prairie mouse

a ball of yarn

= a pair of socks. this a ball of kettle dyed merino from uruguay. really beauitul to knit. malabrigo. the recipient is a gorgeous boy who split a whole pile o firewood for us.

 2.75 bamboo needles

 my favourite part of the sock to work

ils sont finis

the here and now

i've had this blog now for six or seven years now and it feels at times that it is a tired old space yet i hold on. someone will say how much they love checking in and that i feel, is enough to keep it ticking over.

the great kate from foxs lane did post called snapshot of now - 12 photos documenting life, right here, right now. and yes kate, i do care to share - thank you! mine took me a few days but they were nice words to carry around and think about.

so, here goes!

harvesting

lemons off our little tree. we've never had much success with lemons but this year the tree is full of fruit. there is nothing like an organic piece of citrus plucked right off the branch!

 

reading

wasn't sure about this but grabbed it when i was in the library the other day. a bit same old but the look into the moroccan muslim community is refreshing

waiting

for these to burst into flower. we're past the shortest day and here they are, heralding the news!

missing

having some handwork on the go. we've been so busy with our hall - painting and building shelves that there has been little time left over to start anything

crocheting

a friends mother gave me two bags of this gold thread so i had a play with it but this is as far as i got. of course the 'ghan is an ongoing crocheting project

knitting

loving the green in the 'ghan, i bought a pattern from quince and co and started from the bottom up. there appears to be a massive amount of knitting as the fronts and backs are done in one piece

loving

the new shelves and having all our books in one place. there is still a lot of sorting to be done but we are getting there!

carrying

the 'ghan wherever i go in an african basket i bought many many years ago

sewing

a duvet cover out of marimekko fabric. not for me, its a commission - not really my thing working with that much fabric but when he said it was marimekko it swung me over to saying yes

wearing

my birkies. always. my winter clogs. with hand knit socks. 

opening

a box of vintage buttons (gifted along with the gold thread) apparently they were brought in like that and dyed to match the item of clothing. beautiful. box and buttons

cooking

chocolate chip cookies using bob's redmill all purpose flour and my much used recipe from the new york cookbook. they came out really well.

marvelling

at mother nature and how she soldiers on, shortening those days before solstice. this year we were starting to lose light at four thirty. i don't know if this is any different from years past but this year it seemed earlier and defined somehow. go the earth!

 

 

 

 

ribbon 'ghan

i've had this project tucked away in my mind since i first saw it on pinterest quite some time ago. with enough socks for everyone and all freshly darned for the winter ahead i decided it was time! this is such an easy pattern to work, really effective and a great way to use up a stash. i actually don't have much of a stash these days so i got to chose a palette which i love doing. holding all those balls of yarn together, adding, taking away, squinting even. i love the darker green so much i grabbed enough for a cardigan while it was on sale. i haven't knit a garment for myself (bar socks of course!!!) for i don't know how long so i am alternating between the two. winter is coming!!

day camping

michael has been away working for the past six weeks and flitting in on the weekends. this has drawn to a close for now so we decided to whip away for the day on a mini camping trip to whangamata. you know, we always head there!

we stopped in the karangahake gorge and trekked up the hill with our coffee making kit. 

on the way to whanga we stopped at a favourite valley and checked out a piece of land we rather like and met the very friendly neighbours!

 

and gazed at the beautiful little river that runs through it

then it was onwards to the surf, and more coffee!

feasted our eyes on this before we hit the road north and home

foraging

on saturday morning when i was hanging out the washing i looked down to see a crop o 'shrooms. we gathered them up, cleaned them up and cooked them up (after googling to make sure we were not going to do a joffrey!) i am not huge on consuming funghi but i found them to be sweet and delicate. i'm combing the lawn for more now!

town mouse

i feel as thougn i have been having tea with him and have just stumbled back out through the wardrobe door having been away for what feel like a very long time.

i dropped my cell, it froze. the computer started getting a screen that would break down into pixels. then a surveyor, digging on the berm, put a metal spike right through our phone and internet line. the mac had to go away for a new graphics card and m was away. so for almost two weeks (felt like years) i was without that lifeline. weird. very. and, we use the mac for all our music too. i found an old tape player so dialed up student radio and was quite happy with that. it was good. i listened to stuff that i normally wouldn't. i was probably more productive. maybe. all back on track now!

yesterday we visited our favourite volcano, te kopuke, to collect pinecones after the cyclone on thursday. there were sheep there this time - a little country for the townies. nice.

the crater

big old tree 

the du-fell to collect the cones

and one of the entrance ways - magical

i hope you are having a relaxing holiday weekend xxx

hippity hoppity

after embroidering the last of the bears i needed another subject. with easter approaching, i felt a rabbit was in order. she wanted some beads. maybe a cat next!

late summer in my garden

or early autumn. okay, i concede. its cooling down and as much as i am looking forward to stocking up on yarn and fleece, i am sorry to farewell the long hot days.

this afternoon i wanted to finish this bear but didn't feel like knitting another sweater so decided to embroider straight onto the bear. these bears are given to new born babies so i am keenly aware of making something safe. 

the olives are almost ready for harvest and are very plenitful this year so i may have another crack at them. last time i tried we got a tiny amount for our efforts and then i missed changing the brine so they fast tracked to the compost.

they were casting great shadows on the playhouse too!

backpack

last week i was asked if i could make a backpack for a little guy about to start kindy. i looked about and found a great tutorial and started collecting up fabric that i thought would work. 

i really enjoyed making it but it was a challenge as a) i usually make things up as i go and don't follow directions and b) i had to scissor cut all the pieces. it would have been so much faster with a rotary cutter. i think the thing i enjoyed the most was putting all the fabric together and, designing the images and type on the flap. i was determined to use what i had and only had to buy d rings and some piping cord. michael made the wooden toggle as i didn't want a plastic clasp. 

the kindy boy loves giraffes and the colour red - i think i managed to cover those bases. seems so long ago that my babies were having their first kindy day. it was nice to travel down that road again!

pinky

yet another basket to come off the hook. a metre or so of fabric (that i knew i would never use in the sewing domain) was ripped into ribbons in front of sochi - my viewing comapinions wincing at every tear. how can that affect the curling i ask you!

this one i have put into my felt shop as i think we may have reached the crocheted basket limit around these parts!