monkeys and fish

I've decided to send a small box of toys to Little Sprouts this year and I've started with some sock monkeys like these ones. I've now used up all my sock monkey making supplies so it's with sadness - but also relief - that these guys may be the last that I make.

To improve my toy making skills I borrowed Stuffed animals : from concept to construction by Abigail Patner Glassenberg from the library. You can find Abigail's website here. It's full of good advice, tutorials and some free patterns. The patterns in her book are also available to download here. I thought I'd start with the fish because it looked fairly simple but I struggled with some of the details and had to modify the design to get it finished. In the end it turned out ok. And I learnt a lot - always a good outcome.

Other things this week:
I cleaned out my supplies cupboard and have three cardboard boxes of stuff to donate,
I attended my son's graduation ceremony - a proud parenting moment,
I received a lovely handmade mothers' day card from my granddaughter who wrote under her name "2018 age 4" and
I ate my very first poke bowl.

I hope your week goes well. I'll be away next week visiting my mother-in-law who recently passed her driving test to renew her license. She'll be celebrating her 94th birthday next week.

Reading: Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall (the queen of crime) and Per Wahlöö - the first book in the Martin Beck series. First published in 1963. Swedish crime at its best.

cake and elephants

It's the middle of the feijoa season and we have an abundance. We've been giving them away to neighbours and workmates (isn't everybody at this time of year?) but still have too many. If you're in the same situation you might like to use some up by making this recipe for ginger and feijoa cake. It's delicious, moist, easy to make and uses up 500 grams of feijoa pulp. It's good with lemon icing and might be even better with the addition of walnuts.

I was hoping to have a small herd of elephants made but I'm afraid there's only two. I used this free pattern.

Reading: I've just started The last hours by Minette Walters. It's set in Dorset, England in 1348 and tells how the lady of the manor and her serfs survive the plague. Lady Anne is progressive in her ideas about equality, education, religion and healthcare possibly because Walters is writing from a modern perspective. The characters are (so far) predictable. The book is unbelievable but I don't want to stop reading it.

Watching: Wild, wild country on Netflix. This is a documentary series about guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and the commune he established near the tiny, isolated town of Antelope, Oregon in the 1980s.

works in progress

It's wild and blustery day today. This is our first "significant winter storm" and the end of a lovely, long summer. Interestingly, today, as this storm blows in, New Zealand commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of its worst maritime disaster, the sinking of the inter-island ferry, the Wahine.

I have some things in progress to show you. I'm knitting another puerperium baby cardigan like these ones (here and here). But this time it's guilt-free knitting as I finally purchased the full pattern - Beyond puerperium - that goes from newborn size up to 2 year-old and includes 4-ply, 8-ply and 10-ply yarn options. The puerperium must be one of the most popular free patterns on Ravelry and I've wanted to acknowledge Kelly's generosity - by actually buying the pattern - for ages.

Plants are always works in progress, if you think about it, and I recently re-potted my ficus. This is my indoor plant success story; it's still alive - and flourishing - after being in my care for a whole year. I'm also very proud of the spider plant that I grew from a cutting. I love propagating plants - so easy really but so rewarding too. I have a few other cuttings ready to be potted up: another spider plant and some succulents and cacti.

The elephant is really just a spur of the moment try-out of a pattern I found. More on that next time.

Drinking: red bush (rooibos) tea

Listening: Border trilogy (podcast) on Radiolab - the background story to USA's protection of its southern border with Mexico

drops

Another bundle of baby things ready to deliver to Little Sprouts. I think I've already posted about most of the makes but what's new is the grey striped merino baby wrap like this one and the pink singlet. The singlet is knitted in the round - I used a baby merino yarn - and has a button opening on one shoulder. It's a free pattern from Drops Design available here and on Ravelry.

Other things

• quilt
• play mat
• crochet blanket
• sock monkeys
• puerperium cardigan

 

I'm pretty keen on Japanese sewing books and own quite a few even though I have never made a single thing from any of them. I recently discovered Easy cute straight sewing by Yoshiko Tsukiori. It has 27 designs for dresses, jackets, pants, tops etc but comes without printed patterns as the construction of all the garments is based on straight lines (mainly rectangles) so you simply follow the dimensions and draft your own. Unfortunately it seems to be available only in Japanese. The diagrams are sufficiently detailed so that you could probably work from them without the text. However I have found a useful free, printable PDF list of common sewing terms translated from Japanese into English here on the Japanese Sewing Books website - which also has a cute Instagram feed @japanesesewingbooks and reviews (with flip-through videos) of many, many Japanese sewing books. I'm not sure if I have the confidence but I'd like to think I could wear some of the very oversized and loose fitting garments from this book.

marbles and monkeys

Marble painting - drop a marble into paint, roll it around on a piece of paper on a tray and - ta-dah! - art. We had hours of fun with this book, Recipes for play: fun ideas for small hands and big imaginations written by New Zealander Rachel Sumner. Loads of simple ideas for pre-schoolers.

Sock monkeys - done. Pattern for cutting layout here. Variations - including the cute folded ears - alternative layout and detailed construction method with photos here. I'm especially fond of the plain grey one which I thought might turn out to be a bit boring.

Reading: The stranger in the woods by Michael Finkel. True story of Christopher Knight who disappeared to live alone in the woods for twenty-seven years.

Watching: The witness - documentary about Kitty Genovese who in 1964 was stabbed to death on a New York City street while, apparently, thirty-eight people witnessed her murder and did nothing.

fine spells

A short, quick visit to the Waikato last Sunday - in the rain - to catch up with some friends and see their new house near Cambridge. It's a long house so most of the rooms get that wonderful view of the river. We stayed the night in Hamilton - pre-dinner dessert at Duck Island, dinner at Dough Bros, and an excellent breakfast at Milton's Canteen (great name for a cafe in Hamilton, don't you think?)

Some new fabric - a couple of "vintage" prints that I'm very pleased with, a couple from Spotlight and an impulse buy of bright blue linen from The Fabric Store. All fabrics washed and ironed and ready for sewing.

And, in a moment of madness and for no reason whatsoever, I made a rabbit. The pattern and instructions are in Made for baby: cute sewn gifts by Ayda Algin.

Reading:  
The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance (a memoir) by Elna Baker. Baker is a Mormon living in New York and looking for a husband. She goes on a diet and only after losing a huge amount of weight discovers the miseries the world inflicts on fat people.

Urban jungle : living and styling with plants by Igor Josifovic and Judith de Graaff

gathering

+ Beatrix Potter books that I'm slowly collecting for my granddaughter
+ hat made by me - Patons Dreamtime merino 4 ply, pattern from Patons Natural Baby (book #1315)
+ bodysuit from Nature Baby
+ bunny made by me - designed by Lorraine from ikat bag. Pattern here
+ tiny merino socks made by Michelle Beattie

I'm in a little bubble of new babies and pregnancies - my children's friends, my friends' children and nieces and nephews. Exciting. I'm busy making and gathering gifts.

Reading: One shot by Lee Child. I know, another Jack Reacher ...