Norwegian Wood

We've been on a jaunt to Norway the last week. It was very very beautiful, and B was delighted to travel on planes, trains, boats, buses and all manner of transports. He also led by example in attaining ultimate relaxation.

New but vintage

So as previously stated, I bought some fabric at the V&A exhibition, some of which became a dress for my niece. Some became a dress for another girl-baby-to-be:

Same pattern, this time in 'Coral' with same lining. Excellently cute pattern.

I had a day off yesterday, again with both boys busy at work/nursery, so spent the day gardening/sewing/preserving artichokes. I finished this:

which is the shirt from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing, in fabric by Michael Miller. And yes, he does now have matching shirt & shorts :) Poor child. I have to say, I didn't much enjoy sewing the shirt and it isn't especially tidy around the collar, but it does look fantastic on, especially now that summer is about again.

The first free Friday

Its a long story, but B has had two Fridays at nursery (when he is usually home with me), meaning I had two Fridays to myself! Luxurious. The first Friday, I went to the V&A quilt exhibition, which was outstanding. I got a bit teary at the Changi quilt and was wonderfully surprised to see the transportation quilt at the very end. I have seen this quilt before, and it is a wonderful record of the women transported from London to Van Diemen's Land. This quilt reminds me of how lucky I am that I can choose to move between these two places as I wish, not as someone else commands.

Anyway, I bought some of their lovely fabric at the end, some of which ended up as this:

The pattern is the Itty Bitty Baby Dress from Made by Rae. Its a great, free pattern and looks super cute. I also got the ric rac from V&A - they sell everything in their amazing shop! This is for my new niece in Western Australia - hopefully it gets to her while it still fits. Speaking of babies - we are expecting another one at the end of the year, which kind of explains the crying at the quilt exhibition and the current lack of knitting. It'll be back, I'm sure.

Long Shorts

There has been less knitting than sewing going on here lately. For example - new shorts for B. (sorry about the first pic - I guess he's just movin to fast).

Based on a pattern from Ottobre, using Michael Miller's 'Zoology' print. I think these will last for some time - the elastic is too big (based on my guesswork rather than measuring) but hangs on thanks to cloth nappies :) My guess is by next summer they'll fit as regular shorts.

Deliciousness

So in my long list of imaginary posts, there are several about food. Spring produce has reinspired me to cook more interesting things, and so there has been a list of new hits and revived favourites. So, my current faves:

Raspberry Shortcake (pictured above): Apparently this is called Louise cake in NZ. Whatever, it is delicious (even if this version is blackcurrant, not raspberry). It turns out I was a little overzealous in my jam stashing, so there is a little extra to use up at this end of the jamming year - this is the best use of it! This was one of my favourite cakes as a kid, and just one mouthful takes me straight back to childhood.

Asparagus pasta: I came up with this last year in an effort to use all of the asparagus I was buying, not wasting the ends. With asparagus season on us again, it has returned to the repertoire with vigour. Basically, you take your snapped-off ends, take the worst woodiness off them, pop them in the base of your steamer to boil. After 5 minutes add some peas, and put the rest of your asparagus in to steam. Take it all off when your good asparagus is cooked. Blend up the ends, peas, some oil, herbs (mint is nice, or basil) and maybe a squeeze of lemon. Stir your pasta through with this sauce and top with your asparagus. Doubling down on the old asparagus there, yummo. You can lighten the sauce with some creme fraiche too, if you like.

Pancakes: So I found some buttermilk and bought it to make the American pancakes from Rachel Allen's Home Cooking (a new acquisition). They are totally delicious. I'll never use my old recipe again.

Corn Bread: In an effort to use left-over buttermilk, I made cornbread - great for sunny Sunday lunch, and I took some to a neighbourhood barbeque too, went very well.

My other experiment at the moment is getting a sourdough starter going. It all seemed to be going well, but now it smells - well, fairly unpleasant. And its stopped bubbling so much too. But fingers crossed.

Times a changing

So it turns out I haven't blogged since March. Which is in some ways surprising, both as I was sure I had posted more recently, but it turns out these were all imaginary posts, which are fairly common, and because in April & May we were back in Australia getting married. Which, as you can probably guess, took some small amount of time and organisation just prior to the event, and some celebrating just after. For those that couldn't be there, we had a fantastic day with glorious weather and lots of family and friends to celebrate with. These pictures give you and idea of what it (and I looked like). One of my favourite things of the day were the flowers - the florist (Cristina at Flower Flower) was absolutely brilliant and made something I love without me knowing what I wanted! And I love how they look on the cake my wonderful mum made.

Spring belle

I am getting oodles of joy from the ongoing delights of my Golden Syrup tins. Remember them?

Highs and Lows

There's been lots of highs lately...a great visit to Megan, a lovely visit from Katie & FB, a really good run with Jennie, Chinese takeaway with the neighbours, a trip to Woodstock farmer's market and sunshine on the weekend! There was also chocolate pudding (while nowhere near as nice looking as Laras, it was still tasty!), and anzacs - a little taste of home!

And some new knitting to go with the spring feeling - the colour in the pic doesn't do it justice, its a lovely spring green (RYC luxury cotton in Lettuce).

Unfortunately, after so many highs we are now in the midst of some lows, as baby is feeling poorly. Our washing machine is getting a good workout and I seem to have spent most of the day cajoling him to have a few mouthfuls of liquid, but hopefully he is now on the mend. And I have nothing but great things to say for the lovely nurse from NHS Direct that spent a good half hour talking to me this afternoon.

Grey Winter

Maybe its that the English winter has finally worked its charm, but I seem to be wearing, knitting and coveting more and more grey at the moment. Off my needles in January was this lovely Drops cardigan/jacket. Its knit with Eskimo, a chunky Drops yarn thats really just a big single ply. Its cosy, chunky, and just a tiny bit prone to pilling. To be honest, I've hardly taken it off. It goes with nearly everything (except my new red coat - it would look great if only I could squeeze my giant smooshy grey arms into the svelt red sleeves!)

Theres more info here (Ravelry link). Excuse the squinty face - there was real, actual sunshine here - we dashed to the park to remind the baby that such stuff existed, and took advantage to take some pics (I think it took me longer to take photos than it did to knit this thing!).

Also on my grey list - a new grey scarf (left overs from this jacket), a cool grey poncho/cape/cardigan thing from St Martins (love their stuff) and participation in the great grey swap of gorgeousness (who could resist?!)

delicate

Winter weekend warmers

Delicious! I feel slightly like an Enid Blyton character, but fresh crumpets on a cold grey weekend are perfect (if slightly time consuming - note the crumpet 'pancakes' that occurred after I got a bit bored!).

Anticipation

I can never bring myself to throw out these golden syrup tins, they are so lovely. At last - a use for them!

Baby sewing

So it turns out that sewing for babies has all the benefits of knitting for babies (small projects, rapid satisfaction, minimal body shaping, able to indulge in all sorts of cuteness) and all the benefits of sewing (much quicker than knitting!). And thanks to Ottobre magazine I managed to finally sew something cute and wearable that fits (even over a big cloth nappy).



Pattern: Dala Hast dungarees, Spring 2009 Ottobre
Fabric: Petrol fine cord from Dots n Stripes and a little Amy Butler lovely spottiness (I think it is Full Moon dots from the Lotus collection).
I see some more of these on the horizon...! (PS check out my shoes! Yes, walking now!)

2009 in Review: Words

So when I started this blog, I had an idea that it would be about words (books, mostly) and stitches (knitting, mostly). The stitches part worked out, but I rarely write about books. So when I thought about doing a bit of a review of 2009, one of the first things I wanted to talk about was books. I love reading, but I have a terrible memory for what I have read (particularly the name & author - I can remember the content pretty well), so hopefully this will serve as a reminder for me. And maybe suggest some new reads for you.
2009 was the year I really got into using the library. Brilliant. This means it was the first year of my life where I didn't do very much re-reading. Anyway, here are some of my favourite books that I read in 2009:

The Children's Book, A S Byatt: brilliant. Didn't want it to ever finish. A wonderful examination of the artifice that adults impose on children, and of a strange period of time. Includes very interesting discussions about the Arts and Crafts movement.

Outlander, Gil Adamson: Easy to read, great tale with a wonderful sense of place. Beautifully written.

Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley: My number one book of 2009. A re-telling of King Lear, set in modern rural America. She writes beautifully, and there was that great Shakespearean sense of dread as all inevitably collapses. I'm now reading Horse Heaven, another of hers, and while the topic is not something I'm especially interested in, she is a master of words.

Secret River, Kate Grenville: So close for number one - I can't stop thinking about this, even nearly a year on. Haunting, a brilliant portrayal of early Australian life.

Yummy Yucky, Leslie Patricelli: Fun book about all the things that are yummy and yucky. I love it as much as B does :)

Forty Signs of Rain; Fifty Degrees Below; Sixty Days and Counting, Kim Stanley Robinson: Nerdy trilogy about climate change and the impact on our way of life. As usual with KSR, the writing and characterisation are flimsy at times, but the ideas are great. I keep thinking 'why can't we just do that'....full of good, big ideas and a bit of hope.

so there are some of my top picks for 2009. I'd love to hear any of your top books that I could add to the list for 2010!

Ice Ice Baby

Snow fun at our place.

Remembering October

I just managed to get these pics from our camera (how lazy!), but I like how they remind me of the late autumn sunshine. And of all the delicious goodies in my cupboard.

Pants!

I knit these in November, and while there are a few things I would change if I made them again (higher at the back to compensate for cloth-nappy bum, elastic in the waist), they have been incredibly useful in our currently chilly climes. As you can probably see, they have had a lot of use and are a bit the worse for wear already, but thats fine by me!

Pattern: Drops Pants in 2 threads (Ravelry link)

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, reclaimed from a failed blanket project :)

A view of Christmas

Christmas: Isle of Wight with old friends and new friends. Yes, it was as much fun as it looked :)

Hope yours was too. Happy New Year

Celebrations!

Oh dear....I didn't realise it was so long since my last post! Anyway, time for some celebrations!

1. I got my registration to practice in the UK! After all these years.....

2. Thanks to this, I was offered (& have accepted) a promotion

3. I have only 2 more days at work until a whole week off with friends & family & food. And knitting.

4. Rage Against the Machine made it to the UK Christmas Number 1!!! I now have a few copies of Killing in the Name of, but really, can you ever have too many? Anyway, yay for rebellion.

5. I have the cutest baby ever. No, really, just look at that bum :)

There has been lots of knitting, sewing, baking, etc. Just not lots of time. Hopefully I'll do some catch-up blogging soon.

Evenley Wood Garden

Last weekend we visited Evenley Wood Garden for their Autumn Colour open days. True to their word, there was spectacular and sometimes surprising autumn colour:

And of course, plenty of leaves for little hands to play with.

I can't wait to see it in spring!

New Hat

Another lovely Drops pattern with yet another fantastic name - b16-13 Hat in 2 threads.

This is the second of these I have knit in the same yarn (leftovers from the cardigan I knit Mr B just before he was born in Drops Alpaca). The first was a present for the lovely, new Arlo - I hope it is keeping him cosy!

It is a lovely pattern, so quick to knit in the 2 strands, and it has earflaps with lovely cords on the bottom that tie it securely to his head so that it stays on for up to a minute at a time. He seriously hates having his hat on - unless you are out and there are better things to think about.

I still think this is seriously cute. There may even be more of these in my future.

A few weekends ago I went with my friend Caroline to Origin, the London Craft Fair, at Somerset House. Caroline had extolled the glory of Origin to me for a long time, and I was happy to find that she was right -it is a wonderful, interesting, inspiring and potentially expensive day out. I bought very little but came away with lots of ideas and thoughts.

My favourites:

Smith and Coates had some gorgeous baby and children's clothes from recycled jumpers, with sweet additions of handknit and crochet pockets and ornaments.

Jane Withers had a beautiful selection of hand and machine knit wares, with particularly gorgeous scarves. Yum.

Thornback and Peel had lovely handprinted fabrics - I bought some handprinted handkerchieves.

But I think the best bit was the people watching - the clothes! The hats! The shoes! To be in the company of so many stylish people....

Can't wait for next year!

Winter Woolies

Ok, Autumn woolies. But it is getting colder and baby needs a new jumper:

This is Five Fruits (ravelry link) by the lovely Oxford-based Amanda. Its a great pattern, although I didn't manage the 'five fruits' style stripes. Instead, I diligently used up my left-over Debbie Bliss Cashmerino scraps, and some Sublime Angora Merino. It was lovely upon finishing, if a bit fluffy. Now its a big fluff distribution mechanism. It looks a bit pill-y and worn after only one wash, which is disappointing. In hindsight, the Sublime yarn should have been knit at a tighter gauge. However, it does look super-cute, will fit for a few months at least, and I learned a few new things (like the hem). And, my baby is now toasty warm on those chilly autumn mornings on the bus!

Autumn Harvest

The allotment was pretty neglected this year, but we did manage a good harvest of borlotti beans. This is what has ripened and dried so far, and there looks like there will be more to come - good times!

To compensate for a pretty dismal effort in formal gardening, I've focused on hedgerow harvesting this year. Yesterday, we went out and found a bumper crop of haws, a last few blackberries and elderberries, horse chestnuts (only good to look at, but so pretty!), and sloes.