I started writing a pattern with this yarn last week. Its Blue Sky Alpaca dyed cotton and its heaven in a ball! I feel like eating it, its so delicious. The colour is so gorgeous and fresh (difficult to photograph). The cotton is incredibly soft and lustrous. Heavenly.


My creative mess ... happiness is ...



I included a couple of sketches, the later is for the 'feather in her hat' design.

beautiful beautiful

While we're on the subject of beautiful things ... Irene Suchocki photographs ...

laura normandin

I was just sent a link to Laura Normandin's website ... to check out this beautiful hair embroidery ... thought I'd pass it on

Cardigan Completed

A week later and its finished ... not a typical turnaround for one of my knitting projects. Although this was a super easy knit. I was knitting a scarf from this yarn and while the yarn was beautiful I just wasn't excited by the scarf ... So rather than push forward I unwound the metre of scarf that I had knit and created this for my newly born niece, Mary.
Pattern: Baby bulky aysmmetrical cardigan
Yarn: Debbie Biss Cashmerino Chunky, 3 skeins

Thursday Printday

Thursday is my printing day ... I love the idea that I may be acquiring a routine. Travelling with my film work throws all routines out the window ... so nice to be inviting them in for tea instead! East London print studios has printing sessions on Thursdays and Saturdays ... and as I would prefer to be sociable with my working friends on Saturdays ... Thursdays is printing day. So first of all I dusted off an old design of mine called 'toitoi'. Inspired by a Native New Zealand plant with the same name.

I also reprinted the teacup tea towel print with a different colour combo ... 'i'd like to welcome to the stage for the second time this week, sarah's favourite colour combo ... pale blue and red'

Something delicious arrived in the post today also ... The Alabama Stitch Book ... filled with luscious ideas for embroidery on old tshirts(etc.) ... see the following beauties:

A very good day

This day ... on the other side of the world ... a wee girl was born to my sister ... her name is Mary ... named after my mum ... today was a very good day.

On this side of the world, her Aunty was not only overjoyed by the news of her arrival ... but she was also blessed with some lovely moments with lovely people. First let me tell you about eco annie. I went to her shop today and met her and her lovely sales assistant. The store was filled with the most amazing yarns. The one above is one that eco annie produces from London's unwanted clothing. The one below is one that pakucho produce. Its spun from naturally coloured cotton.

Its so soft and such a beautiful colour. When you read this dyeing for a change report you realise the cost of coloured textiles to our environment. I got a bit of a shock really. And for someone who is constantly dyeing, printing and painting textiles ... I'm embarrassed by my ignorance. So its fabulous see people are working towards a change.

But one of my favourite moments of the day was when Andy at London Screen Services made a HUGE effort to deliver my new silkscreens for me, so that I could print with them tomorrow. I was completely blown away.

love and create

with left over pieces from my love letters printing session last year, i made a knit needle kit for myself. Very pleased with the result ... i like all the red on white linework next to the pale blue. I'm quite obsessed with pale blue and deep red. I feel a little boring admitting to that ... like a little girl who only likes pink and purple. I have brief romances with greens and yellows ... but ultimately return to the comfort of my beloved red and pale blue

a work in progress shot of my raspy jersey for my beloved ... yes there is a human that must compete with my deep red and pale blue love also

a teatowel with printed teacups printed at the east london print studios

this week i had the great fortune of having an induction session at east london print studios ... i am so delighted that I can jump on a bus and 15minutes later i'm in a fully equipt printing studio ... if i was ever wondering why i love living in London so much, i only need to remind myself that there are about 4 of these kinds of printing studios in london ... now i am creating an easy carry kit that will allow me a kind of studio-on-my-back flexibility ... hence i'm pleased to present the beginnings of my reworked-ikea-bag silkscreen hold all:

I may even embellish it ... although I quite like the simple patchwork of bright blue and white.

Chinese delights

I'm working on a project where I need to combine Chinese textile traditions with New Zealand flora and fauna. So I went of to the V&A to check out their collection. It was like being in a lolly shop ... I took about 160 photos ... unfortunately without a flash, in dimly lit rooms. Not that I'm complaining, I'm so delighted to have images however rough they may be. Wonderfully inspiring.

hello london

it was a fabulously productive and creative day ... and its not over yet ... afternoon tea shot of my ex-mental-asylum-window coffee table avec Miriam's teacup ... thanx Miriam its beautiful



A wee mending project I started ... quite fun ... extravagant colour combinations ... couldn't help myself.



Early start with a photo session on a beautifully crisp wintry morning around London city ... collecting street patterns ... fun.

dog trou

Some details of trousers I embellished with latex and paints for the NZ opera Trial of the Cannibal Dogs production.

dog's dinner

Ahh the wonderful world of the virtual ... where everything is so like reality that it seems it could easily be recreated in reality ... except when it comes to knitting a dog in different coloured yarn. See above for doggie virtual and below for doggie reality ... two very different things.

This collection of knitted bits was to be the big digger sweater. However, my barely-able-to-speak nephew decided he would like a dog not a digger ... egged on by his sister. Being the oh so dutiful aunty I drew a picture of a wee doggie and photoshop-ed it onto the scanned knitted back. It seemed so very easy ... until I started actually knitting the thing!

how its done

Miriam and Phillipa showing me how its done. We are working on a NZ opera for the International Festival of the Arts ... The Trial of the Cannibal Dog

leather tooling

learning a new craft ... leather tooling ... this is the beginnings of my first attempt

Meet my new friends. They're so wonderful, I wish they would laugh at my jokes though. I purchased these a few months ago to help me feel more at home in the flat I was placed in ... I have truly loved having them here ... so amazing to watch them growing from little seedlings to fruiting plants.

needles still clicking

A friend asked me about how my knitting was going ... with work so very busy at the moment one would think there was nothing to tell ... au contraire. I have a couple of things to report.

One is that I have finished a project ... not the project I started but it is finished nonetheless. The starting block held the vision of a viennese shrug from interweave knits ... but the journey was fraught ... not only were insufficient quantities of the wool purchased ... it was the last hank of that colour run. Consequently the finishing line was a baby's blanket! Oops.
The second knitting report is that I am making a cute wee jersey (big digger sweater) for my nephew, Blake. I unraveled a cardigan I've been making for myself for the last 200 years or so, as I discovered that I was doing my Yarn Over wrong and the whole thing was way too short! So now its reforming itself into a child's sweater ... I think the yarn is happy about this ... as the inside of my knitting stash can be an incredibly boring place to be ... being worn by Blake would be a far more exciting prospect.

So both projects are very wibbly wobbly stories of knitting disasters and recoveries ... bit like working in film really.

wellytown

One of my assistant's at the moment is a very clever textile designer ... actually they both are ... but the afore mentioned has a range of products that are inspired by the fair city I currently find myself in, Wellington ... check out wellytown

as I mean to progress

Its going to be a fabulous year ... I can just feel it. The creative juices are flowing and the usual stress lock up seems a foreign and distant concept.

I love the beginning of a new year and the resolutions and anticipation of what lies ahead. I resolve to make it my most creative yet and anticipate many exciting opportunities ... and if this month is anything to go by ... my expectations will be realities ... cool.

Happy New Year!

Christmas on the beach

Despite wishing i was home in London ... Christmas in New Zealand turned out to be an unexpected treat. On boxing day the shepherd clan went to Oakura beach. It was a little stormy ... but the kids loved it nonetheless ... and their oh so grown up aunty thought it was pretty cool too!

shepherd's delight

And now for the sunset ... New Zealand is treating me well. Lovely to be spending time with family and soaking up endless days of sunshine.

Good morning

This morning's view out my Wellington window ... I think it was a sign ... it was a good day.