tiny happy

A couple of wintry months ago I bought a daphne plant. The first snippable flower is currently in a miniature bottle on the kitchen table. The scent is so great for such a small thing.

Also pictured above: a finished needlebook on my cluttered worktable. I used some very old linen with top-notch French-knot hand embroidery. When there are lots of things to get done in a week, sitting down and making something with my hands is the best therapy.

Have you heard the new album by Kimbra? I think it's really joyous. This is a beautiful video.

The Great Sock Monkey Project is looking for a new leader. Could you help? I first blogged about this local craft charity here. They do really lovely work to cheer up sick children in hospital.

This event begins in one week. Exciting.

Enjoy your weekend, dear readers.

I received two packets of sunflower seeds in the post after visiting a really fantastic project just outside of Wellington: Common Unity Aotearoa. I was visiting with camera and notepad for work (I'm a journalist writing about science education when I'm not writing this blog), because i wanted to write an article about teaching sustainability concepts in early primary school and the CUA project is doing amazing work in their community. 

The sunflower seeds are from the affiliated Project Sunshine– and the brown paper packets are beautifully decorated by the young farmers who also collect and sort the seed. The article's now published in a teacher's magazine, and my own young farmers and I are ready to get planting. Just need some sunshine and a wind-sheltered spot.

Some primroses I planted in the autumn popped up this week; small bursts of colour in the grey garden. They reminded me of some vintage fabric I found a while back: black with colourful embroidery. Perfect for some springy baby shoes for the shop.

Happy new week to you! Can you believe it's the last week of August already?

Check out my new (old) sewing book: Dressmaking with Liberty by Ann Ladbury, published in 1984. It's so great: it has a pocket with all the patterns needed to make up the clothes, each design beautifully modelled and styled in some pretty full-on 80s Liberty prints. The dress with tie-on collar from the cover is a good example of the garments inside. 

I used one of the patterns, for a boxy sort of blouse, to make the top above. No long lengths of Liberty on my shelf, so instead I used some drapey silk that I'd printed a while back with a hand-carved stamp. It was a simple project, but I'm pleased with it: should be handy for wearing over plain dresses, etc for work. Next, to experiment with some other patterns: Liberty-print homemade bikini, anyone?

Hope you have a lovely weekend.

 Thank you to Homespun magazine who included this embroidered needlebook I made a while back in their latest issue. I like the idea of a pinterest page in print- sort of like the opposite of a magazine shown on pinterest.

Before Homespun contacted me, I had completely forgotten about this needlebook. It was one of a pair, made in 2011 from lovely old embroidered linen found at a flea market. I first blogged about them here, along with some other things made from old textiles, like brooches and cushion covers and this birthday set for a niece. 

I can also see that around that time I was making a lot of cake, like this peach one. Still love to make that recipe with all kinds of fruit.

Good old blog.  

I would really love to go to the Greek Islands this week. But I can't see it happening. Instead I'm enjoying this book: Greek Islands Embroidery, by Pauline Johnstone, that Tom bought for me at a second-hand book fair. 

The book was published in 1961, and has those beautiful loose colour plates at intervals throughout, and the other photos are in black and white. I didn't know anything about traditional embroidery from Greece before: it's intricate and colourful and very fine. The last photo above is a detail from a white embroidered 'Levkara' piece from Cyprus including drawn-thread, cutwork and satin stitch. The coloured work above is the border of a skirt, featuring birds, flowers and dancing people.

I found some more traditional Greek embroidery here.

We have a junior knitter in the house. One stormy Saturday when her soccer game was called off, Keira and I sat down with needles and yarn and practiced the 'in, over, through, off' pattern until she had it sorted. She had started knitting when she was about 4 or so, but I think it was too early for her because frustrations overtook and the work was abandoned.

So it's been finger-knitting for a few years (nearly all the wool in my stash has been finger-knitted), and now some simple garter stitch. She spent her pocket money last week on yarn for her next project. (I'm proud of her, but it really shows the power of nature and nuture, don't you think?)

First finished project: one beautiful orange scarf, for Arlo's toy monkey, 'Monkey'.

I rediscovered an album I used to play constantly when Arlo was a baby: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips. Had a small epiphany at these lyrics. It could be the only song to have on my ipod, ever.

I made this little wrap top/cardigan for a soon-to-be-born baby of an old friend. I started out knitting something different entirely, but after making a few mistakes realised I wasn't in the frame of mind for a knitting challenge (work, etc.) But I was however in the mood for some garter stitch and a lovely yarn and a pattern simple enough to follow while watching Borgen with subtitles late at night.

The pattern is this old favourite, (from a book by Erika Knight), and the yarn was a beautiful ball of Rowan Fine Tweed in deep fern-green, a gift from this store in my 'goodie bag' at last year's The Craft Sessions. I'm so happy I chose to use this yarn: I love the colour, it knits up beautifully and is firm but soft. Also, I had just enough to make this garment- there was about 20cms left when I was finished. 

Speaking of The Craft Sessions, today is the last day to sign up. If you've been thinking about it but are still not sure, this new post is pretty lovely, and true, I think. Would you love to see you there.

Hope you have a relaxing weekend.

One sunny weekend morning recently, we celebrated the birthday of our resident teenager. On the table, we had garden flowers, coffee, pancakes made by R and K, hand-written menus and stewed rhubarb. I knitted one of these in black and made a makeup bag a bit like this, among other gifts. 

Family mornings like this are a treasure.