Southern Textile Treats

What trip away would be complete without the odd textile treasure snapped along the way. This well dressed cabbage tree was at the bottom of Baldwin St in Dunedin.

Baldwin St has the distinction of being the steepest street in the world. How steep? This should give you an idea.

While we were there several tour buses stopped there for people to view it - I suspect I was the only one who stopped to photographed the cabbage tree. We all walked to the top - one of my boys even ran it! There are obviously a few characters on the street - I loved this letter box.

In Queenstown I was most taken by these two pieces of knitwear - anyone with a pile of orphan peggy squares might want to start stitching them up into coats. This one was retailing for a mere $1600NZ. Obviously they were targeting significantly more well heeled travellers than us! I joked to my husband about buying it for him to wear - and it was then he pointed out the price which had us both shaking our heads in amazement.

Let me know if you are inspired to pick up the needles - there could be a retailer waiting for your work in Queenstown.

Preparing for Spring... with Yarn Bombing

There is a wonderful sculpture on the Wellington Waterfront, Solace in the Wind, by English artist Max Patte. We have been known to have the odd breeze around here, from time to time, and this sculpture leans into it, right at the water's edge just near Te Papa.

Someone has clearly taken pity on him and got him fully kitted out in anticipation of spring, which is after all just around the corner. Just brilliant!I hope he's left in his garments for some time...

Getting to the 'To Do' List

I've given myself a good talking to over the last week and got cracking again behind the sewing machine - and not before time! First off the list was the collaborative quilt that I had started with my daughter. I'm pleased to say that it is now finished
and only waiting for the label to be written on by my daughter so it can be sewn onto the quilt.

Naturally the birthday girl it has been made for hasn't seen it, but both her parents have and they are certain it's going to be a complete hit. Funnily enough my daughter came home from school this week and told me that she and her friend had been talking about the impending birthday and what sort of present she would like. The birthday girl had told her that all she knew was that she didn't want any store vouchers from people, as no thought at all had to be put into these, and she would far rather have a gift from the heart, even if it only cost $1. From this we concluded that our gift would qualify.

I'm rather looking forward to seeing her face when she opens it up.

On a completely different note, I've just been listening to an item on National Radio about choreographer Ann Dewey who is developing a new dance work on why people knit. All the costumes and even the set have been knitted by 25 people spread across the world and Ann has also taught all the dancers to knit as part of the process. Unfortunately it looks like the it is only be performed in Auckland, at the moment. It sounds like a marvel and just the thing to lift us from the gloom of a cold winter. Perhaps a trip to Auckland is in order....

It's not just me

There are others - honest.
I feel sure that whoever knitted these up and wrapped them around the trees in Manners Mall
also feels that primal need to knit.

Hard to argue with really, isn't it. These were my consolation find after my unsuccessful attempt to find the 19mm circular needle in the biggest knit shop in town. While I disappointed not to get what I wanted, it was quite a consolation!

The Primal Urge

It seems that the moment the seasons turn (and believe me they have turned with speed here over the last week or so) I get the irresistible urge to pick up the knitting needles. There is something very comforting about the thought that you can create something that will keep you warm in the cold months ahead and I find the rhythm of the needles particularly soothing.

So I've started small this year with a couple of hats for babies that will be arriving over the next few months to friends. I love these as they whip up so quickly and are always appreciated - every baby needs lots of hats if they are to be born into the wintry climate here in Wellington. I've been using Debbie Bliss baby cashmarino for these and as a result now have my much older children almost begging for hats of their own out of this wool.

Now I know this is a slightly odd thing to say, but I am really looking forward to the weather getting much colder so that I can wear (and let's be honest here - show off) the amazing gauntlet mittens that I was given at Christmas. My dear friend Marilyn, knitter extraordinaire, made these for me after I admired them in a book she had from the library. They are an absolute work of art - I am going to be the most stylish mother,watching winter sports from the side lines, in the whole of Wellington with these on! How could you not look at these and not wish that the weather was already cold enough to wear them?

Actually, if the truth be told, I really prefer the colder months to the truly hot. Once autumn is here you can wrap yourself up in wool and just snuggle up. The more generous swathes of fabric that we tend to wear in the cooler months hide a multitude of figure flaws and I just find it more comforting somehow. No doubt I will have to come back and repeatedly read this when I feel like complaining about the wild weather when we are in the depths of winter!

I have my next knitting project in my sights - but first I have to find a circular knitting needle, size 19mm. It's a monster of a project and I'm itching to get started - all that is holding me back are the elusive needles....

Thinking of Knitting

It must be the cold weather that makes me gravitate to the knitting needles and yarns, rather than heading to my rather cold quilt room to play on the sewing machine. I can remember that the same thing happened last winter when I seemed to be in hat and scarf production mode. We also had an exchange student from Brazil living with us this time last year and I taught her to knit while she stayed with us - it was one way of making sure she had some wool on her when she ventured outside! Being from Brazil, wool wasn't a fibre that she was familiar with and she kept wondering why her cotton tops weren't keeping her warm enough!

I've been on the hunt for some more hat patterns so I can make a few more hats - I have a friend who needs a new hat but having tried on the one I recently made for myself we decided that this pattern wasn't going to be a goer! She didn't look her best, which after all isn't the object of the exercise.

So when I found this book recently in my favourite fabric and fibre shop - Nancy's - and discovered that it had a chart showing the best styles for different face shapes, it was an almost immediate impulsive buy. Still to do the browsing through the book with my friend, but I think she'll be spoilt for choice.
Only problem is I need to learn how to cast onto double pointed needles and knit in the round... nothing like a challenge! The things we do for our friends....

Seeing Spots

While I've been having enforced time off the computer I've been working those knitting needles, this time a hat for a work colleague that will soon have her first baby. She and her husband are absolutely dog mad so I thought there was really only one thing for it once I found this wonderful pattern by Terry Turk.... http://www.knitlist.com/96gift/giftspottedpuppyhat.htm

(note to self - must find out how to do proper links!)

Here's the almost finished hat, being beautifully modelled by my daughter's teddy bear, Francine (couldn't find a handy new born baby!)

I've adapted the pattern by adding a dog tail to the top of the hat. I may stitch a few more dalmatian spots on it yet.....

Something for Winter

It was such a perfect day today that you could have thought it wasn't winter at all, if it wasn't for the rose hips growing on the roses rather than flowers down at the Botanical Gardens. However it really has been pretty cold, especially at 8.15am on Saturday mornings when I am regularly found on an exposed netball court watching our daughter play. I've decided that what was really called for to more this more endurable during the wind and rain we seem to be regularly encountering was a new beanie. So here it is - modeled by a less than impressed boy. A Debbie Bliss pattern, sized for a 3-4 year old (not sure what this says about either the size of my head or my knitting), and some left over Debbie Bliss cashmerino arun. It feels great.
I think it will do the trick!