six and a half stitches

PRACTISING TO DRESS

I am not a dress person. Really I'm not. I don't have the body, or the stature to carry dresses off. Give me a skirt anyday. Skirts, I can do, without thinking. Dresses - well, they require thinking. And coordination. And possibly heels. Or they do with my legs anyway. But I so did want to try a dress, and just see, for once if I could do it....

And I can. Just. I think. A beautiful soft very fine grey worsted wool, and a pattern from Robe Rouge. The hem refuses to iron flat - it will have to wear itself flat. It is very comfortable, and warm, and looks fabulous with one of Martha's volumetric scarves. I'll have to practise wearing it. Around the house maybe. Before going out in it. It seems terribly grown up. And I'm not sure I'm ready to be that grown up.

Piccolo Coniglio

Piccola 70.

A little Kit70 in Lamb Linen for Pia using leftovers from the short pullover. The perfect left over* yarn project. It is finished with 2 little black rabbit buttons made of horn (decorative only) from Linnet, and large press studs inside holding it together. The neck, Oh God! the neckfold is just beautiful on her little soft neck, and the fabric is so soft. Every time the Short Pullover comes out, Pia wraps herself in it and pretends to put herself to sleep with it over her, or to do the same to her dolls, so I hope she'll like this just as much. Worn with a dark denim skirt, or with the grey (or grape for that matter) linen circle skirt, and her new black shoes and cream cable wool socks, this is going to be one stylish girl. If I do say so myself.

* This would have been the perfect left over yarn project except I ran out of left over yarn, so ordered more 'left over' yarn. And over ordered beyond belief, so now have even more 'left over' yarn than when I began....

TOTALITIES

Slow waves of rustling paper, whispering gently as you knit. A field of wheat laid before you with a gentle breeze blowing through. A blank piece of paper, waiting for the brush of ink against it, for text, letters, words, numerals to be drawn across it, and a manuscript of the garment written. A weight, barely perceptible, but there none the less. A colour, rich in depth, drawing into it's deepness through simple textures, shadows which are cast, the void spaces between stitches, the light which falls through it.

I am getting to know this piece (Chinese Pullover in Shosenshi linen paper) very, very well. I've started it. And started it again. And started it again, not quite getting the width right, faltering between two ideals of how it should look and it's shape. In the end I've stopped trying to 'make' it and have tried to let it make itself. I wont even pretend I am being successful at that, but I'm trying. The quintessential philosophy for dealing with Habu. Let it guide and let it become what it needs to become. I've been thinking about this all morning, after reading Jane's post about her fledgling Habu affair. I have paraphrased some of my comment on that post in parts here, because she got me thinking, and today, apparently, I am verbose. Jane mentions hysteria - hysterical calmness which envelopes and I think one of the things I love about knitting with Habu (perhaps we can make that a verb - to habu) is it's effect on how you knit. There is a slightly hysterical trance of 'oneness' when you habu, a connection to the fibre and the process of creating another fabric with it as you knit, how it feels and moves, what it sounds like, and what the final piece might feel like on, wear like, or behave once movement is applied to it. It is totality of project - sensory in every respect, and one which, from past experience with both lamb linen and stainless steel, continues well past the knit experience. You can't not delve within it's depths and be carried away with it. You can't not become absorbed with the play of material, and the feel of each stitch through your fingers.

Once again I am loving this process of making. So totally opposite to some of the other things I am doing - my dichotomous affair with texture continues.

TIME

I've been staring at the computer all morning willing a post to arrive with eloquance and flourish. And it hasn't. So I think I will take that as a neat little message to stop, relax, enjoy the silence of children away, and have some time to myself to finish sewing, finish knitting, and enjoy new fabric purchases.

And because it is Vessel Wednesday, A small, delicate, fine porcelain bowl by Mud, against Nani Iro fabric, soon to be a dress for myself.

BACK TO MY CHILDHOOD

Welcome to my childhood. The one of living between two cultures. The one where I was different in small ways - some of my language was different, my pronounciation was different. My clothes were different and my toys were different. No doubt there were many times I wished I was just like my friends, and had the same toys as them. But I didn't. And oh how grateful am I for that now as an adult and looking around at what is avialable for my children. I have been surprised through my journey as a mother, what I find most compelling from my childhood. There is so much I would like to re-create, and if I can, then I will. Not to try and capture something which no longer exists, but because I agree with how they were done, what they stood for, the meaning they had in our lives, or the enjoyment we got from them.

There are a number of toys and clothes items which I would love to have again for my children. Some of them no longer exist, but occasionally I come across something and leap across and get it. I grew up in Clothkits - that epinonymous british company selling clothes and accessories for the whole family in kit form - beautifully screenprinted fabrics ready to cut and sew together, the pattern pieces part of the screenprint and often with smaller scaled version of the clothes printed in left over space for dolls clothes (I mean, how wonderful a thought is that!! I used to love it, I can tell you, to have doll clothes that matched mine). I can remember pouring over the catalogues. It seemed an incredibly tangible connection back to a land I no longer lived in. It seemed also to stand for everything I understood England to be, and to a large extent still is. It is a country which nurtures small business, particularly those businesses steeped in traditional craft based industries. Clothkits was born out of the same stable which produced Designers Guild, Habitat, Heals, The Body Shop. A love of crafted items and a chance to mass produce but retain a sense of compassion and design aesthetic and quality. Clothkits as it was went out of business in the lat 80's....

But it has been reborn. And thanks to the kindness of one person who let me know about it, I can now have some of these pieces for my own children. They have just relaunched and their collection is very small and nowhere near as detailed as it used to be. I am unsure at this point how their business has launched, and what ties they have to the old Clothkits. I am wary, I have to say, about expectations of living up to what Clothkits used to be. But in the meantime we are enjoying the pieces we have ordered. Skirts, a dress, and, of course, the staple, a Cloth Kitty Kiki doll and kimono top. I will in due course go forth and buy all the outfits as they become available. It is the only decent thing to do really. For Kiki. She needs clothes. And for Pia. Who likes to take them off.

WAITING FOR A MOMENT OF QUIET

After a day of constant computer and internet problems (guess who's spending this week backing everything up externally just to be safe) and much frustration, not to mention family visiting, food to cook, atrocious light for photographs and fractious children who wont cooperate.....the shop is finally updated.

And fresh white flowers in the bedroom are always a good idea. Maybe also some Diptyque Geranium Rosa burning essence.

SUNDAY LATE AT NIGHT

The first of a few shop updates - Sunday April 13th at 10pm AEST (which is about 2pm Paris time, and about 1pm London time). A small collection of pieces in a limited run of fabrics and sizes, with different pieces to follow shortly.

EXTREME EXTREMELY

I feel like my little world is bathed in extremes at the moment. Deliberate explorations of colour and texture, opposed, contrasted, and all joined in what is a very detailed and exact series of things I am working on. Not necessarily precise, but all very much at the heart of how I am at the moment.

On the one hand - Extremely tactile textured pieces - the brush of woven wool against the skin, slightly harsh but tempered with cashmere and silk: the soft basket weaving texture of Silk Gima and large timber button, bold in it's description of stitch pattern: the gentle rustling of Shosenshi Paper [pictured above]creating what could at once be a Hawaiian hula skirt, or a walk through fields of corn: a tight knit weave pattern on a piece yet to be shown which is dense and very soft: dark deep colours, highlighting textural difference when worn together, their beauty in the sameness of colour but contrast of texture.

On the other hand - soft gentle pieces which flow and unfurl, cocoon and caress: A beautiful soft sock yarn from crazy4dyeing in Devil May Care colourway [pictured above] - not at all devilish, but more like spring blossoms, soon to be socks [the link to the actual pattern-for-purchase doesn't seem to be working for me] for it has turned cold and miserable: soft fine wools in a finer Concentric Circle scarf for myself, held together with a giant dragonfly button in silver - my dragonfly on a lilypad: snuggling with my children under handmade quilts to keep warm, and really thankful I put a warm fleece back to Pia's quilt because it is soooo soft and lovely.

Pieces all which somehow describe how I feel - alive. More alive than I have in months, and to touch, to acknowledge textural integrity as a part of living, that beauty can be found in that simple sensory act.

CURLS SUPPLIED

One can never have too many apron dresses.
Linnet fine, fine, linen almost like a cotton, with a Cloth feature panel front and back, and Linnet linen tape ties at the back.
Curls, models own.

DELICIOUS

I've been sewing for other people for the last few weeks - the shop, Enfant Terrible, etc that I needed to just take some time and make things for my own child. A simple little top, made with Anna Griffin Cherry fabric, from a pattern in this book. I've had this sitting in my To Do Pile for around 8 months (the fabric was very folded and creased I can tell you, used as a bookmark. Not something I'd recommend) and I faltered about doing it thinking it would be fiddly and time consuming, but in reality it sewed up very quickly and neatly and I'd like to make more.

Except.
Except for the following parts:
The bit where I decided I needed to make this at 10.30pm, and was very tired.
The bit where I was so tired I didn't trace the pattern correctly, hence the fact the neckline now sits on Pia's waist and adds new meaning to the phrase 'gaping'.
The bit where I didn't realise that till way, way too late.
The bit where in my tiredness and grumpy haste (it's about 11pm now) I just didn't think for a moment as I turned a pattern piece upside down on a fabric with a directional print......and now the back has upside down cherries. I realised.......at 12.15am.
I'm hoping it might fit her later in the year.
Perhaps.
Or not.
It's still a very cute top.

The pieces I did for Enfant Terrible are now in stock and I hope you take some time to have a look at them, and have a look around the shop too because Shana has put together a wonderful collection of pieces.

And finally, Erin at Design For Mankind has been putting together the most wonderful e-zine about design and designers. The third issue is all about inspiring corners of artists spaces and homes, and I'm featured in it amongst some beautiful wonderful spaces, and a lot of inspiring people.