stiff brown paper, and you'll get a more accurate result if you make tissue-paper copies of the pieces.

+ Pin and cut out the pieces really accurately. You might have to think about this process carefully (at least I did) because some pieces are to be cut on a single thickness and some aren't. No drinking wine at the same time, ok?

+ The pattern is sized quite large. I'm usually a size 'medium' but made the smallest size and it still feels quite roomy. I love that about this pattern, though.

+ I would try to choose a non-stretch, medium-weight outer fabric that has a bit of drape. I think a very thick coating fabric might not sit/drape as nicely for this design.

+ Take your time and don't rush with this project. Having a practice from some non-precious fabric first is always a good idea.

+ There's a video tutorial for making this on YouTube you might want to check out.

Having said all that, it's a great pattern and not at all difficult. Have fun!

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Over the last couple of weeks I've been working on making a winter coat. I've been wanting to try out a design by Papercut Patterns for a while. They're based in Nelson, my hometown! And I think their designs are fab. Anyway, I bought their Sapporo Coat pattern and made it up from some black cashmere woollen twill fabric that has been tucked away in a box under my bed for far too long. 

It's a really clever design, but I wasn't so clever when sewing it. The first version I made looked ok hanging up but the fit wasn't quite right when I put it on (here's a photo of it on Insta) and that was I think partly to do with drinking wine while sewing, and partly because I didn't take enough time and care when cutting the pieces out in the first place.

I'm always tempted to rush when sewing clothes, which is not a good habit. Do you do this too? I think because my sewing stuff takes over my workdesk while I'm making something, I feel like I need to get it done quickly before stacks of books and papers, scissors and pins completely overtake the room. And also because when compared to knitting, sewing is quite fast. But I am trying to learn that slow is good. No matter how many things I sew, I'm still very likely to make mistakes at every turn.

Anyway, I didn't want to waste the beautiful wool fabric I'd used for this coat so I carefully deconstructed it and started again, this time with a dusky pink rayon fabric for the lining. I'm really happy with the second version and I'm sure I'll wear it lots. It's very drapey and warm. I especially like the big pockets.

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I've been doing a bit of embroidery lately – in the last photo above you can see an all-over blossom pattern on a dark grey linen.

I'm also preparing for my classes at the upcoming Soul Craft Festival in Melbourne, and a shipment of my embroidered haberdashery pouches arrived at Loop in London last week – you can see some of them in the photo above. Susan from Loop sent me the linen to make project bags for her shop and these pouches used up the leftover strips – aren't the colours beautiful? 

Here's a song I think is quite beautiful: C'etait un loup by Palatine.
Have a lovely week!

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We have a concrete wall at one side of our house that we don't see much, although it is directly outside the bathroom window. A few weekends ago, Keira and I painted it white and then decided to paint a large-scale botanical design on it. The idea was to create a kind of 'outdoor wallpaper,' rather than a mural.

We had a lot of fun mixing the paints (we mostly used a combination of a yellow test pot from the local hardware store and some old house paint we found in the shed) to get the exact green and yellow we were after. I drew the design in pencil and Keira painted it mostly by herself – she's much better with a paintbrush than me, and we wanted the leaves to have quite fine lines.

I really like the finished wall, and smile whenever I open the bathroom to see it, and remember that autumnal Sunday afternoon painting together.

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The design echoes the tansy that is still going strong in the garden. I'm really loving having yellow around at the moment. I made (yet another) Jul hat, this time in a mustard-yellow cashmere yarn (Ravelry details) and now I think I've officially made enough hats for this coming winter. Although I think Tom still needs one so I'll probably cast that on soon. (I'm thinking about using this pattern from Purl Soho – what do you think?)

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This is a song I have playing my headphones quite often these days: Lost in the Light, by Bahamas.
Hope you're having a happy week!

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A few years back I struck it lucky and found a few sets of cotton flannel sheets – definitely vintage but not yet opened from their packaging. Everyone in the family loves this time of year, when the soft and warm winter sheets come out from the depths of the linen cupboard and onto our beds. The one in the photo above is my favourite – I was lucky enough to find two of these in double size!

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One of my nieces had a birthday recently and I made her a doll. She's a garden fairy actually – made from a design by Hilary Lang (of Wee Wonderfuls fame) in the first issue of Making magazine. I didn't have quite the right fabric for this fairy's body, so I dyed some white linen with coffee to try to get a better shade, and that seemed to work ok.

It's a lovely pattern and I especially liked learning how to sew the hair on in layers, even though it was a bit fiddly. I used a ball of yellow sock yarn and a strand of natural alpaca yarn held together (I wanted the fairy to have blonde hair to match my niece's). 
The face is hand-embroidered and the eyes are made from small bits of wool felt, and the entire body is stuffed with wool roving. I hope this linen fairy will be a good companion for my niece, who won't notice I forgot to attach the lace tulle wings specified in the pattern.

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I really admire the designs of Anna Graham who writes a blog called Noodlehead. I've made the 'zip tote bag' from her book a few times now for gifts. Today I found this page of tutorials she's put together for free on her blog – you might like them too?

There's lots of new music I'm enjoying at the moment – in particular, this album from Joan as Police Women. Also, this clip of Bill Callahan playing a song in a community garden. Not new, but very good.

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Hello! Today's dispatch comes to you from my desk from where I can hear the glass recycling truck at work on the street and see a kingfisher perched on the powerline. I hope this finds you well.

Things have been quite busy in my day-job lately, and so I don't feel I have lots to share here. But I'll press on anyway, because that's not stopped me before, haha.

The hat knitting craze in my house continues, with Keira finishing her first hat knit in the round (it looks great, and she's really pleased with it, especially the blue pompom on top) and a new hat for me which I made from a beautiful leafy-green possum-merino yarn that is produced locally. More details, including pattern link, etc, are here.

My own copy of the latest Making magazine arrived in the post earlier this week. It's a beautiful publication and I feel so honoured to have a project in there. The other projects included are lovely and I'm very keen to get started on all of them immediately. 

There is a cardigan, in particular, that I love – it's called 'Sky Cardi', designed by Carrie Bostick Hoge. I think it would be very handy garment all year round, especially worn over dresses. You can see all the knitting projects from this issue, including the Sky Cardi, by clicking here. 

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Here's a song I love listening to at the moment: Sufjan Steven's Tonya Harding.

See you next week,
M

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My sister-in-law will have her first baby quite soon, and last week I was able to give her the baby blanket I knitted for my soon-to-arrive niece or nephew.

In choosing the pattern and yarn, I was thinking about the family and trying to choose something they'd like and would find useful. The result is a very simple and soft garter stitch blanket knitted on the bias. I used a NZ yarn called Orb Merino in a pale grey colour. Specific yarn details and a pattern link, etc, are on my Ravelry page.

I enjoyed knitting the blanket but I must admit there were times when it seemed to go on forever. It was the perfect TV accompaniment though, and I am happy with the finished piece and think it should be useful tucked into a pram, cot or car seat!

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It's Anzac Day here, so I made a few poppy pins from wool felt, such as the one you can see above. If you want to make one too, click here for the pattern + template (and further explanation about white poppies).

This morning we attended our local Anzac dawn service, which also happens to be the national event. Something that made it really beautiful was young Wellington poet Tayi Tibble reading her poem: Hoki Mai.

I couldn't hear it clearly from where I was standing, but was so thrilled to find it online when I got home. You can read it in full here.

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Hello! 

We've been enjoying some beautifully clear autumn days here this week – I captured that sparkly waterfront view on Sunday. Wellington is well known for its less-than-calm weather, so I feel like days like that need to be documented!

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I have two nieces who turned a year old recently, so I knitted them a wee hat each. I've had cute photos from their mums showing that the hats fit and look very sweet, so I'm keen to make some more from this pattern. It's a free one on Ravelry called 'Beloved Aran' and you can use any type of aran-weight yarn to make a hat in either baby, child or adult size. I was after something very lightweight so I used two strands of fingering-weight alpaca held together to make these. More yarn details, etc here on my Rav page.

I have a few other projects on the go, as always, including a pair of socks using this beautiful yarn I showed a while back… hand-dyed by my friend Nikki. The colourway is called 'rare and exotic beast.'

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Also this week I got some new postcards printed with an embroidery I did in the summer. I have some sets of these cards in my etsy shop but also hope to send some snail mail to friends during the winter. A pop of summertime yellow is always cheering in the letterbox.

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Via Holland Road Yarn's FB page, I came across this interesting podcast: This is Your Brain, This is Knitting which is an interview with psychologist Dr. Art Markman about about our brains on knitting, as well as multitasking and process vs. project knitters. Thought you might be interested too. (Podcasts make great knitting + cup of tea accompaniments but you probably already knew that).

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I was really honoured last year to be asked to design something for Making magazine. It's my favourite! I designed an embroidery pattern for colourful wildflowers for the COLOR issue which should be in shops this week. I can't wait to see my copy.

Making has a really lovely Instagram feed (so much inspiration!) and an interesting blog and podcast featuring makers and ideas from all over the world. 

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Our days have been quite a bit chillier this week, which has led to a frenzy of hat-knitting on my part. So far, I've made one for Arlo, two for my nieces, have started one for Tom, and am halfway through my own. The basket of knits has gone back in the porch for people to grab on their way out of the house each morning.

To make my hat, I'm using some beautiful dark green Zealana yarn (a locally-made possum-merino blend) and my favourite hat pattern, Jul.

I'm also thinking about all the other things I'd love to knit right now – if only it didn't take me so long! I have in mind some fingerless gloves (also in Zealana yarn I think – maybe a bit like these?) and I recently fell in love with this shawl pattern – do I dare cast it on even though it might take me a year to complete?

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In the last photo above you can see some patchwork pouches I made for a custom order – they're now off to Paris. To make these, I used up small leftover cuttings from other projects – mostly linen and cotton, and some Liberty prints. The pouches close with metallic zips and measure about 4 x 5", which would be a great size for knitting notions, I reckon.

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In my last post, I wrote about the Dutch Label Shop and the labels they'd sent me to try. You can see them, and read my review here. The people at DLS have offered my readers a 15% discount in case you'd like to try them too. Use the code tinyhappy15 (all lower case) when you get to the checkout stage.

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Thank you for visiting, as always! Hope you have a lovely week ahead.

Hello there! Hope you're having a good week. I have a couple of projects to share here today – one finished and one perhaps a quarter of the way through… I'm trying to tell myself that it's all about the process when it comes to English paper piecing.

You can see in the second photo above that I'm still working away on my hexagon quilt. I started it back here and the piece is now about half the size of a queen-sized bed. I'm hoping to make a good-sized quilt eventually. All the fabrics are recycled or leftover from other projects or existing garments – there are a few of Tom's shirts in there!

I really love working on this project. I don't find hand sewing to be at all laborious, and with the paper template method, I've found that I don't need to be as exacting as I once imagined EPP to be.

This week I also finished knitting a hat for my eldest. I think it's the fourth such hat I've made in a couple of years – he's not very good at looking after things, our Arlo. The pattern is called 'Roku' and there are some details about the yarn, links, etc here on Ravelry.

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I was offered some new labels to try from the company Dutch Label Shop, on the proviso I let them know what I thought once they arrived. I really like them. The labels are very finely woven (as opposed to embroidered or printed) and the edges don't fray, so they could be sewn directly onto a garment without having to be folded over. 

I got the 'handmade with love' labels you see in the last photo for my Mum who might like to sew them onto some of her projects. She makes lots of things for her grandkids, and I can just imagine one of these on the back corner of a quilt, or hidden inside a small cardy.

I also ordered some 'swing tags' made from cardstock to sample, and I'm happy with those too. The best thing about the DLS website is that it's very easy to customise labels to your own style – there are lots of fonts and colours to choose from, or you can send through your own logo or image to be woven.

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In book news, I've just started reading Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi, and have almost finished A History of Silence by Lloyd Jones. Both books feel far away and close at the same time. Are you reading anything interesting at the moment?

I hope this finds you well, dear reader! Until next time.

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Autumn is marching in, which means it's a good time to settle in with some new projects. Actually, any time of year is good for that as we know, but there is a slight urgency to the hat and slipper making i need to do within the next few weeks.

One project I finished recently is a plain black linen skirt. It looks quite dull from the photo above, but I'm really pleased with it. It's sort of an update on a similar one I made a couple of years ago and wore nearly to death, but with some improvements such as using a finer fabric, bigger pockets and adding some more volume into the back half (to even out the gathers in the front). I see in the blog post from last time I mentioned that I should use a pattern next time, and of course I didn't take my own advice, again! Slow learner.

I've started at a new job in an office, so I think this skirt will be very useful for wearing with blouses and tops I've made. And I have plans to make some more work clothes in the near future.

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I thought you might like to read a long-time favourite poem of mine, Wildflowers by local poet Bub Bridger. I first found this in a NZ poetry book of my Mum's. It's still just a perfect and sweet love poem, and I think about 'the teeth of the wind' often in this city.

Also above: an old painting I found in an op-shop. It just wanted to come home with me. On the back it says 'Selworthy, Somerset.'

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The Soul Craft festival is coming up in June, and there are a few spots left in my Embroidery 101 class… would love to see you there if you can make it! In that particular workshop, we'll be working an all-over embroidered pattern from a template.

There are some really special elements to Soul Craft. One is its 'Giving Back Policy' which seeks to build a strong and loving crafting community. Felicia writes:

What we are able to do – make things – is a privilege. No matter how tiny the amount of time we have in any phase of life, or how tiny the amount of money we have for supplies, we get to engage with this thing we love because we have the time/money to do so. We are also lucky enough to have the knowledge that craft is there for us when we need it. That is our privilege.

And so Soul Craft wants to share that privilege around. To create a bit more space and time for someone who doesn't have craft in their lives as a life support.

I'm so proud to be part of this thoughtful and unique event. You can leave your thoughts and ideas about the Giving Back Policy here on the Craft Sessions blog.