tiny happy

I made some time yesterday to finish some projects, including a set of needlebooks (I love making them) and I even had a chance to put a few things in my etsy shop. That poor old shop – it's so often neglected, despite my best intentions.

My friend Nikki and I did some shopping at Fabricabrac this morning – there were such treasures to be found (including many fabrics that I myself had donated a few months ago – ahem. I promise i didn't buy any of them back.) I'll show you some of the things I did however buy in my next blog post. 

Are you watching anything good these days? In the evenings, Tom and I have been steadily progressing through Orange is the New Black. It features so many interesting and different characters, mostly women, of all ages. I love it.

These photos were taken by the lovely Meg at Tea Pea – a beautiful wee shop here in Wellington. She asked if I would teach a class at the start of November and of course I said yes.

At the class we'll be knitting a family of little creatures just like these. 

Everything will be provided – yarn, needles, etc if you need them, and treats to eat. Beginner knitters are welcome. A small family of these characters would look so great sticking out of a Christmas stocking, don't you think?

You can read more about the class here. Hope you can join in – I think it will be a lot of fun. 

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Also very local – but if you are in Wellington this weekend, this is always a fabulous place to drink coffee, eat cake and buy fabric while supporting hospice at the same time.

The kids and I went on an outing to Petone (an old part of the Wellington region situated on the northern shore of the harbour) to walk on the beach and mooch around the shops and cafes. 

It's a beautiful bit of Wellington, and I always forget about how good it is until I get there – and it has a great array of specialty food (and other) shops as well as good coffee and second-hand places.

I found a book I've wanted for ages, called 'beauty, even' which was published to accompany an exhibition of NZ artist and poet Joanna Paul's work in 2004. There aren't many books published about her (she was a prolific producer of drawings, paintings and poems) and I've loved her work since first discovering it in a library book when I was a kid. Her drawings, especially. 

In the last photo above I have tried to capture a new favourite piece of clothing which has been worn quite a bit so far. I sewed it from some soft linen originally set aside for embroidery (there's still some left for that purpose) in dark blue and grey, with a grid pattern – quite hard to photograph. I used the pattern 'Lou Box Top' (found here) and the back neck opening is fastened with a white ceramic button. The partnership of ceramic + linen is very pleasing to me. 

That beautiful bunch of flowers, which includes waratah, freesias and sweet william, was a gift from my dear friend Jenny who has been visiting for a few days. Lucky us! Much lego, coffee drinking and craft discussion took place. And my sister T and her family have been staying, too. Beautiful kid-chaos and happiness. Quilts, pillows and toys everywhere. Popcorn under the couch.

The stack of fabrics in blue, pink and grey is sitting on my worktable, ready to be, well, worked. I'm hoping to cut into them tomorrow. But in the meantime, they are very gorgeous altogether like that, don't you think? They'll become embroidered project bags for Loop.

Our local city council has set up a live-streaming camera inside a kākā nest: if you have kids, they might enjoy checking in on the mother and her chicks.

Here is a song I find myself listening to often these days: Blur's My Terracotta Heart.

I won a box of seedlings from Awapuni Nurseries on Instagram last week, and this weekend was able to get them all planted in newly-prepared raised beds in time for warmer weather. I've been buying Awapuni seedling bundles for years – I love them because they're wrapped in newspaper rather than plastic pottles, and are stocked in the supermarket so I can buy seasonal plants year-round with the groceries.

While I was planting and digging, Tom constructed a beautiful new wind-break around that part of the garden (last year's one was torn to shreds and so nothing much was growing.) I'm very excited about this. Thank you, Awapuni!

In the second photo you can see my new (old) find: a 1950s-era Swiss watch. (You can click on the photo to see it more clearly.) My childhood watch died recently and I'd always thought it would be cool to wear an old wind-up one rather than look at my phone whenever I need to know the time – like functional unfussy jewellery. Also, I love its quiet and tidy ticking.

Thought you might like to see this dress I made a few weeks ago, from some silk-blend fabric I found at The Fabric Store back in the coldest days of winter.

I set it aside specially for a springtime project, and so far it's been a useful thing to wear to work (unfortunately it also requires an underdress, wool cardigan, tights, shawl and coat because this is Wellington spring we're talking about.)

The pattern is 'D' from 'Stylish Dress Book 2', a Japanese sewing book, bought a few years back. (It's a favourite – I've also used it to make this and this recently.)

Three things i love this week:

– friends announcing pregnancies (new babies!) (knitting projects!)

– this music video (jumpsuits and mirrorballs and folding the washing)

– this page: Famous advice on writing: the collected wisdom of great writers.

Much of the weekend was spent looking out the window at the driving rain, feeling grateful to be inside. Springtime in Wellington..!

But there was also pizza with friends, a dinner party, shopping and reading achieved as well. And a spot of knitting.

Made this cake and sliced it up for some hungry kids who ate it by the fire. It's a great recipe- thanks, Nicola. I substituted some of the ingredients for things I had though, including cream-cheese for the icing. I'm keen to try labneh next time though.

What a beautiful day it's been today. I managed to get some work done, tidy up some things that had been worrying me, and get a dose of sunlight too. I hope you've had a good Friday so far.

Those beautiful white flowers are native clematis, and they're sprawling all over our fence soaking up the sun. At first I thought the vine hadn't flowered this year, but then I realised it was tangled up in another plant, behind the fence. Silly old thing.

In the first photo above, you can see my very-slowly-in-progress knitting project: I'm making a '3-color cashmere cowl' - the design is by Joji Locatelli. I loved the idea of starting this, but haven't been making much time for knitting lately. Hope to remedy that on the weekend.

The first batch of photos from this year's Craft Sessions is up on the TCS blog – you can check them out here.

This delicious thing is on my baking list for the weekend. Will keep you posted!

I'm loving this beautiful clip from a local band I've heard live quite a few times now – Sun by Eb and Sparrow. I'm pretty sure it was shot in the trees near our house – and if it wasn't, it reminds me of them very much. 

Images by Felicia Semple, from here.

When I got home from The Craft Sessions and unpacked, I realised I had not taken any photos of the event. I do that that every year – get completely immersed in what's happening with my classes, and forget all about recording them.

Luckily Felicia takes beautiful pictures. These are some of hers, from last years' event, but I'll steal more for my blog when I can. ; ) The plant clippings on our worktables this year looked pretty similar. In one of my classes, we went walking in the bush to collect them, then sketched and stitched our favourite pieces. And the botanical book is one I take with me to my classes for inspiration. I believe it was a gift from this lovely woman.

It was a really special few days filled with making and thinking, laughing and talking. So many like-minded people. So much communal knitting and craft-talk! I loved every minute of it.

To see more photos of the event, you can check this page on Instagram, or this one for the participants' photos. 

New ideas and inspirations are whirling around in my head… Thanks so much to everyone who made it happen this year. 

I've been winding and sorting a big tangle of threads into a respectable order, in preparation for The Craft Sessions which starts tomorrow. Tomorrow! I'll by flying out of Wellington extra early to get there in time.

I love it when all my craft supplies are organised and tidy, but I can never keep them that way for long.

Can't wait to share everything with those taking my classes, talk crafts and handmade stuff and see my friends again and make new ones. And hear some Australian birdsong too.

Are you on Instagram? I've been using it for about a year. I will try and take some photos of the event – my account is my name with a dot between first and last. If you're curious about the kind of work we do there, I'm sure Felicia and the other women will share the event too with the hashtag #thecraftsessions.

Hope you have a great weekend ahead. See you next week,
M