tiny happy

The title of this post pretty much sums it up. I was feeling a bit glum about our windswept winter garden, but there are actually things growing in there – mostly native plants like hebes that self-seed through cracks in the concrete steps and don't seem to mind the stormy weather a bit.

In the first photo above you can see the handful of flowers I managed to scrounge the other morning when some cheer was needed for the kitchen table. Nasturtium leaves, too, the shape of which I love. They always make me think of this painting by Elizabeth.

And yes, they are dried apricots, with faces (and some instances, hair and beards). Keira and I had a lot of fun making them! I recommend dried apricot and chocolate face-drawing session whenever you need a little something extra in your life. 

Thank you very much for your incredibly kind messages and emails about my last post. I so appreciate each and every one of them.

XX M

Hello and happy long weekend, if you're reading from NZ. Hope this finds you well and keeping warm in early winter (or summer…)

The last few days have been fairly quiet ones here, and the sky has been grey as grey. I've finished a bit of embroidery – a garden-inspired project bag for a customer and will post it off to the other side of the world shortly.

Last night I watched the film Yarn, which is currently on NZ Netflix. Have you seen it? It's about crochet and knitting artists from various countries, and has a voiceover by writer Barbara Kingsolver. The film explores the role of yarn and thread in a Danish circus, knit graffiti in Iceland and Cuba, environmental protest art and even crocheted play equipment for public spaces.

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I bought the latest Laine magazine, which is a knitting publication from Finland. I ordered it through Holland Road here in Wellington, and it was a big treat to find it in the letterbox when I got home from work on Friday.

I would make every single pattern in there, but there is one project that I especially long to knit – it's a top called 'Birkin' and has a botanical fair isle pattern circling the yoke. I think it is so beautiful! But I am a seriously slow knitter and I'm not sure i could achieve it (it's knitted in 4 ply Brooklyn Tweed yarn). It's currently number one on my making-dream-list. Do you have a list of top dream-makes, too, and if so, what's on it?

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This week has brought with it such terrible news from the UK, the USA and elsewhere in the world, and my heart goes out to everyone affected.

Honestly, it makes me think that perhaps this blog is too trivial and insensitive to bother with. To write about knitting and gardening, and weather and moods. I hope you too can find some comfort in the small things, the quiet moments of joy in your life right now.

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Write to the Centre is a 'low-fi guide to journaling in a high-tech world,' written by my friend Helen Lehndorf and published by HauNui Press late last year.

Its pages are filled with colourful images from Helen's own journals, hand-written poetry and lists, drawings, and collage pieces, as well as thoughtful prose about the role that journals can play in a rich creative life.

This book is so authentic and encouraging. I've been lucky enough to receive hand-written letters from Helen in the past, and in a way it feels like an extension of those – warm, funny, thoughtful.

I haven’t kept a proper journal in years (notebooks with lists and drawings, definitely, but not expressive journals where I write) but I did all through my childhood and teenage years, and have now started doing so again.

Helen writes about what keeping a journal can do for a creative and mindful everyday life, but also offers tips and exercises to help you get started. I found these very helpful when faced with the clean blank page of a new journal!

Keira is also very keen on drawing and writing in notebooks, so this book will be a good resource for her too. It would make a fabulous gift wrapped up with a blank notebook, inky pen and glue-stick, don't you think?

Helen agreed to answer some questions for me about being 'brave' and vulnerable, the true solace of pen and paper, and how a journal can be like a blanket fort.

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Welcome, Helen! I found Write to the Centre really inspiring, and reading it somehow tapped into a childhood feeling I'd forgotten – the idea of journal as a place to experiment and work through problems. How long have you been keeping journals?

In the form I use now, since university, so 24 years or so. (I did keep a teenage diary, but threw those out when I left home at 18. Thank goodness. I still have my awful teenage poems though – they are great for a laugh.)

Towards the end of the book, you write that your journals are a bit like a blanket fort – a space for both sanctuary and adventure. Can you explain a bit more about this idea of a journal as a safe place?

So much of adult life is busy, active, juggling a lot of responsibilities…the cognitive load can be very intense. I find my journal practice creates an ease and spaciousness outside of all that.

In my journal, I can 'show up' in whatever state I find myself in, from joyful to cranky and everything in between, and both feed and surrender to my inner experience.

I can also experiment in there, without judgement or pressure – the stakes are low because it is me talking to me. Its also a place I remind myself of what I love and what is important…a kind of touchstone.

The chapter 'build up the quality of your attention' looks at practising observation and learning to 'notice' more. As our lives can easily become consumed with work and other commitments, what can the act of keeping a journal offer us?

I think working on heightening our attention and observation through a journal practice brings many benefits: a sense of gratitude, an increase of a fun element in our creativity, inspiration, a feeling of being truly engaged with our lives and at times, a true solace.

You once wrote that this book wasn’t an easy one to write, in part due to the vulnerability of sharing your personal pages and process, but also because as New Zealanders we tend not to be 'out there' with our emotions. Now that the book has been out in the world for 6 months, do you still feel this way?

Yes I do. People have used words like 'brave' when they talk to me about the book, which makes me a little nervous…in the New Zealand lexicon, sometimes 'brave' means 'woah! you really did that?'. On a bad day, I can interpret 'brave' as 'foolish'.

The American comedian Amy Schumer had a naked portrait photograph taken of herself last year and she said that she thought she looked pretty great but since it came out, people have described it as 'brave'. Yikes. I can relate, though!

It possibly was foolish in that it still feels a little uncomfortable – I can't read it without cringing, whereas I can happily read my poetry book. It is a guileless book, in the sense that it isn't trying to be clever, there's no irony, a lot of the journal art is kind of haphazard and artless…but it is sincere!

I just wanted to share my own particular mess in the hope it might encourage other people to make their own lovely mess. It is a quirky creation, but despite my conflicted feelings, I am proud of it.

Life is confusing, mysterious and often overwhelming – I think a journal can be a place which exists alongside the stream of life, like climbing out of a swift river and sitting on a grassy bank in the sun for a while. I hope my book points the way towards that.

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You can find Helen's blog here and your own copy of Write the Centre here. 
A book giveaway is in the works too, so look out for that soon…

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A page from Write to the Centre, with a snippet of Helen's journal page

I recently finished making a fresh batch of project bags to send to Loop, which is a beautiful knitting shop in London. These are made from washed Swedish linen in soft berry tones, sourced by Susan at Loop and sent across the world for me to embroider and construct. Each bag is different, and lined in vintage prints or fine cotton lawn fabric.

I try to send sets of these to Loop as often as I can but sadly that's not as often as I'd like for various reasons. Mostly these reasons are time and eyesight related (meaning I like to work on the embroidery during the day rather than with a lamp at night).

Anyway, I enjoyed working on these and it's fun to think about the interesting future knitting projects they might one day contain.

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Another finished object this week was this very simple hat for Arlo. We have a basket of hand-knits in the porch near our front door and every morning we gauge the general climate and choose something to wear. The kids are always stealing my knits to wear before I can get to them, so I decided some new hats were in order this year. 

This was made using a free pattern called the 'Skyping Beanie' and it's a nice simple and quick knit (more details, including yarn, etc). Arlo has worn this to school every day since it came off the needles, and i don't think he's just humouring me, so I guess that's a good sign.

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I really like the blog Fox's Lane and have been meaning to mention it on here for ages. If you like knitting (and other crafts such as wood-turning), orchards and gardening I think you will love it. Kate posts on Fridays and always has something interesting and comforting to say.

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Happy weekend to you!

Saturday morning table set-up

Some freeform stitching by Mandy

Welcome bubbles and choosing fabric

All photos by Felicia Semple.

A collection of photos was recently posted by The Craft Sessions' Felicia and I don't think she'll mind if I re-post some here. These were all taken at Slow Stitching in the Barn, a very special March weekend in Trentham, near Melbourne.

I particularly wanted to show you how beautiful the setting was – an historic barn with big wooden tables and whitewashed walls, big windows and plants drying from the rafters. And show some of the students' work – as you can see, there was a lot of stitching (and painting, and hand-quilting) going on, as well as the eating of delicious food and the making of new friends. A very special time altogether.

You can see more images from the event here at the The Craft Sessions blog.

My unruly collection of embroidery threads

Setting the tables for dinner on Friday night

Martine serving up dessert on the first evening (all of the gorgeous food was made by Julie Monk)

Free-form work by Raina

My Dad liked these socks I knitted for Tom last year, so I said I'd make him a pair, too. Unfortunately it took me a good few months – I'm a very slow knitter! But now they're finally finished, so I hope they'll keep his feet warm for winter which is just starting properly now.

Dad mostly works outside, so I wanted to make sure I used a sturdy yarn (Vintage Purls, which is hand-dyed in Dunedin) and this trusty ribbed pattern that doesn't fall down. He's been wearing hand-knitted socks for years, made by my Mum, so I'm happy to be able to contribute a pair for him this winter.

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The other day I took a break with my workmate and we snuck out of the office and into the second-hand shop across the road. I wasn't looking for anything in particular but then I came across this beautiful flower press, still in its original box. I didn't know that Ashford made these, or used to, but I will be able to give it a very good home and keep it in constant pressing service.

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My friend Kylie sent me this link: The life-saving weaving of Bolivia's indigenous women – an amazing clip about the life-saving work being done by combining medical technology with traditional handcraft.

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I finished knitting a little wrap top for my newest niece I.M.J. This was done using my all-time favourite baby pattern, the 'garter stitch wrap top' by Erika Knight (a design from this book).

I've used this trusty pattern many times and I still love it for its simplicity and sweetness. You can find more details about the pattern, yarn I used, etc here on Ravelry.

This morning I had to take a photo of the coriander plant in the vege patch – it's finally gone to flower and is looking so delicate. But I'll have to pull it out later on today and dig over to plant some winter greens.

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I hope you are well? Winter is sliding into Wellington properly now – we've been lighting the fire in the evening and cooking lots of vegetable soup. I bought some small thermos/flasks for the kids so they can take hot soup or dahl with them to school on cold days. Can't believe I hadn't done it earlier! This trusty soup recipe remains a favourite in our household.

Would love to know if you have a favourite soup – feel free to leave a link (or rough recipe!) below in the comments.

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A beautiful calming song I've been listening to a lot lately is this one by M Ward ccalled Clean Slate and I thought you might like it too.

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We're a family that likes a bit of a lie-in on Sunday mornings (Tom and I read and drink coffee in bed and Arlo's starting to learn the ways of the teenage sleep-in) but Keira likes to be up and about bright and early, even on the weekend.

Usually by the time the rest of us are up she has been working on something for an hour or two, and this morning it was this painting of an imaginary landscape. She kindly let me photograph it for my blog. I really like the colours and I think it shows her joy for drawing and painting.

I like the idea of getting up early with her and working on a project before breakfast – I could some good knitting or writing done in that time – so I will aim for that next weekend.

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I got some new cards printed for my etsy shop – I have them in there as sets but also I like to send one out with each order. This card has been printed with a photo I've called 'morning scene', some knitting on the windowsill one day in the late summer.

And also for my shop, I made a few cases for keeping things in (probably projects but not exclusively of course) including the one you see above, which was hand-printed with ferns. 

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I hope you are having a lovely weekend and finding some time for the things you love to do.

Some embroidery I've been working on, in peachy tones…

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And a very seasonal cake. The children went to Nelson to visit their grandparents and came back with a bag of feijoas from my parents' orchard. I had to make an obligatory cake with some of them – this is very lovely as a dessert with natural yoghurt (or cold, with coffee – obviously there are lots of ways to eat cake.)

The recipe is this favourite old one, posted years ago here on the blog. It's great because it makes two (one for you and one for a friend) and you can substitute any fruit you happen to have in season where you live.

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I found some preserved summertime within the pages of an old book this morning – I'd quite forgotten I'd put flowers in there to press, but it was a good discovery.

Some of the plants are hydrangea petals and tiny pansies, and others are things I picked from the selection of weeds on the side of the road, walking home one evening last year.

I used these to make a batch of cards to go with parcels I send out – kind of like these, but with black card instead of brown.

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And also summer-related, I made this dress before the days started to get cold – and I find myself wearing it almost all the time. It's made from dark blue linen and I drafted the pattern myself – but it's nothing fancy at all, just a singlet-type bodice (unlined, but with bias edging around the neckline and arms) and a drop-waist skirt with pockets.

Even though it was sewn to be worn with sandals, it's just as comfy with tights, boots and a cardigan, which is my favourite combination of clothes anyway.

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And last of all, here is a very New Zealand-y, feel-good song that I heard on the radio today and had to look for the video. Tell the world, by Dave Dobbyn (who has a voice inextricably linked to my childhood) plus wild coastal landscape and house-construction theme.

Happy weekend!

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