It is stupidly hot here. We’ve already had our hottest average national temperature ever and the hot spell has not even peaked. And yet I still go on preparing for our Yuletide celebrations. I’ve been baking gingerbread as we do every year. I’ve been crocheting winter plants from other lands to decorate our lounge room. […]
Sometimes I find knitting a bit of a slog. I know as spinners and knitters, we laugh at time, but really sometimes knitting just feels arduous and interminable. It can take a long time to get any where useful. But when I knit lace, something curious happens. It always starts awkwardly with counting and recounting, […]
Just like all material artifacts, yarn can be read as a text. We read the landscape that has given rise to the wool fibre when we encounter bits of grass and other vegetable matter trapped in our yarn. We read the creature who grew the fibre when the sheep breed is identified on the ball […]
All through the winter we had good rain and some sun. The dill, coriander, kale and chard flourished and in spring, the poppies burst into happiness. Now, as I wait for the zucchini, corn and cucumbers to grow and flourish, I am also waiting for the second harvest of those winter and spring crops…seeds. I […]
dye | knit | spin
departures
Thank you for your comments on my last post (in)visible mending. I read them all but did not manage to reply…the last couple of weeks have been rather fulsome and I’ve been needing to rest more. Normally, I am a utilitarian maker, I make things to be worn or used, I make practical, durable things. […]
I profess to loving the ideas behind visible mending much more than the actual look. Whilst I have been known to sew a colourful patch on a child’s worn out trouser knees, I certainly don’t want my own clothes to look patched, even creatively, even to draw attention to the political act of mending. Particularly […]
Some projects seem to take forever. This one I began in January 2018 as a summer make. Two summers past before it was finished and a third is on its way as I am just sharing it with you now. This linen and wool blend top is knit from Yoko Johnston’s Ginga Top design in […]
One of my favourite places in the whole world is my back garden. It is a place to be curious, gently industrious and still. Small amounts of effort, reap bountiful rewards over time. Seeds are sown, seedlings planted out, plants are watered, tended and observed, produce is harvested and seeds let to set for saving. […]
Woosh…and school holidays ate two weeks in a flash. I did get a small thing finished in the holidays. A small thing made of smaller things. This is a toilet bag for Our Dear Girl made from paper-pieced hexies cut from vintage sheets. I bought a packet of these from a tiny wee shop in […]
Follow my blog with Bloglovin What do you write on a day of global climate action? In the Australian Guardian today, Australian academics published an open letter which I am excerpting below. It says everything I want to say. The science is clear, the facts are incontrovertible. We are in the midst of the sixth mass […]
