Tag Archives: gifts

November 26, 2016 · 1:12 pm

Drawstring silk bags

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Some time ago I dyed some silk I found at the Guild trading table. Just recently though, I stopped looking at it, draped around the place, and realised what it could become. I am hoping these little bags will be pleasing gifts, and in some cases, replace wrapping paper in the coming season of compulsory gifting, which I prefer to involve as little waste as possible, as I have not managed to convert my family to thinking perhaps this is not the best possible way to show our affection for one another. I love giving people gifts, but I find the compulsory nature of it and the set date, just leads to waste, and giving and getting things that are not always wanted or needed.

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You knew where this was going, didn’t you?  I couldn’t possibly stop at one or two.

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I think it is partly the satisfaction of figuring something out and routinising it.  Practising it.  Being able to create a little system.  This wouldn’t satisfy every mind, but evidently there is something in it for me.

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I think it is also as simple as getting on a roll and being able to make maximum use of a piece of fabric. Again, not something that has an inherent logic that would work for everyone. And clearly the attitude of a person who has an outward bound stash rather than just one precious piece of fabric. I enjoyed piecing together some of the fabric so I could use it all, as you can see.

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I also made one from one of the fronts of a linen shirt dyed some time ago. The bronze-coloured fabric became two larger bags with double draw strings. And so here I am, hours of pleasurable bag making behind me and happy times of gifting ahead!  I hope your plans for the gifting season are going well…

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November 18, 2016 · 11:31 am

Needle books on the Murray River

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We went for a birthday holiday on a house boat on the Mighty Murray River.  I’ve never been on a house boat before and it was pretty funny to be in something with six bedrooms, but on the water!  We set out on a sunny day and it was just lovely.  And then, hours before sunset, the sky turned dark.  The river was anything but calm.  My capable companions decided it was time to find a mooring, and that the green tinge in the distant clouds was a sign of hail even though it is November.  And we moored just in time for powerful winds, amazing rain… the whole thing.

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Eventually things calmed down and for those feeling nauseous, that part subsided, and the sun set over beautiful river red gums.

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Last week I finally stitched these two little eucalyptus dyed needle books together with madder-dyed thread and they were in my sewing tin along with everything else, so they found new homes among my companions.  Here they sit on the obligatory holiday puzzle.

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It wasn’t all wild weather… there were naps and songs and stories and birthday cake and lots of delicious food and company, and beautiful views.  There were so many birds… cormorants, pelicans, ducks and ducklings, superb blue wrens, raptors of various kinds… fabulous!

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On our return we discovered that every single car (and a lot of houseboats) had been hit by hail the size of golf balls.  In November.  We’d had a summary phoned in on our first night out, but it was quite a sight in person.  After a safety check, we drove home slowly, with the light dancing off all the cracks from 17 major hits on the windscreen. Too many dents in the car to count! Just as well there were needle books to keep things a little bit sensible in between times.  A person needs evidence of the ordinary in these challenging times.

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November 16, 2016 · 2:43 pm

Leafy bundles

First there was a walk home from a distant railway station.  Cotinus (smoke bush) growing through a fence….

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Then there was a walk home from a bus stop on a major road further from home than the one I usually use.  And the amazing discovery of a HUGE maple with finely ferny leaves.  Hanging over a high fence.

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Well. It was only a matter of time… a recycled linen shirt and a wool scarf…2016-11-04-15-43-06

A couple of bundles…

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I love the transformation!

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Some of the maple leaves came out pale. 2016-11-05-12-54-27

Those closest to the iron at the centre of the bundle…

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Perhaps I chose the wrong side of the cotinus as the one likely to give colour, because…

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And the scarf, mmmm!

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This one is destined to become a birthday gift.

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October 26, 2016 · 2:59 pm

Alas, the red socks!

Once upon a time, I cast on a lovely pair of red socks, from possum wool.  They had an intended recipient and unusually, I had told her they were coming.

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Here we are on the way to work on the bus. I am known to some in my workplace as the parsley fairy.

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Here they are on the way to the Newcastle Local Court, out of focus on the window ledge of the plane.  And then, one day I went to a long series of meetings and was one and a half socks in, past the heel and on the home strait toward the toe… I remember seeing the bag with the socks in it on my office desk and thinking I should pack that to take home.  I caught an usual series of public transport home, and when I stopped to change from bus to tram and the tram was late, I got out my knitting.  Well, I would have, but it was GONE!!!!  I know you will understand I hunted high and low and contacted several different possible places a lost sock might be handed in.  But I think I have to face the fact that my one and a half socks, wool, needles and bag… are GONE to who only knows where?  But quite likely, somewhere where those socks will not be completed or warm anyone’s toes, sadly.

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October 9, 2016 · 10:33 am

Uh oh… bags…

For those who have followed this blog for a while, this story will sound familiar.  Those who have started reading more recently (welcome!) may find my capacity to start with one bag and then somehow end up with dozens quite a few, a little puzzling,  Never mind.  I feel puzzled myself.  But this is how it unfolded this time.

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It always starts like this: I think I’ll make one bag.  Often it just seems like a piece of fabric is calling out to become a bag.  In this case, some plant dyed calico (Eucalyptus Cladocalyx bark vat with Eucalyptus Scoparia prints and some clamping…).  Then I think I’ll make another one.

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I believe I bought this hand printed fabric at a garage sale run by an artist.  To me, this design seems to have a vine and some Indigenous fish traps on it.

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Somehow once I have made one, it seems logical to make another.

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And another…

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Until I’ve used the whole piece of fabric and used most of a pair of jeans so worn out and tired they can no longer be mended and cannot be made into anything else, to interface bag openings and handles.

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In the end I took the bags to the Seed Freedom festival along with bunches of parsley and other goodness from the garden and left them at the festival food swap (I picked up some grapefruit).  Here’s a seed mandala in progress at the festival…

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But… the bags did not end there! A curtain was transformed into four more bags (one got given away before I took a picture)… and now I had better sit on my hands for a while.

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August 29, 2016 · 4:05 pm

Purple socks

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Remember this skein of hand spun sock yarn?  Suffolk/mohair/silk, three ply.

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It made a perfectly good cake. One day I cast on, on public transport. The train, evidently.

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And then I forgot to take photos for quite some time the next thing you know, here I am ready to graft the toe of the first sock at a conference in Wellington, Aotearoa (New Zealand)!

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Did I mention the wonderful beauty of Aotearoa?

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And then… suddenly there were two. When I was part way through the second they were lost!  Then found again by security and here was a happy reunion a few days later with great relief on my part.

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And now I am preparing to make them into a nice little parcel for a friend with popsicle toes. With some hand twined silk string.

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August 11, 2016 · 3:14 pm

Warm hands, warm heart

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So, I fell off the knitting handspun wagon a bit in Aotearoa and I have been itching to cast on.

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I couldn’t wait and chose these aluminium dpns because I enjoy them in their shiny blueness so much.  Then I, umm, free associated a pattern for some hand warmers. I realised when I reached the thumb gusset that I had given away the book I consulted last time I created a thumb gusset.

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Pretty quickly, here I am at the train station knitting a thumb gusset anyway. Then, onto the second!

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Some small crimes were committed in knitting the second and I had to rip it back and go again… so here is the second on a train..

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And here they are ready for a short walk round to their new home.

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Plain but stretchy and delightfully warm.

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July 24, 2016 · 8:02 pm

Hand spun, naturally dyed, hand knit and finished

I have finally finished the colourwork jumper.

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The design includes beets from Kate Davies‘ Beet Heid tam. It’s a variation on her Neep Heid pattern.  I love her designs, though to be honest I can’t picture myself personally wearing many of them (which is just not the same question).  And, I tend to knit simple. I am a long time reader of her blog: she is a lovely writer too.  But this application of her design is all my own strange idea, with the jumper knit–or at least I tried to knit–to measurements from one of the recipient’s hoodies. I see on Ravelry that one person has been moved to knit a neep cardigan, and there are a massive number of tams too, neep-, beet-, acorn- and radish-heids among them.

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I’ve knit this jumper for my fairy goddess son, who is a true admirer of gardening, vegetables in general and beetroots very much included. Those who are curious about the dyeing can find a bit of a summary here.

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He is a lover of colours too, and when asked his favourite colour in my hearing at any time, has responded ‘the rainbow!’ with a huge grin.  I knit this jumper from the fleece of a sheep called Viola and all these colours are from plants with the exception of the deep beet colour and the pink, from cochineal. I admit this rainbow is not exactly classic in colour and the woad colours are very pale in the zone of blue and indigo!

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I loved having so many colours to play with but took advice from one of my knitting companions in Wellington and kept the neck and shoulders simple.

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I dealt with the maths of the pattern repeat with some simple patterning under the sleeves.

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And now that it’s finished, I can give in to the urge to cast on all the small projects!

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July 10, 2016 · 3:42 pm

Work still in progress

Since I last wrote there has been sleeve knitting in an airport.

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Followed by sleeve knitting on a plane.

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Followed by good times with fellow knitters and crocheters who also happen to share my kind of day job and therefore shared a conference I’ve been at… and this meant I brought hand spun wool plain and strange to share.

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Some of it has already had a crochet hook applied to it and been turned into a substantial amount of shawl/cowl…

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Meanwhile, sleeves united with body far from home (and on the twelfth floor)!

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That moment when you decide to graft the seam between sleeve and body together…

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And a certain amount of visiting yarn shops.  My commitment to knitting handspun may have weakened a little… but as you can see, I’ve made quite a bit of handspun knitting progress.  So much that I may need to spin more grey yarn when I get home to finish this little treasure…

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June 10, 2016 · 12:35 pm

Slippers old and new

Warning.  This post contains many images created in poor lighting conditions! Apologies in advance.

Oh dear.  A much loved and well worn pair of slippers came back to me from a friend for examination. I thought I would have matching yarn but I really didn’t.  In the end I went for visible mending of this pair and also decided to knit her a new pair. #Menditmay I thought!

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Here they are about to be returned to their owner over breakfast (in May), with big mends in the heels.  The inside sole is black so these darns will be less visible when they are being worn, perhaps!  I cast on the new pair…

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The next step was knitting a new pair.  Two pairs for different people, in the end, and two dinners with associated felting (no end to the thrills when you visit us!)  With appalling photographs to match.  This pair are a rich purple and they are on a blue background, not that it shows.

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They went to a new home with a cherished friend who has been feeling the cold terribly.  She also scored these hand warmers, knit from the remainder of a ball of Noro sock yarn some time ago and awaiting the right moment.  They look better on!

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Then, my beloved negotiated handover of a small pile of pre-loved and partially felted socks that will fit my friend better than my beloved at this stage.  Some required running repairs.

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Some were too felted for anything other than brutal patching.  No way to knit a patch in.  Can’t find any stitches to pick up! Some of these socks were knit before I really understood the kind of yarn that was suitable.  But pairs like this, made from Bendigo Woollen Mills 8 ply alpaca, were such a hit among my friends I made a lot of them anyway.

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I’ve since had an email about blue socks being worn at Pilates class and a photo of my friend’s ankle as she heads out to dinner in handspun, handknit socks!  Too good.  These are the people for whom hand knits should, indeed, be made.  And finally, the friend whose slippers I was darning at the top of the post came over and I felted her new slippers to size.  She arrived wearing hand knit socks… perfect!

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