six and a half stitches

TREASURE FROM LEFT BEHIND SPACE

We use our back laneway - a left over from 19thC planning and one which I am ever so glad was implemented to begin with - as a second back garden. We meet neighbours there, the children play with other children there - they learn to ride bikes, kick balls, and it's the meeting point for motorbike rides. Our garage door is a very social place. The door goes up, the people come round.

At the moment it is also a gathering place for leaves, debris, petals and twigs, all washed down from recent rain and wind. There is a big silver gum tree next door, which has been dropping new leaves and small nuts, and I hastened to gather them for photographing. And all along the paths and roads are dried Bougainvillea petals in softest pink, the leaves incredibly thin and fragile, starting slowly to be eaten by decay. But in their decay, something beautiful and wonderful - angelic in colour and veining - is appearing.

I always watch for things under my feet. Perhaps today you will too, and you will come home with some forgotton treasure.

TO WEAVE A TEXTURE

Oh I do like a quick little project! Something to just sit down and do without thinking, and which has instant pleasure appeal. Something which comes together without struggle, which makes itself by being itself. And with a beautiful button, something fabulous for the neck, which is almost like a necklace.

When I first saw this pattern, in the cashmere it was written for, it had boldness and strength. I saw it again in a more delicate lighter wool at Splityarn, and it was elegant and soft. Here in the Habu Silk Gima, it has texture, structure, and a basket like weave which is pliable and moldable. It looks stiff, but is soft (and should soften with washing) against the skin.

And that button. What more can I say.

REFLECTED WATER DANCING

Today the light streamed through the living room, sunlight bathing the walls and the furniture. Not harsh like in summer, nor faded and quiet like in winter. A wonderful calm warmth, as autumn approaches and the sun still has depth and richness without the burning heat. I love watching shadows and light move across the walls, catching pieces of glass or white ceramic in it's path. I love the shapes and colours, the refractions of light as the light dances through water in a vase.

The vase holds a large white magnolia flower - a big round heavy glass bowl, and the flower fills it. As the day moved on, the petals turned brown, the downside to magnolias, they don't last long. The petals tore at the ends, split open and burned by the light. The photo above is a refracted reflection through the vase projected up onto a wall behind it. A little ghost spirit of the sun, circles dancing and playing, moving and twisting.

I look at this and I find calm. For the first time in a few weeks I feel grounded and connected back to my day. Being sick caught me off guard and it's taken a lot longer to get back into the groove of my daily routine, something which always makes me uneasy. My energy has been drained, and with it my confidence. This week has been better - more affirming. My restlessness has started to once again turn to productive creating, and ideas which had stupefied have started working.

Today I sat and talked, and listened, and we ate biscotti, and fresh nashi pears with ricotta maple syrup and cinnamon and we lost track of time. In the most delightful way conversation can afford. A simple day, but a day of warmth and friendship, sunlight, and a chance to sit in my favourite chair, in my favourite corner of the house, and do a few rows of knitting.

CIRCLING

The circles are all done - a very tactile scarf - push it! pull it! - with circle details, made from wool weave, backed in cashmere, and with a pouf! of silk through a central hole. I've thought about it like frosting on a cupcake. I only did a couple, and they're available here. I'm also going to do some progressive shop updates over the next few weeks, something I'm working hard behind the scenes to accomplish, but I'll post dates ahead of time and what will be updated. In anticipation, I have reduced the remaining Tie Pants as well. Nothing like a clean slate to start afresh with.

LINE O 4

A line.
A circle. Or 4.

A piece of wool weave.
A piece of wool cashmere.
A piece of silk.
A scarf. *
A piece of 3dimensional sculpture, sewn.
A piece of tactile - rough, smooth, soft.

A time of looking at my circle obsession, creating those circles, making them into something to be seen, traced, pulled, molded, perhaps even stroked. Definitely for touching. Concentric circles, which concertina out as the piece hangs and moves, heavy enough to hold their place as well when folded close against the chest.

*Still looking at some finishing touches.

LEFTOVER USED

Leftover i - I bought fresh figs to have for lunch, planned initially to be eaten with some proscuitto, but couldn't find proscuitto I felt needed my money (there was proscuitto, but not proscuitto), so there were figs left over. After a nice little photoshoot, the left over halves were made into chocolate fig muffins, and they were seriously good. Gooey shots of fig seed paste against melted dark belgian chocolate in a light cake batter. Recipe at the end of the post. They were that good.

Leftover ii - I have been trying to use up fruit, vegetables and cupboard food more, particularly the fruit and vegetables, in readiness for our fortnightly order of organic produce to arrive on Wednesdays. I love it when the big box arrives, full of seasonal foods - the colours and the smells. Some weeks we're good at using everything up, and some weeks not, so I try and make an effort when I see there's abandoned stuff lurking. This week I made a large green curry, which was full of, well, large green vegetables and some left over roast chicken. I've loved eating it and it got better the second night, but I'm the only one in the house who enjoyed it. So there is now a large container in the freezer for my green curry craving nights.

Leftover iii - The Short Pullover used up 2 skeins, and a teeny smidge of a tiny bit of a third skein of Lamb Linen. [I'm sure if you knit it using the gauge in the pattern, you could really do the whole thing in 2 skeins]. When I did the Kit 70 last year, I had a few conversations with Kent about the whole piece and alterations and thoughts etc, and mused about doing it as a child's version. Kent's persistent enthusiasm for doing this, coupled with left over yarn, meant I sat while Pia slept and worked out a pattern based on hastily scribed measurements taken as we all got ready for school this morning. Cast on and knit, till there was not much time left over before the end of Pia's nap.

Chocolate Fig Muffins:
3/4 cup canola oil, 3/4 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1 1/4 cups flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2tsp baking soda, 1/4 cup cocoa (I use a very good dark cocoa powder), 1/4 tsp salt, 3 figs with innards scraped into bowl, a liberal dose of dark belgain chocolate coarsley chopped/flaked/crumbled/taste tested (quality assurance, you know), 1 vanilla pod scraped, or 1 tsp of vanilla bean seeds in glucose syrup (something I highly recommend in any pantry).

Preheat oven to 160 C (fan forced). Grease and line muffin tins - we always do an assortment of mini muffins and large muffins. Mix all ingredients together but don't overmix. Spoon into tins and bake till a knife comes out clean (about 10 minutes for the mini muffins, and about 20 minutes for the larger ones depending on your oven). Cool on a rack. Makes 6 large muffins and 18 mini muffins

CONTRASTING COLLABORATION

Slowly after a week in bed we're starting to recover, and thankyou for all the well wishes. I can't say any of us enjoyed that at all, but I did enjoy the Cornetto when I finally got one.

I got a moment of non-aching fingers and finished the Setsuko Torii Short Pullover [all links in this post]. It took till taking photos today for me to decide whether I might wear it or not at any stage post 'now'. In starting this, I had no real aim, or set desire for the outcome. I wanted to make it, and indeed there was that slightly aching need to make it, but also with a good dose of 'Genuinely Probably Never Going To Be Worn' thrown in, and that was ok, because the absolute truth is that I would have knit anything just to knit with the Habu Lamb Linen again and this project was very much in the basket of just-for-the-sake-of-knitting-it. It's a great little knit - it's quick, easy, and well shaped. The Lamb Linen falls through your fingers and creates a beautiful soft fibre. The colour is softness personified. And on the body? It hangs wonderfully, close and neat, with a little A-Line flare at the sides without being baggy. The neckline is refined and simple, skimming across the collarbone with a neat gash. It looks gorgeous with Ana's brooch nestled against it - two silver pieces contrasting and collaborating.

It is a calm pullover. Warm and soft. I actually can't wait for some cooler weather to now wear it, layered over fitted fine black knits and wool and cotton skirts of varying lengths. It will now always be worn with Ana's brooch, or another necklace by Abigail Percy. It definately needs silver.

I continue also to get immense pleasure out seeing the new photographic posts at 44timetwo. Sometimes they take my breathe away, and I am filled with such a warmth that I have had the chance to be part of something so beautiful with Charlotte. I hope you're enjoying some of the beauty and calmness there too.

CURL UP ACHING BODY

Everything aches.
My back aches. My arms ache. Me head throbs. My finger joints ache (that means, no knitting or sewing). My throat aches. I sound terrible. It's been a very long time since I was this ill, and a very long time since Max was this ill as well. We're all down with the flu and have been for days - a raging beast this time which has attacked hard. Being sick by yourself is one thing. Being sick with two children sick as well is another thing entirely, especially when family are a long way away (and on holiday) and husband needs to work.
We all just want to curl up and sleep.
And for some reason I want to eat Cornetto's.
Max wants to teach Pia to say Alligator.
And Pia just wants to cuddle dolly.

THE FINAL FOLD:THE BEGINNING FOLD

After a day digging up the back garden, or watching it being dug up and wondering about just why did the previous owners do that exactly, and comforting a sick child, and another one very much not sick and full of energy, and going to a children's party, I find myself without many words but enjoying looking at these pictures again. I took a whole heap of photos at the beginning of the year of Sumidity, and then again about a month ago of Pia wearing it and in each one she is cheeky, shy, laughing, moving, pointing her finger and having fun. I wish maybe she had stood very still for just a moment as I took the photo - a nice poised shot of her wearing it. But I ask a lot and she danced around me. That, I think is what sums this pattern up: a dance of a fold, a movement of fibres against a small child's body, turning and falling differently as they sit, walk, jump. The piece has worn differently to how I imagined it - unexpected outcomes, a more 3dimensional fold, which has life and character, strength and definition. And the fibres have softened as I knew they would.
I love it on her. And I hope if you make it up, you will love it too.
Pattern for Sumidity available now.

TODAY WE::

Today Pia wore:
White Bonds long sleeve undershirt
Mist grey Chambray linen gathered skirt with tie detail in Espresso Linen and White Screenprint detail.
Followed by:
Latte froth, apple and cinnamon muffin smear, Hot Cross Bun remnants (my bun, her smeared remnants) apple juice, miscellaneous dirt, water, more water, more miscellaneous dirt, dinner smear.