The end

Well, I have not quite got round to writing in my blog for a while. Life is just too busy and all this blogging eats into my making time. I take my hat off to people that can do that. I expect most of them have broadband.
I am busy as always and as my priority is to knit, dye and make for my family and myself I have decided to stop trying to do it all.
I will continue to follow my favourite blogs to seek inspiration and like-minded people but as from today I will write no more.
Thanks to all my friends for their support and comments.
happy crafting
Catherine

Update

Well, all of the sudden my lace shawl seems to have grown enormously. I'm just about to do my increase round which will take me to 576 stitches. I am so excited. Having done a few jumpers with lace detailing, my lace socks and now this shawl; I feel like it was just too easy a project. Now I know that I needed an easy shawl to get confident. It's done, I feel confident. It's difficult to know how big it will be when I I wash it and block it so i think that I will do a few more repeats after the increase. I am very excited.

Things that keep me busy

I thought I should post about the knitting that I currently have on the go. Too much. I said to Martin last night that I wouldn't start anything new 'cos I had so many big projects that I had to finish. When I finished listing them I thought, hmmmm! that's a year full of knitting; but of course there are other things that I need to complete by mid July for birthdays and which I hadn't thought of.

I wonder how other people manage. I also drew up a list of things that I need to knit for next year, 2 jumper, 2 cardigan, 4 pair of mittens, two hats and 3 pairs of leg warmers, singlets if I have time. Of course I say need but in reality it would be cheaper and easier to buy these things. But the quality wouldn't be the same and that it not where the love is for me. This all makes me happy though. To see my girls' faces when I present them with a new item is great.

Blue House Yarns

I am so excited, after much waiting, my yarn shop officially can accept online ordering and payments. I am so happy. It was so troublesome before with e-mails going back and forth. I was getting a bit despondent but I feel excited again so I think I will have a look at my indigo vat to see if it's up to some dyeing.
You can visit it at http://www.bluehouseyarns.co.nz Any comments are appreciated.

What we are reading

Well it's not so common that you read something and you feel that you have to let the world know bout it. But it has happened to me and here goes: Mona Minim and the smell of the sun by Janet Frame. I'm reading a library copy but I have put it on my list of books to buy as soon as I have some spare cash!

The one I'm going to get is with the illustrations by David Elliot.

So the language is just beautiful, the pace delightful and it's full of detail. The best bit is that Martin is reading one chapter per night to the girls and I and at the end of each chapter there is a child-mind cliff hanger. I love it. I want the world to read it and know about it. I think I'll have to give it as gifts at Christmas time to some special little people.

BTW I appreciate that not being a born kiwi it's taken me until I'm 37 to find out about it. So apologies if this is a very well known fact and I'm preaching to the converted.

A word about the illustrations. They are just beautiful. A non reading child would be just as enchanted looking at the pictures. I'm becoming a bit of a David Elliot fan. His range is quite varied and the detail exquisite. If you read my blog and you have recommendations please let me know; especially if they are for books that would suit a very book wormy family that doesn't watch TV.

Take care

Dunedin weather

So today we were all stuck at home. Not only were we snowed in but also our road was closed by the council on account of the snow. Martin couldn't get to work and it snowed all day, easing at times but never really stopping. All schools in Dunedin were also shut. Now it's freezing. I hope it will be safe to get out tomorrow.

We did a lot of knitting, listening to stories and eating good hearty food.

Happiness

Today I was really clever and made tea before I picked the girls up from school. Mondays is a hectic day, we go from school to piano so that the girls can have their lessons; when one is at piano I'm with the other at Port Chalmers library and then we swap. Then home and I start to cook, but not today. Tea was ready, so we sat down in the sitting room to listen to stories, (first in Spanish, then in English) and knit. I worked on Tim's (son in law) hat, Sofia on her dolly that she's knitting and Cristina cast on 5 stitches and was going to do something very long.
Then Daddy arrived early (yay, yay!) and there was a bit of time for all of us to continue knitting. Yes even Martin, he's knitting an 8 ply blanket for the girls' dollies. My happiness is complete. I hope to be able to post a picture of the completed blanket before the end of the year.

Lacy socks

Well, I did say to myself that this would be the year of lace! And it is.
I've just finished my first pair of lacy socks. I have made a fair few pairs of socks since I learned how to four years ago; but of course this is my first lacy pair.
I'm so pleased with them. The pattern is from Barbara Walker's treasury of stitches. I chose the horse shoe pattern. Its quite simple as it's only an 8 pattern repeat. I designed the sock and the only scary bit was once I had turned the heel and I had to rearrange the lace pattern on the instep only. After a couple of attempts, it worked.
I'm so glad that I started with socks. It has really been worthwhile. I feel very confident and I'm going full speed with my pi shawl now. The cuff is 2x2 rib and the toe is a wedge toe with a beautifully grafted end. Yay! So if you have been wanting to try lace for a while but haven't dared...just give it a try. As my friends had said to me, all you need is a quiet place, a good way to mark where you on your pattern are and a pattern that's not too difficult to start with.

Dolly pyjamas

So this is what has kept me busy for the last fortnight. I have been making a pair of pyjamas for my daughter's dollies.

I used a lovely vintage fabric I picked up at one of my local op shops. I'm really pleased with how they turned out. They are nice and loose as pyjamas should be and I also used really nice shell buttons. Sofia and Cristina are really pleased and so now their dollies, Cristina and Clementine don't have to go to sleep in a dress. I really feel that I want top make the bathrobes but I'm aware that I could spend all my free time making dolls clothes instead of clothes that we can all wear.

I do like the fact that it makes me do a lots of hand sewing. I couldn't make a grown up dress by hand, but this is fun.

Birthday girl

That would be me. To be honest I feel a bit long in the tooth to be celebrating my birthday but I will say that some lovely things happened.
Both my little girls gave me the loveliest handmade cards. I so love their drawings. My big girl Emily gave me a beautiful coloured in card based on a Mexican drawing but the best things is that she wrote a very funny poem/ditty. Love it. It has become her "thing" and I think is great. Long may it continue.
Martin made me the funniest card which I will have to photograph at my friends 'cos my camera is not good enough.
So it's a picture of me knitting straight off a sheep which is standing below me but the the funny thing is the speech bubble coming out of her mouth and she's saying "ridiculous" . loved it.
So I'm pleased that I had a celebration otherwise I wouldn't have received those wonderful gifts.

Things that keep me humble

I am so absolutely determined to get good at lace. I have now embarqued on a challenging lace shawl project. I am doing a pi shawl as per Elizabeth Zimmermann intructions. I was just going to make it plain in between increases but as my friend said..."it's not that hard you know" so I took that as a challenge and here goes. I hope to finish it this year so that when my eldest daughter Emily decides to start a family she will have a shawl for the baby and it can stay in the family as an heirloom.

I am knitting it in a natural thinner than 2 ply wool. Am not really into natural colours but I might be able to dye it later.

I will have to keep blogging aboot it so that people don't think I've forgotten about it.

Aran style hat

I knitted some winter hats for the kids but Sofia's was a little too snug. I was trying to finish it quickly but somehow when I try to do that it just makes me slower. So here it is. It's an aran style with asymmetrical cables, knitted in the round and I managed to do the decreases in a really smooth way. I reused some wool that had been a cardie for her. I decided that it just wasn't pretty enough for me to keep for the grandchildren so I unravelled and here it is. I just love the colour. It really brings out the colour of her eyes.

I'm really pleased also with the fact that now I just knit things without the need for a pattern. I have a better idea of my personal and the children's taste and also I am more willing to take risks. I designed it to go with her mittens.

The old hat is now keeping her cuddly tiger warm.

Hope your are all keeping warm out there.

Reading group

My daughter Sofia said to me that she wanted to start her own reading group. I though it was very sweet but I wasn't sure it would be possible. I don't know another girl her age that reads as much as she does. I have belonged to one for most of my adult life (although I'm not in one at the moment) and thought she might have heard me talk about it.

Well her first meeting was yesterday, I baked biscuits and bought them some nice notepads and a pen each. Their first book to be discussed was The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall. They had a great time and want to carry on doing it. they are going to meet once a fortnight and they will discuss five children and it by Edith Nesbitt next.

I have to confess that I'm slightly envious. I haven't been in a group for just over a year. I am reading lots but miss talking about them.

Incidentally I've just read Over by Margaret Forster. I think she's a brilliant writer. I read it in less than 5 hours today. I achieved nothing else today. It was so interesting and so well written. I am also reading the biography of William Blake at the moment which is also good but somewhat heavier going.

Well I'm off to re-knit my daughter's hat as it's too small. ...I definitely knit tighter in the round.

I made it

I really wanted to make a felted crown for Cristina for her birthday. I didn't think I would have the time but I did. I used a grey blanket as a base, double thickness and I lined it with some lovely old soft cotton fabric so her forehead wouldn't itch. I embroidered her initial in gold and also a whale and a dinosaur. You can see what she likes. I'm really pleased with the result and I have already cut the fabric to make for Sofia. I took the idea from the book the creative family by Amanda Soule. I was too disorganized have thought of keeping a pattern but I'm pretty sure she includes one in the book, in any case as long as you get the idea it's pretty easy to do.

Incidentally she loved the dolly's clothes I made and in true Cristina fashion was really happy to share with her sister. I had also made a wool mattress which I quited with big stitches as you would see in Gee's bend quilts and made her a top and bottom sheet and a pillow. They are both really happy playing with the goodies.

More hand stitching

Here are the lst few bits that I sewed for my daughter's birthday.


The sun really burns in New Zealand so dolly needed one long sleeved dress. The beautiful crochet trim is from a damaged table cloth. Look at the nice wooden buttons.

A high collar will also protect you from the sun.

You can just about make out the topstitching done on the bodice with 6 strands of embroidery thread. The fabric use to be a bed sheet. Note the pretty shell buttons.

I so enjoyed all the sewing. I had toyed with the idea of not buying the sewing machine that I have and commit to hand sewing. This project made me realize how lovely it is to do something completely by hand.

Every dolly needs old fashioned knickerbockers. Note the recycled trim from a pair of troussers that both the girls wore for a couple of years. It's satisfying to know that there was a reason for me to spend 1/2 unstictihing the trim.

And an apron of course. This was a pillow case in a previous life.

This is the cardigan and hat set complete. I used 100 % wool that had been given to me. Although it didn't say it had any other content; it was a bit hairy. It looks nice though. The contrast band is grey mohair. I think Cristina will like it I was trying to make it a bit different. Every little dolly wants a pom pom.

Above is a picture of the cardie just after I cut the steek. I wasn't thinking of the photo when I cut the steek so there is nothing to record the snipping.

Late picture

We'll I've finally managed to get a picture of my friend's knitting needle roll. She came round yesterday and we chatted and whilst she knitted I tidied up my knitting needle roll and took a picture of hers. She developed a serious case of dpn envy. She couldn't get over how many I had.But I explained that most weren't second hand from the op shop. I find that if someone wants to learn sock making it invariably involves me "lending" a set of dpn's long term! So I need spares.

Embroidery

I am not the sort of person that can sit without doing anything; so yesterday afternoon I decided that we needed a quiet afternoon at home after school. I couldn't sew the doll's clothes in front of Cristina and all my other projects at the moment require concentration. So I started to do some simple embroidery using a back stitch. This all started a few months ago when I came across a book called the creative family. The book had lots of ideas most of which we already do at home but she had one that I knew I had to do. The writer is Amanda Soule and she has a lovely website. Here is her link http://soulemama.typepad.com and she also has a new book out soon that I'm looking forward to exploring.
Basically you just trace your children's drawings onto fabric, in my case calico and embroider them. A novel way to keep a picture when you have no more room for paper. So this is what I did with both Sofia's and Cristina's drawing. I only traced a few and left the project sitting there for a quiet moment. Well, I started and Sofia became so excited that she took one of her pictures away and we sat there on the couches listening to a lovely audio edition of Hans Christian Andersen stories read by Judy Dench. Bliss. Sofia's is the multi-coloured one. Mine is plain blue.
The calico I picked up from our local transfer station for only 50 cents. I will use the finished embroideries for a few pictures for my girls rooms and some cushions for the sitting room.
Here is the link if you are interested.

Dolls clothes

I am so happy making the doll's clothes for my daughter's birthday. So far I have completed a blanket shift dress that you can see. I try to make things with fabric that I have used for them before. Ans as last year I made them a blanket dress each, I decided this would be perfect.

The first photo with the pink background is my daughter Cristina's dress and the other two photo are for her dolly, also called Cristina.

You used to be able to pick up lots of blankets in the op shops here (charity shops) but they are now rarer and more expensive. if that means that people are valuing these things more and they are not getting disposed of that great but unfortunately I'm on a budget.

The knitted hat still needs a pom pom and the cardigan needs the steek to be finished. I thought it was a good opportunity to try my hand at steeking. It seems to be going ok. I'll post photos as I finish them.

More minessota mittens

I have finished Cristina's mittens. My daughter is thrilled with them. I am pleased that they only took me a week, yay. I will do the next pair on 3-4 plky as I think it will be better and I might try thrumbing. I didn't know what this was until a couple of weeks ago. Thanks Lorna for the suggestion. Basically it's adding wool sliver every few stiches so that it is lined in sliver and very warm an insulating. there is a pattern for thrumbed mittens in Knitting new mittens and gloves bny Robin Melanson.

I can feel a real accessories phase coming on.

Reading Mason Dixon's latest book I realized that actually I don't have many handknits that are actually mine. I will have to sort this out soon. Are you in the same position. Do you find that you make a lot for other but forget a little about yoursel?

Another thing to be grateful for

Dunedin has the most wonderful public libraries. When we lived in the UK, I just didn't find the libraries there that inspirational. Perhaps it's because of where we lived or because I could afford to buy books! In any case I think that we are extremely lucky in Dunedin to be able to access such a vast amount of books in such lovely settings. We use the libraries a lot as a family. Also after a couple of attempts I managed to get a job there. I love it! I'm only working 3.5 hours a week but I feel very lucky.
Working there has pushed me into borrowing more books to read. This is because as I scan the books people bring in I have come across more authors etc. This has been further complicated by the fact that I have never borrowed fiction. Only non fiction. Am I alone? All my friends think that I'm weird. Anyway I'm trying to get over it mostly because of the high cost of books in NZ and because if there is any money around I would rather spend it on books in Spanish for my kids.
So (sorry, I know I'm rambling) I borrowed Burning bright by Tracy chevalier. I loved it. I will have to buy it because I have all her other books and she's amazing!. I also read the sea house by Esther Freud which was interesting.
So if you live in Dunedin visit one of your local libraries if not go to your local library. I'm sure it has something good to offer. And take the kids.

My daughter got married

For those of you who don't know me; I have two older children, Emily and David. Technically they are my husband's children from his first marriage but I brought them up from the age of 9 and 6. I love them dearly and to me they are my children. So Emily got married to Tim in March. As I wasn't blogging then I thought I should post a picture or two. It was lovely that a lot of family managed to come, mostly from the UK, but also my sister from Switzerland. The wedding was everything Emily had wanted and they both looked very happy on the day. Emily was super lovely to me allowing me to choose my own outfit without restrictions. Needles to say I went in my own version of Frida Kahlo. I looked great!

So that's all of us, David next to me and Emily next to Martin, Sofia and Cristina beneath Martin and I; Tim ( the bridegroom next to Em with his parents, sister and his daughter Lily).

Been away

I would love to tell that I was away on holiday but unfortunately I can't the whole family was ill all of last week. Thankfully I didn't get it (it wasn't pleasant) but I was looking after everyone, that is Martin, Sofia and Cristina. I did feel sorry for them. This was the most ill the kids have been. Eventually I did feel sorry for me. I was shattered. I need my sleep so waking up several times a night left me exhausted. But they are all well again. So here I am back and I will try to post every weekday from now on.

Blue house yarns

I've been allowed to put a display of our products at the local library. I think it's turned out nice, don't you think? You can view our complete range at http://www.bluehouseyarns.co.nz/. Hope you like it.

The idea was also to display lots of knitting books. I took the opportunity to display not just the modern American books but also a couple of good Margaret Stove books and also some on traditional Scandinavian, fair isle and Aran knitting. I hope it generates a bit of interest in the business but also that it inspires people to knit something for the winter. It would be great to see more people - adults and children - knitting at the library, the bus stop, the school gate.

We're saving for a caravan

This is what my daughter Sofia and her friend Ola told me a little while back. Fast forward a few months and yesterday we went to Seacliff to their monthly market so that they could sell all the biscuits and fudge that they had baked the day before. Sofia's dad martin helped her and Ola's dad Jason helped her. They both had a great time and us adults had fun visiting all the other stalls. If you live in the Dunedin area try to go sometime. It's really lovely and there is a real mix of stuff. I bought a lovely tiny handmade dolly and a broderie anglaise cushion which I will use for dolls clothes. The market is on the coast road in Seacliff, on the first Sunday of every month from 11-2.

Harvest

I'm finding it really hard to motivate myself to work on the veggie plot. I spent 2 hours there yesterday after a long time away. I did well. However there is so much tidying up to do!. I hope to plant some more leeks and kale for winter and maybe some cauliflowers as a treat. To reward myself for my efforts I cut some beautiful sunflowers and violas. I am so pleased with how they look. I have to make sure I always reward myself with something. I also harvested some globe artichokes for my friend Carola as I know she loves them.

Blue house yarns

Well today I spent most of the morning re-skeining the 8 ply indigo dyed wool. It was very repetitive but for once it was fine. I just love the effect that natural dyes have on wool. how the colour is not flat but the eye travels trying to follow the various hues that are together forming the blue. Anyway I could go on for hours. I told them at the knitting group last night that I thought that everyone should have an indigo vat at home.
So if you are interested in indigo but nervous drop me a line.
Our first advert appeared in the Creative fibre magazine. I am really pleased with it. We'll see what happens. It seems to me that it's more the ocassional knitter that is concerned for the environment that is into our product rather than the obsessive knitter. I could yet be proved wrong.
I'll post some pictures tomorrow. I'm too tired today.

Minnessota mittens

My daughter Sofia has a school friend that was wearing funny gloves that were hidden inside a mitten. They looked cool so I said to her that I would knit her some. I didn't know that they were called minnessota mittens, that took a bit of searching to find out. Anyway, I am a good and experienced knitter but those mittens took me 5 weeks to complete! I did them with double pointed needles. At one point I had 8 needles going. What took the longest time was convincing myself to knit instead of procrastinating.

Well yesterday I went to Lorna's house, who designed the scarf kit for Blue house yarns. I needed help because I wanted to use kitchener stitch to finish them. I have never been able to master kitchener stitch. I have used different instructions with and without pictures and I just couldn't do it. Well thanks to Lorna now I can. I was so happy. Thank you so much Lorna. I don't think that there is anything I can teach you but I will be kind to others and show them.


Needless to say Sofia is wearing them today to school.Here are some pics. Can you see the beautiful grafting?- Sorry about the quality of the photos, my camera is very old and I'm not good at taking pictures.

beautiful warm hands

My friend Pauline come to visit me today and we had a lovely morning chatting about crafts and dreams. Just as she left she gave me this lovely gift of fingerless mittens (gauntlets) to keep me warm. She knows how I love colour and these are just lovely. So beautiful and perfectly knitted. All of you knitters will know how special it is to receive a knitted gift. I am thrilled to bits.  I had already made a pair but on the day that I finished them, my daughter's teacher broke her wrist and so I gave them to her.

Beginnings

This is an unexpected and new development in my life. I am writing a blog. Those of you who know me will realize why this is funny. I'm kind of allergic to computers. But... I will attempt to learn and be tolerant of this machine and hope to be able to  share my passion for crafts with anyone who might be out there reading.