marielle skirt

Right now I am happily riding the wave of my sewing mojo.  My Cambie is finished (a reveal will follow after the wedding I’ve made it to wear at next weekend), and I celebrated by starting something new, straight away.

Maybe this puts me in the realms of weird fan girl, but when I saw the Marielle Skirt on Tilly’s blog I knew I needed this skirt in my wardrobe.

The directions (even in a magazine which I guess might have been edited) were perfectly clear and lovely.  Somehow though my skirt ended up with the opening on the opposite side.  I don’t think I made any whoopsies and my fabric was the correct way up, but clearly something happened, not that it matters.

(There is a strange chicken v dog territory war going on behind me in these photos.  Penny tries to look for squirrels in the tress.  The chickens are unimpressed and charge her, trying to peck her tail as she runs away.  Chickens look triumphant.)

The fabric is some navy cord, and I lined it with a little cotton print I picked up somewhere.  Buttons are from my rescued/frogged Levenwick.

I love how this skirt is going to go with so many things in my wardrobe.  Penny likes it too.

silence

These days I am not as sociable as I used to be.  This past weekend was lovely, filled with loved ones and laughing and fresh air.  Every day I feel fortunate to have such wonderful family.  But suddenly now it is silent, and just as lovely.

This afternoon there will be quiet work in my office, with just Penny curled up behind me.  Chocolate cake.  Maybe a little seed planting.  Maybe a little snooker.  And definitely an epic, muddy hike.  (We can’t say the ‘w’ word around here anymore, it puts sweet Penny into a frenzy.  Soon that will happen for the ‘h’ word too and we will have to find an new one.)

sniffing out spring

So according to the calendar it’s spring.  The snow might have gone but I’m not so sure.  Penny and I went hunting for evidence.

A worm buddy!  I love worms.  I wish there were more of them in my garden and I’m working on it.  I picked this one up and put it into the grass, to make it less likely to be snaffled by a bird – is that the wrong thing to do?  It seemed grateful, I think.

Lambs!  I was getting worried, usually I can hear them bleating when I let out the chickens, but nothing so far.  Turns out they’re just in a different field this year, and all is fine.  I couldn’t get that close without spooking them, but the muncher above was totally uninterested in me or Penny.  Clearly the grass was too tasty.

My garden!  I spent the weekend in the front garden carrying out what felt like an archeological dig.  Clearing away 15 years worth of dead plants was a big task.  I found a rockery, paths, and these lovely daffodils which have been flowering every year under a mass of dead branches.  It feels like I haven’t even scratched the surface, but the two-car loads of weeds I took to the community recycling centre tells me otherwise.  (I am starting to make friends with the guys who work there.  I love too that they take away my weeds and stuff I don’t want to compost, and then give me free compost in return.)  I am utterly determined that this will be the year my garden will be returned to former glories.  I’ve heard that 15 years ago it was loved and a thing of beauty, but the previous owners obviously neglected it, and did nothing but cut the grass occasionally.

New plants for my doorstep…

This might look like a picture of soil.  I guess it does, really.  But right in the centre, that teeny tiny speak of green is actually a baby carrot!  I had one good carrot year back in 2006(?), and have had no success since then, struggling even to get them to germinate.  I have a good feeling about this year…

Out of the 100+ teeny seedlings in my greenhouse, this little cauliflower is my favourite.  Something about the way it stands seems so earnest, and it looks like it waves to me whenever I go in.  It’s so friendly.

Our local ice-cream man says that May is going to be a hot month.  It doesn’t feel like it, but he is wise and all-knowing, so I’m choosing to believe him and be optimistic.

crafting for the animals…and the winner

So…to the exciting thing first – the winner of the Dropcloth sampler, Yarn Yarn silk embroidery threads and possibly a couple of other goodies from the depths of my craft room.  Congratulations Nicola!  Your post was picked at random and I will send you an email in the next few minutes…  Thank you to everyone who entered x

And so back to usual business…the new chickens are settling in well, and I am most definitely head-over-heels in love with them.  These girls are much more active that our last lot of rescue chickens.  This is due to a change in the law for these kind of caged hens in the UK, who must now have (a little) more space, and a place to scratch and roost.  It’s better, but still not good enough in my opinion.  They have a some natural behaviour, but looked frankly amazed when I carried one outside for a wander.  Fresh air is something completely new for my girls.

And so the names – Lady Dorothea Featherbottom (Dotty), Scarlet o’Hara (Scarlet), WPC Polly Parker (Parker) and Duchess Mimi the Second (Mimi).  Here’s little timid Mimi.  I knit her a wee sweater as she’s in the worst shape physically and is completely bald on her belly.  She’s very pale and has been over-heated, so the sweater should help her adjust more gradually.  She seemed quite happy as I got her dressed, but a little less tolerant a few minutes later.  I’ll try it again when we put them outside, she’ll need it then and might be a bit more grateful!

Everyone in our house is getting new things this week.  Mr Saz and I treated ourselves to a fancy new mattress and bedding and it is lovely.  And so last night after the men were relaxing after getting the mattress upstairs, I sat down at my sewing machine and bound a little quilt for Penny that I pieced and quilted a while ago.

This is made from leftovers of a large quilt I’m making for the humans and as you can see above, is nothing really to be proud of!  But the top is a lovely soft cotton flannel, and Penny seems very attached to it already…

almost finished

March

How can it be March already?  This is proving to be a tricky month, filled with reminders of past awful events and my sadness.  I’ve wanted to appear in this space more over the last couple of weeks, but haven’t felt like saying much.  I’ve decided that for this month posts will consist mostly of photographs, and if I don’t feel like saying anything, I won’t.

Thank you for all the comments and emails asking about Penny – she is doing much better.  She has healed quickly and didn’t complain too much about her first encounter with toothpaste.  She also seems to have forgiven me for leaving her at the vet, and is back to attempting to kiss me at every opportunity.  She is so sweet, I love her x

So for today – photos of things I am enjoying, working on, and um…fixing…

january sampler

I’m not sure where February has gone.  How can it be almost over already?

Our house has been very quiet for the last few days and yesterday was filled with worry.  Penny had some surgery – nothing life-threatening or serious – but nasty and uncomfortable nonetheless.  I picked her up from the vet, drugged and unsteady, and was told that she’d needed 13 teeth removed, as well as three benign lumps under her tail.  We inherited her bad teeth when we rescued her, and now the dental work is complete I am armed and ready with brushes and chicken-flavoured toothpaste for when her wee mouth recovers.

And so as she lay slumped in bed yesterday, crying whenever I stopped stroking her head, I realised that knitting anything was going to be difficult.  So I switched to embroidery, which seemed easier to pick up and put down for when she woke up and realised I wasn’t there.  My little January sampler from the Dropcloth monthly sampler club got finished off, and I made a start on February.  Seems only right since the month is almost over, and soon the March design will be arriving…

 

handspun hourglass

This one took a while!  It started off as my Tour de Fleece project back in early summer, when I was looking for something to do with a big bump of pink shetland fibre from Jamieson and Smith.  My buddy Mel reminded me that our spinners guild has a drum carder for hire, so I jumped at the chance to play with a new toy…

I made many little piles of evenly divided fibre, carding the original pink shetland with bits of coloured merino, silk, and a purple merino/silk blend.  I ended up with a daunting pile of 15 batts for spinning, but they were little and I got through them pretty quickly.

I loved the finished result – 5 skeins of a DKish weight true 3ply yarn.  Rustic and wooly, but soft at the same time, with lovely subtle colour variation.

On the day the Olympics started, I cast on for a Hourglass Throw by Anne Hanson, from Wool People Vol.1.  I worked away slowly, enjoying every stitch, and spending more time spreading out the blanket and admiring it than actually working on it.  But then my life turned crappy and I put it aside, not picking it up again until a few weeks ago when I finally finished spinning the last batt.  I tried to cheat the yardage by adding an extra repeat, but I was beaten and had to cut short the final ribbing.

It’s beautiful, and perfect lap blanket size.  The problem I have though is that I put so much meaning into my crafting, associating everything I make with what I was doing or where I was at the time that I made it.  Every time I look at it I think to myself, ‘oh, it’s so pretty, it was so much work but totally worth it, but oh yeah, it’s what I was making when awful things happened, remember that Saz?’  And so, after I took photos of it draped on my mum last week, I left it with her, where it has found a very lovely and appreciative home, and where I know it will be treasured.

Also – thank you for all your nice comments on my last post about Penny’s jumper.  The pattern is actually called ‘Big Penny Sweater’ from the book Doggie Knits by Corinne Neisssner and is ravelled here.  As you can see from the photo above, Penny is Chief Protector of my mum.  I’m sure that my mum reminds her of her previous owner, and her love of her was instant.  Whenever we’re visiting she is permanently at my mum’s feet, and sneaks out of her bed to wait at her bedroom door in the morning.  Only when she’s sure my mum isn’t going anywhere, does she move a metre away to here -

I hope you all have a good week!

a walk with penny

Working flexible hours from home is truly a wonderful thing.  It meant that today, as I sat at my desk with a nasty cold, I could just dress Penny in her little jumper and take her outside to try and clear my head.  We’re also heading towards the shortest day, which means that here normal office workers get to their work in the dark, and then watch the sun go down from their desks at 3.30pm.  I know it’s worse in further-north places, but it feels pretty grim.  Luckily I can soak up more daylight than most people.

Spot the dog in the above picture!  Penny got a little overexcited at this point, I think she could smell her best dog buddy Buster, and ran off chasing the scent.

Also, while I am grateful that the winter has frozen the all the bogs (cleaner dog!), it does make things a little treacherous, leaving little ice sheets in places they shouldn’t be.

Despite my best efforts, Penny is yet to learn the command ‘stay still and look nice at the black thing your lady is pointing at you.’  She is a sensible dog and prefers to bury her head in bushes/tall grass/piles of rubbish.

I think Penny is one of the most contented dogs in the world.  She runs about like a loon in the woods, sleeps in my office as I work and chases away grey squirrels in the garden.  And when she goes to stay with my in-laws, she gets human food of mince and potatoes for dinner.  Right now I’d like to swap places…

Next time – actual crafting content!

handspun chickadee

I had a lovely afternoon last week with my buddy Kate and her dog-buddy Bruce.  (He is absolutely my favourite boy-dog in the world, so sweet and gentle and soft inside…)

Kate took some lovely photos of my Chickadee, and I’ve hardly taken it off since.  I love this sweater because of the fit, the warmth and just because its cute.  But most of all I love it because of the all memories I see when I look at the stitches.

This sweater (and the materials to make it, in many forms) have been in my mind for a long time.  The brown corridale I spun for the main body was picked up at Woolfest in 2009, a trip I took with my friend and awesome prolific-crafter Mel.  Spinning the fibre and then knitting the body made me think of the hilarious trip to took back to our B&B, just after Mel had been andean plying yarn on her spindle and had to drive back in the dark with the singles round her wrist and me holding the spindle, waving an iphone around on the hillside trying to figure out where we were.  It makes me think of the sheep that got loose during the festival which ran down the rows of stalls, and for some reason, Michael Jackson, because I was looking at the fibre when I heard someone behind me say that he’d died.  (I’m not a great fan, just remember the moment!)

The pale blue shetland used in the yoke makes me think of Gudrun, Jess and Casey, because it was on a trip to Shetland to photograph the designs for Gudrun’s book that they visited Jamieson and Smith and Ysolda brought this fibre back for me as a birthday present.  They gave it to me on my 29th birthday when I was staying with crafty friends in Stirling, and Jess took a funny picture of me burying my face in it.

The Quince & Co Chickadee I ended up using for the background colour of the yoke makes me think of my Mr, and how when I came home from my knitting group on the evening of my 30th birthday I found a pile of 30 parcels – every one of them was a ball or skein of yarn that he had chosen himself.  He even drove to New Lanark to buy yarn and bought the cherry aran because he knows I like ‘all the same colour’ and to him it seemed the most solid of their colourways.  (The Chickadee was in the enormous pile.)

And the dark blue used for the birds makes me think of LadyBug.  It was in the days after she passed away last year that I dyed it up in my kitchen.  I was sad, and couldn’t concentrate an anything, and dying up a bit of fibre for a Chickadee I might get round to knitting some day seemed like a good idea.

It feels good to be so involved in almost every aspect of a project.  I think this is the most personally creative thing I’ve ever made.  I need to make more things like this, I love it x