Happy stripes

I managed to finish the stripy socks while we were in Auckland. I love how the Wendy Happy bamboo yarn knitted up. They are soft and silky and the bright stripes make me smile.



I used the Universal Toe-Up Sock Formula Knitty pattern (Ravelry link here), which I highly recommend, especially if you have irregular-sized feet (mine are quite wide). You measure your feet first and then plug the numbers into the pattern to make custom-sized socks especially for you! The toe-up method (using a crochet/provisional cast-on) means you can try them on as you go to ensure that they really are going to fit. For the cast-off at the top I used a stretchy sewn cast-off method that was recommended on Ravelry. It is from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitters Almanac and there is a video here showing how to do it. Very useful bind-off for areas where you need stretch, like the ends of sleeves or tops of socks.

Sale time

It's time for an update of my Felt shop. That means a winter sale is in order. There is at least 20% off everything - bibs, baby shoes, baby tshirts and bags. Check it out here.

Home again

I'm back from a lovely week away in Auckland. I've never really spent any time as a tourist in Auckland, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Normally I'm intimidated by the size of the city and all the crowds, but we went armed with a GPS for the rental car which helped with the navigation, plus holidaying in winter meant the crowds weren't too bad. There were only two other people at Karekare beach when we visited, so it almost felt like we had it to ourselves. We also made lots of time for relaxing (reading for him, knitting and reading for me) and I really feel like my batteries have been recharged. This week Alex is back at work and I have two weeks of holidays remaining. The to-do list is getting longer almost by the hour - just how much can I fit into two weeks? Yesterday I made two batches of jam (feijoa and plum) and a double batch of pasta sauce. Today I'm trying to sort out some new things for my Felt store. I'll be back tomorrow with some crafting photos.

In the meantime, here are some favourite photos from our week away.


Rangitoto island, taken from a harbour cruise boat. It is such a lovely symmetrical shape, and it really dominates the horizon.


Piha beach. I loved the dark sand and how the seaspray was making the air all misty looking. The surf was pretty good that day - there were a few surfers braving the cold to catch some waves.


Piha beach - Lion Rock. This photo was taken just before the previous one, but the beach doesn't look nearly so moody.

PS - the new banner up there is also a holiday photo - the remains of my coffee at Kokako, a lovely organic vegetarian cafe on Parnell Road.

On holiday

My last exam finished yesterday. In the 24 hours or so since then I have been embracing being on holiday free from the pressures of studying. Last night I knitted in front of the TV - what a novelty! Today I went for a run, sewed something for me (rather than a wholesale order), had a haircut and baked some cupcakes. Bliss. Now if I could only find a job that paid me to knit, sew and bake...

We are off to Auckland for a week tomorrow, but once we're back I'm hoping to be blogging a bit more frequently. And will hopefully have some crafty things to share too.

And totally unrelated, here's a photo of my latest wholesale order - some corduroy winter baby pinafores for Found My Way in Invercargill. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out - I think I might have to make some more for my Felt shop.

The "It's all about me" meme

The lovely Megan tagged me for this meme. It's all about me...

What is your current obsession?
Finding time to craft amongst the studying, finding the perfect pair of vegan red winter boots, winter pinafores, vegan cupcakes

What are you wearing today?
Well, I’m at home revising for my exams, and not planning to go out until the end of the day, so it’s jeans, a grey long-sleeved top and a blue hoodie. Accessorised with navy slippers. Nice.

What's for dinner?
Pasta, home-made tomato sauce and olives, artichokes and eggplant. Yum!

What would you eat for your last meal?
Ooh, that’s a hard question. It would have to involve pinot noir, lemon tart and Whitakkers Dark Ghana chocolate....

What's the last thing you bought?
Ummm, probably a coffee at uni yesterday. I gave up caffeine a few months ago and I’m quite proud of my complicated coffee order – “I’ve have a soy decaff flat white thanks”

What are you listening to right now?
Wax-eyes chirping in our olive tree and the swish of the washing machine

What do you think of the person who tagged you?
I’ve never met Megan, but I really enjoy reading her blog. She’s bravely facing some tough things at the moment and I admire her for it. I’m also jealous that she moved to the provinces from Wellington and is living the country life – one of my dreams.

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?
Given that I’m reading Under the Tuscan Sun, and obsessed with Italy at the moment, it would have to be an old house in rural Tuscany with a massive vege garden and loads of fruit trees – I’d love to be able to grow all the ingredients for a ratatouille in my own backyard.

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
Mood fabrics in New York. With a limitless credit card of course.
Or failing that, somewhere sunny and warm – a cocktail on the beach in Rarotonga sounds pretty good right now.

Which language do you want to learn?
Well, I should know French and Italian, since I studied them at uni, but I’ve been pretty slack at keeping up my fluency. So, either of those would be good. Plus Māori.

What's your favorite quote (for now)?
At the moment I really like a couple of lines from a W.B. Yeats poem called He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
“I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”

What is your favorite colour?
Red, red and more red.

What is your favorite piece of clothing in your own wardrobe?
A millefiore glass pendant I bought in Venice and a gorgeous red a-line skirt from Widdess in Ponsonby.

What is your dream job?
Ummm, well I’m really looking forward to being a teacher in my own classroom next year. And considering I quit my last job to go back to uni and train to be a teacher, I guess that must be my dream?

What's your favourite magazine?
I don’t tend to buy magazines much, but I have been subscribing to the wonderful World Sweet World the last few months. Frankie is also quite good – I like that it combines fashion, craft, music and books. I get my guilty gossip-fix at the hairdressers when I make a beeline for Marie Claire.

If you had £100 now, what would you spend it on?
So, about $300 NZD? A new hairdryer (my current one is going to die any day now), a pair of fantastically flattering jeans (the perfect pair exist, I just know it) and spend anything leftover at Borders on craft books.

Describe your personal style?
Oooh, that’s a tricky one – now that I’m a student, it’s jeans and cardies mostly. And the occasional skirt and boots. Maybe I could call it student chic?

What are you going to do after this?
Hang up the washing and then study for my English exam.

What are your favourite films?
I have two types of favourite films – the ones I consider acceptable to admit to, like Donnie Darko, Juno, Eagle vs Shark, Garden State, The Princess Bride. And then the cheesy ones that I’ve watched over and over and are not exactly high art but I love them anyway, like Dirty Dancing, Notting Hill and Grease

What's your favourite fruit?
Feijoas, berries and golden queen peaches

What inspires you?
New Zealand landscapes, native trees, young children, people living the life they love, books, creative people

Your favourite books?
The Blind Assassin, Oryx and Crake, Jane Eyre, Pride & Prejudice, The Eyre Affair

Do you collect anything?
Blue pottery mugs, buttons, fabric, cheesy fridge magnets from our travels

What are you currently reading?
Under the Tuscan Sun, The BFG (it’s research for my exam, honestly)

Go to your book shelf, take down the first book with a red spine you see, turn to page 26 and type out the first line:
"We are very grateful indeed to Mr Grundy, Mr Attery Squash, the Blue Baboon, Mr Pobble, Lola Vavoom and of course the Dong, who so generously agreed to entertain us with his luminous nose”
It’s from The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde

What makes you follow a blog?
I follow blogs that inspire me, that make me laugh, that let me get to know the person behind the blog.

The rules:
1. Respond and rework; answer the questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your invention, add one more question of your own.
2. Tag eight other people.

It seems like almost everyone on my blogroll has been tagged for this already, but if you haven't been, consider yourself tagged.

The perfect winter weekend lunch

Delicious thick, hearty barley and lentil soup from this recipe, accompanied by homemade crusty rolls. The perfect antidote to wild winter weather outside.

Stripy socks

The drive to Rotorua for the marathon gave me an excuse for some guilt-free crafting. Reading in the car makes me feel sick, so I couldn't do any coursework. But, for some reason, I CAN knit in the car. Yay! I planned to start these socks as soon as we left Wellington, but they are knit from the toe-up and I didn't know how to do a crochet cast-on. Google saved the day once we got to my Mum's house and I was able to start these up there and do some knitting on the way home.



The yarn is Wendy Happy, a new sock yarn made from bamboo and nylon. I was so happy to find a reasonably priced vegan yarn that is specifically designed for socks. Plus, Knit World in Lower Hutt (my closest yarn store) has started stocking it. The yarn is really soft and silky and is knitting up nicely. It comes in several colourways, all named after signs of the zodiac, that produce different pattern effects. This colourway is capricorn. I think they're going to look really cute worn with my mary-janes.

Marathon effort

Alex ran his first marathon in Rotorua on Saturday. I was the support crew, following him for some of the way on the back of my Dad's motorbike.

Here he is (well, the back of his head anyway) crossing the line in a great time of just under 3 hours 20 mins.

I'm proud of you my love.

New toy

When I blogged about my birthday a couple of weeks ago, I forgot to mention the birthday present I bought myself. It might not look like much, but it made me happy:



My very own almost-power-tool - a brand-new snap setter from Greenbeans! After borrowing snap setters from other people, I finally shelled out for one of my own. The greenbeans site sells them for putting snaps in modern cloth nappies, but I've discovered they're great for easily putting snaps in the bibs and pinafores I sell. And I'm sure there are a whole lot more uses yet to be discovered...

By the way, those piles of bibs in the photo are for my first wholesale orders. They're now making their way to Found My Way in Invercargill and Rockabye Baby in Ashburton. I've added a stockists list over on the right hand side there ---> and I'll hopefully add more shops to it in the coming few months.

Happy Monday

I enjoyed the fabric fair on Saturday - the whole stash up there set me back about $20. Looking at the picture, my inner magpie was obviously drawn to stripes, spots, ric-rac and blue and green that day. Most of the cotton pieces are over 1 metre and a couple of them are over 2 metres. I really like the white and red floral - a skirt for next summer perhaps?

Despite my big crafting plans for the school holidays, I've not managed to achieve much in the first week. I caught a nasty head cold last week (just after I'd gotten over the last one), and I didn't feel like doing a whole lot of anything for a few days. I've also been working on a couple of wholesale orders of bibs and tshirts for some shops in the South Island (exciting - somehow selling in shops seems much more glamorous than selling online!), so my personal crafting has been put on hold.

I have managed to fulfill one of my aims for the holidays though - running every day. I'm planning to run a 10km event in June and am way out of practice. The holidays seemed like a good time to kickstart my training. I really questioned my sanity this morning though, when I was out running in the rain, in a strong southerly...

Fabric-a-brac

I tell you, I think crafty people have some of the coolest ideas. Here's one I've just discovered - fabric-a-brac. A craft fair dedicated to selling fabric, buttons, trims and patterns. Sellers get to clear out their stashes, buyers get to score some crafty bargains.

It's this Saturday, 18th April from 12-4 in the Brooklyn Community Centre, 18 Harrison St, Brooklyn. I can't wait!

Easter Brunch

We were all set to go out for brunch on Monday, until I thought to check that our favourite cafe was open. Unfortunately they were closed for the Easter weekend. Instead I whipped up some french toast at home, using the great recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance. I served it with berries (reheated from frozen), banana, soy yoghurt and agave nectar. Yummo! Critical brunch tragedy averted.

Craft2.0 this Saturday

If you're staying in Welly, or coming to the capital for your Easter break, don't forget to head out to Lower Hutt on Saturday morning and check out Craft2.0 at the New Dowse. There will be lots of crafty goodness for sale plus some hands-on activities too. Check out all the details and read some profiles of the sellers here.

31

I've been out on teaching experience in a primary school for the last 3 weeks, hence the lack of posts, but today I had a day at home to try and shake off the cold I've had for a couple of days. It just so happened that today was also my birthday. I felt better by this afternoon so I managed to cook a celebratory dinner - ratatouille on quinoa and chocolate cupcakes for two. Washed down with a glass or two of bubbly of course.





Looking forward to the school holidays and some long-awaited crafting time.

We are learning to knit

Gosh, it has been two weeks since I posted. I am buried in assignments and coursework and I don't think it's going to let up anytime soon. Suffice to say, I'm not getting much crafting done these days. But I'm getting my craft fix where I can. One of my assignments for this week was to design and deliver a 10 minute lesson to a small group of my peers. We could chose anything we liked. I taught my group to knit. The knitting army has hopefully grown by three new members...