Cardiganisation

What a word. It brings joy to my heart.

So... with my newly aquired powers of crochet, I saw a handy little tutorial on how to 'cardiganise' an old pullover. I have a bit of an (unhealthy?) obsession with cardigans.

They are just so verstile and layerable. Maybe it's from living in a climate where the weather changes in minutes, maybe it's because you can match colours really nicely with a cardigan. At present I am totally without that crucial wardrobe staple, a little black cardigan, so am being forced to range further in my choices of cardigans each day. This is a rather loud top I found in a Swiss charity shop... cardiganised!



I also have a habit of chopping the tops off things. I like necklines that you can show a scarf or necklace with, or that you can layer under other things. Usually I just leave the frayed edges raw, but now I can crochet them...



And finally.. I accidentally hot washed, tumbledried and ruined aforementioned little back cardigan. Twice. It is now unsalvagable, though its sleeves were cut off, crochet added and voila, arm warmers, which make me feel just a teensy bit less sad about its fate.

Singular

Valentines day is rolling up in all its tacky smultzy glory. I made an attempt to put together a little present for Malcolm, for which I was going to make a photo with six little square images of the two of us taken on our second wedding anniversary in October last year. But being rubbish at keeping secrets, and having never used the software I needed to use to do it... combined with the fact that Malcolm's computer is being fixed so he's using mine, and the fact that I cunningly called the photos valentines and they showed up in the recently used documents at the bottom of the screen all conspired to give the game away. And though I did take and edit the pictures myself, Malcolm ended up putting them together. We will get it printed and maybe mounted on MDF or something. Quite fun:



Having watched Malcolm use the GIMP editing software, maybe I will be able to use it myself next time!

I can't help but think of my single friends on valentines day. We don't live in a society that embraces singleness - particularly as you get older. One of the reasons (and there are many) that I really dislike romantic comedies is the way they perpetuate the myth to women that to be happy ever after, you need a man. Don't get me wrong, I love being married, and feel blessed everyday by having the husband that I do. Lots of research shows that married people on the whole tend to be happier. Having also lived though my first marriage breaking up, it's a pretty horrific process, and I have some idea of all the complexities involved in the decision to stay or not stay in a relationship, and the pain that's caused by relationships breaking down. What I object to is to romantic love being upheld as the one route to happiness, and singleness being seen as a second best alternative. I also think that the kind of thinking we are fed though rom-coms and TV and girly romance novels puts far to much expectation on one 'love' relationship to provide everything we need for love and happiness, almost as if couples live in some magic bubble that contains only themselves and where everything is perfect.

We've been avidly watching 'my big fat gypsy wedding', a brilliant series on the milestones in the life of Irish gypsys and travellers here in the UK. This culture seems to seriously buy into a paradigm of marriage being the ultimate aim in life, especially for women. If a woman not married by her early 20's she is considered on the shelf. Lots of emphasis is put on the wedding day, which must cost ludicrous amounts and seems to involve serious metres of pink or white lace, frills, diamantes and general bling. Little girls grow up dreaming of the day they will get married, and be a princess for a day. One episode looks at the life of these women outside of the wedding day. Many of them are taken out of school at an early age (12 or 13) to cook and clean and care for younger siblings, and then it is usual marry at 17 or 18, upon which they become a housewife. Whats the point in getting and education when your culture see it as shameful for the woman to be anything other than housewife. The thing that was most horrific to hear is that 50% of traveller women experience domestic violence in their marriages. In the UK 1 in 4 women experiences domestic violence in their lifetime. Happily ever after? I think not!

Anyway - what I want to say is I need friends in all walks of life. I can't think of much worse than only hanging out with other 'smug marrieds' (as I've heard the happily hitched referred to as). Real communities have people in all walks and ages and stages and relational 'status'. How can we learn from each other and share our lives in a meaningful way if we spend time only with those just like us? One relationship, no matter how wonderful it is doesn't take the place of a network of family relationships friendships and community. Singleness may be a season or it may be a decision (Shane Claiborne of 'the simple way' comes to mind as someone who has made a decision to be single in order to do what he feels God has called him to). I really hope that wherever we go and whatever we do in the world we would not ever exclude people or segregate ourselves along the basis of singleness (or for that matter marriedness). We need each other, folks! If you're feeling a little lonesome this valentines day, here's a little something that I hope lifts your spirits.. it's a beautiful song/ poem/ contemplation on the nature of being alone.

Bag lady

So I have a habit of carrying around mangy looking calico grocery bags, for my lunchbox, my waterbottle, my raincoat.... I've never quite managed to be a minimal traveller when when leaving the house only for the day and since I have loads of fabric, and old curtains, not quite big enough to make into clothing, and too lush to be left folded away, the obvious solution was to make some bags!

So I bought a pattern (shock horror - till this point I have been psychologically incapable of following patterns) made by the very talented loulabelle. The pattern is for a simple sling tote, lined, with a pocket inside. Long handles are useful cos you can easily wear a bag like that when you're biking about. It was also a very clear step by step instructions, which I need, because usually, I get to the first instruction that I don't understand, then I give in.





So I made three bags following the pattern, then being totally delighted with the results (and the fact I followed instructions), branched out a little and tried some different bags (sans instructions).

I made one for my knitting that was slightly larger and had two handles, and another two handled one in reddish fabric (since I'd already done green, brown and blue). Then I branched out and had a wee look online for other bag patterns and it turns out there are loads....





I tried this one, it looked easy enough, but I got totally flummuxed and my one looks nothing like the pattern one. sigh. Check out the awesome button I put on it though...


Finally, I made a case to hold my knitting needles to go in my new knitting bag, with some calico and a scrap of fabric I love so much. You simply roll it up like a giant knitting needle sushi and tie the ribbons tight.





For the record, this has been two weekends of mostly sewing - slightly intense but oh so satisfying. I don't know if anyone else is like this, but when I make something, I want to see in in a whole range of different colours and contrasts, and then that's all I can think about for a while, and I pull out my material and start matching it up until common sense takes hold again and I select just a few of the best ones and put the rest away. Slightly compulsive I think, but for now, bags are out of my system, until I try making a felt handbag (thinking along those lines soon)

homesick

Sometimes I really miss NZ, especially when it's so cold and dark.

Here's a poem:

New Zealand/Aotearoa

Are you my home?
Your wide clear day
showing up for bright green the grass
and for corrugated the fence
beside the field where children play.
Are you my home?
small square veined town
tarmac oozing in summer sun
blaring with pied piper ice cream vans.
Your valleys are cloaked in mysteries
of somber green
ornamented with hidden birds
darkly singing to the fathomless sky.
Your fields are flecked with wooley backed
land-maggots
clinging with all four feet
ceaselessly gnawing
at your outsides.
Your hills
lie stark and trembling
lashed to the bone
and waiting to be washed away
in the merciless rain.
No gentle beauty
No faded grandeur,
a narrow lock of land
hemmed by great sweeps of grey
fumbled relentlessly by the hands of the southern seas
scattered with the black bones of bonfires
you do not welcome me softly
with your too-cold wind
and your too-fierce sun
the thorn of your wildness snapped in my hand long ago
and I have left it there
a dark mark under my skin
so I wait
to feel your soil under my bare feet
for your wind to toss my hair into my face
for my heart to rise gleaming
like the tui
to the kowahi tree
and to speak
I am home again.

Stencils

I love street art, I always keep an eye out for it in new towns we visit.

We recently went down to London, and stayed with our brilliant friends Tim and Lucy, who organise a weekly session called 'make' on Sunday afternoons, open to anyone who wants to come along and make things together. The weekend we were there, their friend Ben who runs Graffiti workshops came along and taught us how to make stencils. We either drew our own pictures or got inspiration from magazines, tracing pictures out of them. Quite hard to do, as you have to imagine everything in reverse, as the bits you cut out are the bits that show up darker. Lots of fun. I will have to put my new skills to use, it's amazing what you can do with building up layers of texture. I also put to use the inside cut-outs of some of my stencils, like the teapot.

I think the tricks seemed to be - a sharp scalpel, cutting mats, stencil paper (strong and slightly waxy) and spraymount (spray on glue), which allows you to stick the stencil down flat before you spray it. You then wait a couple of seconds before peeling away the stencil, and you have your image.

Here are some pictures of the stencils I made. Unfortunately I never took any pictures of the boards we made up together- great collaborative art!

T-cycling

I am so sorry about the groan worthy titles of some of my posts. I can't resist sometimes.

Anyway - when one of our housemates moved out, he gave me a whole lot of old t-shirts he was going to throw out, which has been a great excuse for some renovations of old garments. One tunic type dress I had was a little tight, too high necked and frankly quite boring. With a strip of t-shirt sewn together (to make it long enough) and carefully ruched, I now have a cute little brown tunic.





The next thing I made involved two T-shirts,one 'base' garment, and one for the ruffles. I modified the shape of the grey base T-shirt to make it a bit more fitted,then cut strips from the contrasting colour T-shirt, sewed lace onto the end of the strips using a zig-zag stitch, did a line of large stitches down the other side that could be pulled in to make them ruffled. I then attached the ruffles, overlapping them slightly, and finished off the sleeves with lace and buttons. Finally, I put a strip of the contrasting colour T-shirt around the bottom to make the top a bit longer and to balance the colours a bit. Result- slightly Japanese street style shirt, that I really like!

Booty-Lushious

Some wet-felting results:

I have been making a few little baby booties for the tiny toes that are proliferating among the folks we know. They are a nice sized project for the small space I have to felt in, (The benchtop in our Cabin bathroom), and such a satisfying result.

Crochet lampshade

Now that the lamp has been safely delivered to its recipients, I can blog about it!

Inspired by a similar lampshade in a Kensington yarn shop, and my newly acquired powers of crocheting, I set about knitting and crocheting loads of little patches, and then stitched them all together around a wire lightshade. Result? A pretty, whimsical multi-coloured shade perfect for a little girls room!

re-resolution

I love new years! I'm a big fan of resolutions, and of recyling- so I'm re-cycling my resolutions! Unfortunately, for various reasons i haven't kept many of my New years resolutions... still fun making them again though.

The one resolution I have more than kept is blogging once a month. It's been a fun little journey having a blog, it does feel a bit self indulgent and I do hope my posts aren't too boring/random/odd. But I am enjoying it so much I think I'll continue.

Last year I wanted to join the Oxford Gospel Choir, but it is on a Tuesday, and it is half way across town, which is a bit epic when you add a 40 min return bike ride onto the practice. So I'm changing that to a more local Thursday night belly dancing class (whoop whoop). great for your lower back/core muscle strength and co-ordination which I could do with more of. Sorry gospel choir, maybe I'll join a choir another year... wish I could do it all.

My hour a week of poi practice - hasn't happened. But I want it to, so I will try that one again.

Running- hasn't happened, and can't see a happy way of making it happen, but instead of running, maybe half an hour of yoga and/or pilates/or meditation five times a week. There. four resolutions. Maybe running. will see.

My old enemy, RSI/Upper limb syndrome/ Occupational overuse syndrome has made a re-appearance. I feel pretty gutted as I'm in pain lots of the time, my muscles are extremely tight and sore, I have to take a steady stream of painkillers, and it makes me tired, grumpy and a bit miserable, and it makes crafting hurt, worst of all, my work is stealing my leisure. The occupational health lady recommends I give up my extra hours of work, sad when we're trying to save for Africa. We're just not made for computers, me less than others! So part of my poi/yoga/ dance resolutions are finding a way to manage this problem, as it won't go away in a hurry.

Any tips for managing this problem are recommended....

In a less resolutions to 'do' kinda way, this year I'd like to live more greatfully, always aware of the bounty that comes my way each day, without me even noticing much of it. I'd like to live more graciously, being more forgiving, less quick to judge and less in need of other people accepting me before I accept them. I'd like to live generously, not seeking my own benefit in every situation, but always challenging myself to give, of emotion, of energy, of belongings... So I pray that not only the big decisions I make this year would be wise ones, but each of the many tiny choices I make each day would turn me further toward greatfulness, generosity and grace.

Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.


On the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace.
(2 cor 4:16)

Christmas tables and collages

Christmas is over! Its that strange kind of post-excitement post busy-ness deflated feeling for me. We had a lovely Christmas with some family that live in these parts of the world, in an amazing house in the countryside.

We made the place settings and Christmas crackers for the table. Each cracker had inside a green and blacks organic chocolate, a small packet of seeds that could be grown in pots, like sunflowers, chives etc, a joke (handpicked by Malcolm and not vetted by me first, mistake, - the only Aussie in the group got the Aussie joke, but was fine about it and no one else seemed mortally offended) and some origami paper and the instructions for an origami creation. I used my little tea light candle holders for the centre of the table. All the place names were just hand drawn on Microsoft Paintshop, which made me feel like a kid again. So much fun. It did get a little silly, I mean, what does a moose have to do with Christmas?





If I made the crackers again, I think I'd use a more fragile paper, as these were so hardy we couldn't pull them apart very easily! Oh well. I am gradually learning that research before you embark on a project is time well spent, though my bias is toward learning in action, I'm impatient and want to get on with it. Which means I get lots done, but not always with the best results!


While I'm posting, here's some of the fruits of my most favourite projects of late. I've been making mini-collages on offcuts of hardwood. Drill a hole and
put a little hanging loop in the back (like the ones you hang mirrors with) and voila, mini ready to hang art for your wall. So much fun. I source the pictures from everywhere, mostly charity shop second hand children's books. Then I spraypaint a textured background onto the wood block, lay down a layer of very thin tissue paper with watery PVA glue on top of that, or pieces of old dressmaking patterns, and that's my base onto which I then build the rest of the collage. Once finished, i apply several coats of PVA varnish and trim off the edges. Each collage is only about ten cm by 16 cm big. And original and loveable. Delish.





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