Shameless Self Promotion

Check out the front cover of the latest Creative Fibre magazine!

I love the way Jo formatted the article itself. Such a pretty photo.

(Photo Credit: Matthew Carr)

The Emperor and the Scarab

It's often hard to photograph a shawl in the way I like it, especially when I'm trying to avoid my head!
Luckily I found this old door, which is better looking (and much older) than my head.

The motifs in this shawl are inspired by my discovery as a child of an unusual caterpillar in the gum trees growing on most farms in our region. Emperor gum moth caterpillars look like fat green pin cushions - covered in multi-coloured dots standing proud on wee spikes protruding from their fat little bodies. The mature moth itself couldn't be more different. It is large, brown with vivid eyespots on its wings. Move over flashy monarch butterfly, this creature was so unusual, and it had been hiding in our gum trees undiscovered (by me) for years.

I messed with the moth motif a bit, and another unlikely insect appeared - a little scarab beetle with outstretched wings. Done. It took a while to get these motifs working - I tried enmeshing them with other lace motifs, but nothing worked. Eventually I realised these little beauties just wanted to be on their own, so they are.

Yesterday on Ravelry someone commented that close up the moth motif looks like an elaborate Mardi Gras mask, and she's absolutely right. That is another thing I love about working with lace motifs - a bit like kids looking at clouds.

Picot points are optional. Available on Ravelry 

4th of September, and a story about marmalade

Today is the fourth anniversary of the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence which started about 4.35 am four years ago, a day when the earth would not stand still.

So ... it was all shaky and crazy ... and shaky, and things fell over everywhere, including the contents of my pantry. Miraculously only two jars of marmalade broke when they spilled out onto the floor, and the whole sticky mess was covered in soy sauce. (To this day the soy sauce bottle is stored at the back of the bench and not in the pantry). Pretty lucky I thought - just two jars of marmalade lost. Not even one piece of broken crockery, which considering the violence of the shaking was pretty amazing. On the news Canterbury residents were told to take photos of broken items before they cleaned away the broken mess, so they could itemise each item in their insurance claim - even food products from kitchens. I didn't bother - two broken jars of home-made marmalade was hardly a tragedy.

Later that afternoon - a brilliant sunny spring day - I decided to calm my nerves by stacking two fallen chimneys worth of bricks on the path at the front of our house, while my kids frolicked inside and out (I'm so glad the ridiculous shaking didn't bother them, like it did lots of kids). As I was stacking bricks a little old lady (I mean that quite literally) pulled up in her bright yellow car and asked if she could buy some of my bricks. I told her she could have them, she was after all doing me a favour - what was I going to do with a ton of bricks. As I helped her stack them in her wee car she told me she was going to use them to build a platform for her wheelie bins. She also told me that her name was Daphne and that she already knew me because I was a friend of her older sister Margaret. Margaret is a delightful lady and a walking encyclopaedia of knitting techniques who I met through my weaving and spinning guild. What's more their parents used to live two doors down from me. We chatted some more and eventually she drove off to make her brick wheelie bin platform.

It continued to be shaky and crazy ... and a few days later Daphne walked in through my gate carrying two jars of freshly made marmalade that she wanted to give me as a thank you for letting her have my fallen chimney bricks. I looked at her in amazement and told her about my pantry and the soy-sauce-marmalade mess. She was better than an insurance company! She had replaced my marmalade within days, and it was so fresh it was still warm!

Later on I realised what that amazing stalwart woman had done. She simply carried on with life, despite the ongoing terror, set a large pot of boiling sugary liquid onto her stove and turned grapefruit into marmalade, even though the entire lot likely shook at least once or twice during its making, and risked the very real possibility of ending up all over her kitchen floor.

So, that's how I met Daphne.
And today on the 4th of September, quite by accident, I find myself making marmalade (and it hasn't been shaken ... yet).

The Picot Won

I like it, but I do consider picot edges, most nupps, beads optional - heck, when have I ever stuck to a pattern!

This pinned out really easily - just pinned the three picots around the main point and any picots that wanted to curl, and the neck edge. I don't block aggressively.

They are supposed to look like butterflies ... or moths

and the smaller one reminded me of the outstretched wings of a scarab.

Zealana Kiwi Laceweight in purple (Majesty?). A heavy lace weight yarn. (632 mts total)
Better photos when I have more time and the better camera.

Picot?

The cast off ...
To picot ... or not to picot ... that is the question.

I'm thinking ... to picot, maybe.

New-ness

New things!
New season, new growth and best of all, a new design!

I just love muscari (Grape Hyacinth). One of the first bulbs up at the end of winter (or very early spring, whichever you choose to call this season). I often accidentally dig these up in summer whenever I am weeding, and so I poke them in anywhere, as I walk around the garden, spreading their simple blue beauty.
Plants are early this year (but aren't they always?)

I only just got this rose pruned in time.
I love these Winter Rose beauties too, pity they flop their heads over when picked.

It's a howling Southerly today, but the Nor'Wester will be here soon enough to trick us all into summer.
And emerging from winter's tangle ...

and ... new knitting! How I love new knitting!

Minarets and Lace

Is finally ready and available for download from Ravelry.

A top-down crescent shaped shawl knit in lace weight yarn and a celebration of my favourite Estonian stitches. (no, I can't stay away from them!) The stitch motifs include nupps, lace flowers, gathered stitches and the very pretty Lily of the Valley motif. The combination of motifs results in the emergence of unexpected shapes - archways and minarets - and ends with a dramatic nupp encrusted lace edging. Knitting this shawl is pure Estonian lace knitting joy, but in a modern crescent shape.
A number of projects have already been finished and posted on Ravelry, you should check out the beauties my testers produced!