hello

A few purchases - cotton fabrics, buttons and unbleached cotton yarn - from last weekend's Fabric-a-brac. It's become an annual event here in Auckland. Anyone can buy a table to sell fabrics and other sewing items with the proceeds going to Mercy Hospice. I usually go a bit mad at Fabric-a-brac so this year I tried to shop with intent - buying only items for future planned projects.

Also (but not from Fabric-a-brac) the winter edition of Extra Curricular. I like to treat myself to this local craft magazine. I like that its small and printed on nice paper with rounded corners.

And, finally, from the Cactus and Succulent Society biennial show yesterday a succulent I've been after for a while - crassula lycopodioides (aka watch chain plant) - and a lovely hand thrown planter (potter unknown).

I've been in a little crafting rut lately and I blame it on the crochet blanket I started here. Everything was going well until it came to joining the granny squares. I decided to hand sew them together and the task expanded in my head and became a major piece of work that I procrastinated over. I didn't want to start anything new until the blanket was done. So, to move on, I've set myself a daily schedule of sewing and that seems to be working. I now have the greatest respect for crocheted blankets - the ones you find in thrift stores that have a price tag of $15. All that work and time and yarn. I have since learnt that you can weave in the yarn ends as you go and join squares as you go and that there are many ways to crochet the squares together. Maybe next time ...

Reading: 101 Reykjavik by Hallgrímur Helgason (1996) described by The Guardian as "laugh out loud funny". The protagonist is an unemployed thirty-something loser who not only lives with his mother but falls in love with her lesbian lover. I'm sticking with this book (even though its not the sort of book I like) because it's set in Iceland and it's not bad.
Listening: Aftertouch by Princess Chelsea.