1/4 done

I have just spent a very pleasant hour or two, sitting in the spring sunshine and sewing together the first six panels of the Heirloom Cabled Afghan. Hurray, I am a quarter through this lovely blanket, and so far have enjoyed the process very much. I am spinning the wool as I go, and there is lots happening in each panel with the cables to make it interesting to work on.

I carefully blocked each of the six pieces as I finished knitting, and today I was so pleased that I had. It was very easy to sew together, each piece fitted perfectly to it's neighbour and I used mattress stitch to avoid seams.

I think I am about a 1/4 through this throw as well on the loom. I have used a chocolate brown 4 ply warp, and am using two different merino/alpaca blends in oatmeal and a grey/brown, both DK weight, and every now and then I am throwing in a shuttle or two of bright orange tussah silk. The weave is a twill, and its shaping up to be very tweedy looking....uummm I think I rather like it.

New Shoots

Would you like to take a ramble around the garden with me and see the new growth that is happening ?

Daffodils about to bloom beside my washing line.

These sweet peas seeds have just come through the potting mix that I planted in the egg carton. Dear little stems of green, what expectectations I have for you !

Our huge wattle tree, the flowers of which I cannot bring inside the house; they make me sneeze dreadfully, but their bright yellow clouds of fluffy blossom smell delicious.

The Datura Tree that is growing alongside the new rock garden. It's long flowers bloom in the summer and contain a very potent drug ( so I am told !)

Just a few steps away is the lovely Magnolia Stellata.

This princely Magnolia is almost ready to unfurl and produce a huge pink flower. It stands at bottom of our driveway, like a sentry.


These pretty and perky little polyanthus make me smile with delight each time I come home...they live at my back door.

Still Life

Two more pincushions.........apple and pear.
The beginnings of another ripple blanket. A very soothing thing to do, stretched out on the window seat with an ipod and a hot chocolate.

Fibre Arts

This is a little notice for all who live in Nelson and Motueka/Marlborough (maybe even Wellington) and read my blog.
On Sunday some friends and myself are having a market selling fabrics, yarns, books and crafty items from our stashes. Fabrics and wool will be coming out of their secret hiding places from under the beds, wardrobes and drawers in spare bedrooms, cupboards and (in my case) from under window seats. It is going to be a fun day and I am wondering if I shall be taking home more than I arrived with !!!
I shall try to be good, and stay focused on all the knitting and quilting that I have yet to finish this year.The fruit salad quilts for the granddaughters have come to an impasse, and I have several more weeks of quilting to do on Tristan and Sylvia's quilt, and Melissa's. I daren't confess to all the knitting projects that I have on the go at the moment, but that just seems to be how I work the best. Are any of you the same ?

weekend activities

Saturday morning saw me becoming all hot and bothered, as I wrestled with some large , straggly and very thorny rose bushes. My mission was to prune a circular bed of 25 or so ancient and gnarly prickly roses. I have roses all over the garden but this particular bed always leaves me procrastinating on the pruning and weeding. You see, it's not very manageable and after an hour or so I gave up and worked on my new warp in the studio.

Oh, and cutting lots of fat quarters to take for our Creative Fibre stall next weekend, a much more pleasant activity.

Sunday morning saw me at the same place in the garden, but this time DH was within earshot (he was pruning the feijoa trees) and heard me muttering away. A very fast, impulsive decision was made on the spot and by late afternoon that pesky flower bed was no more !

Instead I have a lovely rock garden. The roses are all intact and replanted, tucked in with compost and a kind word or two, and my amazing DH staggered around placing 55 very large rocks ( that he had been saving for another project) to make a rock garden with terraces.

I will take another picture in a couple of months when you will see flowers amongst the rocks. There are four terraces grouped in a fan shape, and it is all going to be much easier to look after.

While Ian was working like a trojan, I had a meeting with some Morris Dancers. A newly immigrated couple to Nelson is wanting to set up a side of Morris Dancers and they needed a fiddle player ( me) .Well, I had a lot of fun for a couple of hours and really would prefer to join in the dancing instead of playing the music, but maybe I will have a chance to do both as the group is set up. We are all getting together again on thursday night. My first encounter with Morris dancers was when I was sixteen and staying with my family at Corfe Castle in Dorset. We were having a holiday in the UK visiting all our relatives and saying our final goodbyes to my grandparents. It was 1972 and the Morris dancers were all young farming lads. I got to meet them later with my slightly older cousins, in the village pub !!

The blossom is starting to appear now in the garden and the first camellia.

I finished the weekend transplanting these lavender cuttings and making another border. Very enjoyable and satisfying.

A pink pear pincushion

Another pear pincushion. I like this design by Heather Bailey.

As well as having room for lots of pins it serves as a needlecase too. The leaves at the top of the pear are felted and plenty thick enough for several needles.

Coming into Spring makes me feel more energetic. I am wanting to spend more time outside in the garden, and going for long walks by the river or the beach. I am in a hurry to finish projects that have been hanging around far too long, so that I can start new ones.

I want to eat lots of healthy green food in stir fries and salads, drink more water and breathe all the delicious smells that are coming into the garden,

and delphiniums....lots and lots of delphiniums, sweet peas, and hollyhocks and larkspur this year...I can hardly wait !

Seeds and Cuttings and a Pear

This is why I have been a bit quiet on the blogging front lately.

I have been pulling old buxus and lavender bushes out of my garden and taking cuttings from them to make new edges on the front garden beds.

Oh, and planting seeds too, in recycled egg boxes that I can dig straight into the vege patch when the seedlings have grown.

I have been pruning roses and digging in lots and lots of mulch and compost to be well prepared for the spring. Daffodils are starting to appear and I am enveloped by the wonderful perfume of the daphne bush every time I go outside.

Yes, it has been quite an eventful week really, starting with waking up very late last Sunday morning down the Sounds, throwing open the curtains to this view.

Very " Mists of Avalon" I thought, but later the mist lifted and this duo of black swans swam into the picture.

A magical morning.

I have also been cutting fat quarters for a craft stall that our Creative Fibre friends are having soon and I decided to make a pear pincushion from a Heather Bailey design.

This was a bit fiddly to make, but I can't wait to make more in different colour combinations.