It was Christmas time and being New Zealand orphans living in London we didn't have the usual family obligations for our festive celebrations.

So it was decided that we would go 'somewhere'. Oh the fabulous destinations we toyed with ... Sardinia, Luxembourg, Rome. But the snow came down and the fabulous destinations list came down with it.

So where to go? Well fate directed us toward the Devon/Dorset coast, specifically Lyme Regis. My obsession with River Cottage meant I had Axminster (a nearby town) on my list of things-to-do-before-we-go-home.

And oh, what a truly wintry English holiday we had. Three days of fog, unable to see the country side or sea views we had read about. Three days of changing directions as activities we had planned (albeit planned earlier than morning) were thwarted by Christmas closing times.

But as to be expected, the clouds did hold some silvery linings for us and I have some wonderful memories of our foggy, activity starved holiday in wintry England.

One of my favourite being the walk on the pebbly beach, unable to see much of the sea at all, but instead inspired by the colours of the boats,nets and buoys so richly revealed by the low lying cloud. Still and cold it was like walking into a postcard.

A bright start

Yikes Audrey is almost 2 and I haven't blogged since she was born. So to begin again agin again ... alot has been happening, knitting, sewing, cooking, but I've been keeping it to myself. Time to change all that ... I've missed having a reason to take photos, so back to the blog.

How better to arrive back then with a photo of the Seville Orange marmalade I made a couple of days ago. A zesty brilliantly coloured preserve that has renewed my enthusiasm for marmalade. As to be expected I turned to Nigel Slater for guidance ... he is currently my kitchen hero. I love nothing better than reading and rereading his latest cookbooks, 'Tender'. The recipes are always a success, they're mostly quite simple and always delicious.

 

I've been busy ... knitting tea cosies and having a baby. The tea cosy was hard work ... ;-)

oui je t'aime la droguerie

Poor neglected blog ... prechristmas busy-ness and work demands have meant the blog has been ignored. There's some Paris photos waiting in the wings ... but until I get a little more than 15 minutes to sort them out they won't be moving. I have however managed to upload pictures of Parisian alpaca yarn transformed into a hat for my beloved. Finished last night at knit group.

The Parisian source was La droguerie, the most delicious lolly shop of yarns and haberdashery. I spent the first 15 minutes there with my mouth hanging open with shear delight and joy. I can't tell you how beautiful it was ... thought I'd died and gone to heaven. They have all the yarns in skeins hanging in their fibre content/ply sections on poles in a sort of industrial modern meets ye-olde wooden shelved hardware store. (I found a blog with photos of another La droguerie here). Once you have decided on the yarn(s) you want, an assistant then retrieves it for you from out the back of the shop in the weight that you require. All neatly wound into a ball.

As soon as I was off the Eurostar ... it was dpns out and a cable hat was created. I made up the cables as I went along ... generally enjoying the feel of the alpaca and the look of it winding into cables.

I'm planning my return to the shop already! Is it too extravagant to go to Paris just to visit one store?

its been a while ... almost a month. things are pretty busy around these parts ... there's been snow, falling leaves and much a do about markets, new contracts and new stores (more stores, more markets). all good. oh, and another market this weekend ...

Saturday 22nd November - Chiswick NCT Christmas Fair

10.30am - 4pm

St. Michael and All Angels Church, Bath Road, London W4 1TT

sketching bunnies

Perhaps I was inspired by Delphine Doreau at Non dairy Diary who's been drawing hens ... perhaps it was the kozyndan prints we have on our wall (this one and this one) ... perhaps it was that I had an idea to embroider some bunnies onto a quilt I'm working on ... anyway I now have a collection of bunny sketches, that don't really work, scale wise, on my quilt ... but I'm sure I can find a use for them somewhere. hmmm?

wellington wall

This pic was taken a wee while ago, in Wellington. I think its quite beautiful. I love the way a pattern can be unconsciously created.

First the bricklayer placed each brick systematically in its position, then the painter sealed the bricks with some white paint. But it seems that things did not stop there, more layers were attached and the wall performed its intended task of protecting its inhabitants from the elements.

Then the demolition team and perhaps the weather (it is Wellington after all), pulled away at the extra layers ... revealing a beautiful texture.

why i knit

I could let the picture do the talking. But I won't as I'm too thrilled at the wearer's appreciation of the scarf I knit her.

Nell is 5 years old ... just off to School. A few weeks before her 5th birthday Aunty Sarah looked through her yarn stash and collected up the most colourful yarns and made a simple scarf. After a couple of weeks the scarf was long enough to cast off. It had to be long enough to be 'grown up' and short enough not to drag in the mud.

A few days later Nell received the parcel in New Zealand.

Much to my delight Nell absolutely loved the scarf ...
"its 10 metres long Aunty Sarah!" she exclaimed over the phone
"10 metres long Nell ... are you sure?" her ever sensible Aunty replied
"oh silly me, perhaps I'll have to count again"
Her mum reported that a metre for Nell is one of her feet ... she had placed the scarf down on the ground and walked next to it to measure it. How cute.

So now Nell wears the scarf TO and FROM school ... not at school as she thinks it may get lost and she wouldn't like that. And each time Aunty Sarah calls she tells me that she's wearing the scarf. Brilliant.

How cute are these illustrations. They're from a children's book, 'Iggy Peck, Architect' (ISBN 13: 978-0-8109-1106-2) and the illustrations are by David Roberts.

I want to make clothes like the ones in his illustrations ... with all their stripes and patterns and colours.
I quite like this cushion also ... hmmm?

c'est beau

Isn't he beautiful. This little fulla was found while on a walk up to Lac de L'orceyrette. At the top of the lac there is a type of grass/marshlands where I took the following photo ... the colours were beautiful ... had to make a colour palette from it.
After spending the majority of our time in the Alps we visited a friend near Lyon. He lives in a beautiful rural area near his very hospitiable family. We were spoilt with their good food and company.

I was taken by this little road which resembled something of a patchwork quilt. Perhaps I'll design one inspired by the patterns on this road!

a weekend in the french alps

I've been away ... and it was lovely. Adam and I went to the French Alps for a friend's wedding. We went to Serre Chevalier and stayed in my favourite town there, Monetier.

happy shopping

Its sale time. Check out my shop for lots of savings.

onion teatowel sketch

The beautiful text sitting amongst the onions is by my friend Rachel Smith. Its part I of a two part poem ... stand by for the next installment. I hope to print this one on Thursday at the studio ... it needs a bit of cleaning up tomorrow but I pretty happy with it overall. The roots look a bit mushy and the text is a little hard to read in places ... oh and I need to put a capital T on the first word ... but these things aside ... its working for me. You'll need to click on the image to really see it.

tomato red

My first tomato! This big fulla has been hanging out on my tomato plant for AGES ... the weather hasn't really been warm enough to redden him up ... till now ... the last couple of weeks have had a couple of deliciously warm days ... and voila ... Mr Tom was able to show his true colours! He was absolutely delicious on a piece of Vogel's Soy and Linseed, with butter, salt, pepper and basil ... mmmmmmmm.

As I was going to St Ives ...

Went to Cornwall for the weekend. Tidy little villages meet wild and rugged landscapes. Inspiring.

Inspired by these coastal rocks ... the colours and the textures.

oh onion you are so beautiful

I'm embarking on a wee project with a friend ... which involves me exploring vegetables ... starting with the onion.
I love the way nature seems to explode as you look closer. An onion, a crispy brown skin encasing a whiteish greenish smelly cooking ingredient that makes you cry ... simple.
But start looking and its actually a pinky rust coloured casing with lines expanding through the middle and contracting at the ends. Peel this layer away and the most beautiful greens are revealed fading into white.

Then look at the peel ... and its actually

a fairy's wing?

There are so many nuances to the different layers ... some have an almost synthetic electronic quality with tiny surfaces reflecting light in different directions. While other layers are really matt and paper like.

And now for the nudie shot ... quite explicit really.

Italian surfaces

catch up

I've been ignoring my blog ... apart from the odd ssd product update ... there's been no photos of things that inspire me ... I guess I've been busy ... I guess its been summer(ish) ... I guess its time to start posting again. So lets take ourselves back two and a half months to our trip to Puglia, in Southern Italy. Ahhhh ... just thinking about it warms me up and relaxes me. The city rising from the sea above is Polignano a Mare.


These buildings are part of Sassi di Matera, an ancient town which began as a prehistoric cave settlement. Most of these buildings are actually the built entrances to caves.


The people in Puglia were incredibly friendly and generous. Especially in the towns were tourists weren't common. We were given fruit for free, people refused our tips, and generally people were very patient with our dreadful Italian.

in store now!

After much organising ... I'm online with my products ... yeeehaa! If you click on 'my work' you'll be taken through to my website where you will be able to see what I've been up to these past few months.

revealed

zukzuk asked to see the whole print (a showed a wee smidgen in June 13th's post). 'We three trees' ... a christmas design, not sure what I'm going to do with it for the next 6 months! Being summertime it felt like Christmas was approaching (I grew up in the southern hemisphere!).