Although I did craft last week, I didn't post about it.  It felt a bit wrong to be posting about such ordinary, normal stuff when one of New Zealand's largest cities lies in ruins.  Its sad to hear about this kind of disaster when its in another country, but when its here, in ours, its devastating.  I'm reminded of the images after the Queensland floods in Australia.  They showed shots of people queuing in Brisbane, not to get help, but to give it.  People who were willing to get out and help their fellow Queenslanders.  That's what I (and I suspect, most New Zealanders) want to do; go and help.  We'd turn up with spades and gumboots if we thought it would help.  Instead, all we can do is donate money, and watch helplessly as so many of our fellow New Zealanders suffer.

One of the reasons that this has been such a sobering event, is that all New Zealanders live with a subconscious awareness of the big one.  NZ is on the pacific rim of fire, an earthquake fault area that includes Japan (Kobe) and the USA (Los Angeles).  When Christchurch was hit with a 7.1 earthquake in September, and no one was killed, we all breathed a sigh of relief.  Maybe we would all be able to survive a big one without serious harm.  It was a cruel twist of fate that even though last Tuesday's earthquake was lower in magnitude, it was the real big one.  And when the full extent of the damage became clear, so did the realisation that there, but for the grace of God, goes any major city in NZ.  I never really believed there would be an earthquake this large and destructive in my lifetime.

And so my relief that no one I know has been seriously hurt in the earthquake is tempered by fear.

Kia Kaha Christchurch.  The whole of NZ stands behind you.

If you would like to donate money, please visit the Red Cross.  Civil Defence has all the latest information on the disaster relief.

Bumblebee photo holders

As promised, here are the bumblebee photo holders that I bought for P.  She was so impressed with them, and kept wanting to carry them around.  The photo is of her in a big box.  We had to get a new washing machine last Christmas, and it came in a very large box.  P wasn't very interested, until my Mum suggested we make a window in it, and then it was the best toy ever. 

The photo now takes pride of place on P's bookcase in her room, and I'm really pleased that she has some photos just for herself.

Trip to Wellington

This weekend just gone, we went for a trip to the Capital.  It was a gorgeous weekend, and as the saying goes, you can't beat Wellington on a good day.  Wellington showed its lovely weather side, and it made me want to move back there.  However, Wellington has another side, and that side is cold, wet and above all else, windy.  If you're wondering if Wellington is as windy as everyone claims, the answer is yes.  Still, even having lived with that terrible weather, when we drove down Ngauranga Gorge and saw the city glittering above the harbour it still pulled at my heart strings.

Anyway, enough about my love/hate relationship with Wellington.  We were there to visit my friend who is due with her first baby next month.

I gave her this nappy, but I am sadly still working on the singlets for her.  We also took the opportunity to visit our other friends who live down there, including my sister.

 But the highlight of the trip for P was a ride on the train.  Wellington has (for New Zealand) a fantastic suburban train network, and P and I caught the train from Linden to Wellington.  She was so excited, and spent the whole trip chattering about what she could see and hear and feel.

It was a good, but hard weekend, because neither of the girls travel well in the car.  As a consequence I got pretty much nothing done last week, and this week doesn't look all that good either with all the packing and unpacking.

Photos

My project this week is photos.  Or more specifically, to put all our photos into albums.  So far I have sorted them into P and J piles and thats about it.  I am in a bit of a funk at the moment, the house is a mess, and we are going on a road trip to the Capital soon.  We're going to visit friends for birthdays and baby showers, and even that isn't getting me excited.  However, I did buy P a very cute pair of bumblebee photo holders, and she very enthusiastically chose a picture (of herself of course) to go with them.  It was one of the first things she pointed out to DH when he arrived home from work.

Remarquable Junque giveaway

I was lucky enough to win the giveaway that Rhiannon over at Remarquable Junque ran last week.  I've never won anything from a blog before and I was super excited to see the package when I got home from work yesterday.  However, I was not as excited as P, who had been waiting for me all day to come home and open it.  And boy was it worth waiting for.

I got a whole tin filled with handcrafted goodness.  It came wrapped in a lovely pillow case, which I have been patting and thinking about what to do with it.  DH told me I could put a pillow in it (insert exasperated eye rolling here).

I received some very beautiful gift tags in a lovely fabric envelope.

A stunning brooch and necklace.  I'm not usually a brooch fan, but this is awesome.  You can see Rhiannon's post about it here.

A set of jeweled push pins with a little fabric rose to keep them on.

Some chocolatey treats - which J delighted in picking up and squealing (and at one point tried to eat them through the wrapper, she's a smarty that one).

But the piece de resistance was the gorgeous fishing game that P immediately claimed.  One of P's favourite games is to 'go fishing'.  She gets into the washing basket (her boat) and tries to catch things with a measuring tape.  I decided to make her a fishing game for her birthday since she is so into her fishing, and now she has one! It is the perfect gift for my fishing mad girl.

In the boat, all ready to go.

P was so keen on these fish that she took them to bed with her, and instead of DH reading her a book, she insisted he go fishing with her.  I feel very spoilt to have received such a lovely and well thought out package of goodies.  Thank you very much.  Head over to Remarquable Junque and check out all the lovely things that Rhiannon makes.

Preschooler art

This is one of P's playgroup pictures that I framed in a very old hand painted frame of mine.  Its got the date I did it at the back - its over 10 years old now.  P specifically asked to have some of her own pictures framed, and who was I to disagree with something so lovely.  Our week of art was successful (just don't ask about the vinyl records).

Hope Osborne Society

For those who would like to help out Hope Osborne (who I posted about here), there is a facebook group that has the details of all the auctions and fundraisers currently happening.  Just go to the Hope Osborne Society page and it will show you all the fundraising going on.  It is a really devastating situation, and any help would be appreciated.

Help for Hope

Recently, a member of The Nappy Network received some devastating news about her daughter.


Hope, a little Wellington girl turning 4 in almost a week was diagnosed with cancer 2 years ago.  This week though we all learned that Hope’s cancer has returned and is spreading – sadly this time the only treatment will be palliative. Hope’s family have been given a terribly short time frame to enjoy her. It’s devastating news for any family to have to try and come to terms with.


Being a community of caring women, a number of other members have put together fundraising efforts.  
Just One WIP
Activity Book
Bonnet
Moby wrap

If you can help in any way, please do so.  If you would like to donate some money directly, please contact me here, and I will give you bank account details.

Art time again

My project this week is Art.  And for my big plans this week, I splurged on some heavy duty equipment.  Well, not really heavy duty but it is a tool.  I have great plans involving my vinyl records, although DH did suggest that maybe he would have to do it for me.  I don't think so Tim!

Matariki Dress/Tunic

Matariki Dress/Tunic

I blogged about this pattern way back in October, but it was one of those things that I just haven't gotten around to actually writing up.  However, I was browsing a blog the other day and came across a picture of my dress.  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  So I figured it was time I actually published the pattern.  After putting it off for so long, I was a little embarrassed to find that writing it up only took about 5 minutes.

In fact, the thing that took the longest was finding the right name for it.  I wanted a name that referred to the dress itself, and also something that I could use thematically for any other patterns I publish.  (I'm a sucker for a theme).  I spent ages thinking about the kinds of names I could use; literary, familial, all sorts. Until finally I decided to go with something uniquely NZ, and of course Maori names/myths sprang to mind.

So I chose Matariki.  Matariki is the Maori celebration of the new year.  But the reason I chose it as the name for my dress is because of one of the translations of Matariki as 'small eyes' and this seemed appropriate given the row of eyelets across the bodice of the dress.

This is the first time I've produced a knitting pattern, so if you have any questions, please ask and I will do my best to clarify things.  Additionally, although the bodice section looks like a twisted rib, this is because of my left handedness, its just a regular rib for me.  You could certainly try it using a twisted rib, but that isn't what I did.  Alternatively, you could try knitting it left handed, but I accept no responsibility for the brain numbing horror that will probably result.

I'd love to see any creations, please post your links in the comments.  You can also find the pattern on Ravelry.

Mission Tank for P

In addition to the baby knitting that I completed this week, I also finally blocked and seamed the Mission Tank. that I knitted for P's birthday.  I made a few modifications from the pattern; I added 5 rows to the length of the 3 year old size since P is quite tall for her age.  I also increased the width of the straps since I like them to be a little wider (I think it was 8 stitches rather than 7).  

While knitting the back I got bored doing all that stocking stitch so I decided to incorporate the little row of cats onto the front.  Its my first time doing colour work and I am really pleased with how it turned out.  The pattern is from an old book that I bought from the Hospice Shop, and I just made sure that it worked with the number of stitches on the front.  After I completed the top I wondered if I should have worked the cats across the bodice (above the eyelets) rather than on the body of the tank.  Maybe I'll have to wait and see how it looks on P.

I embroidered the tails in with the yarn to complete them - the tails got progressively better as I went across the front.

All in all, I am very happy with how this came out.  I think P will enjoy wearing this vest over winter, and I'm sure she'll love the addition of the cats.

Baby Knitting success!

This week I managed to complete one little baby garment, and start a second.  I had forgotten how quickly newborn garments knit up.

This is a lovely garter stitch thing (I love garter stitch, its so much easier than stocking stitch) for one of the women I know who may be having a boy.

The green stripe at the top is an "I've run out of the custom dyed wool and need to finish this" stripe.  I really should have ripped it back and incorporated the green in a bit further down but I was on a mission to complete as many things as I could - and besides, when do I ever go back and do something again if I don't have to?

This is a little garment for my friend whose baby shower is this month.  The green is much more minty than it appears in this picture.  I wanted to dye some wool myself, but DH pointed out that I didn't really have the time (and he was right), so I bought this from Knitworld instead.  Its 4ply merino, and it feels lovely and soft.

The pattern is my own, which I will be putting up here once I have finished it.

Baby knitting

My project for this week is to knit some little baby things for the women I know who are having babies (and there sure are alot of them).  Don't get me started on what that's doing to my biological clock.

I gave myself one week in my list of weekly projects, but now that I am looking at the amount of knitting I have to do, I realised there is no way I'm going to complete it all this week.  However it is a good opportunity to get a bit of knitting mojo back (which has been a bit lacking lately).  So thats the plan.

Because some of the women I'm knitting for read this blog, expect plenty of interesting close up photos next week so that I don't spoil the surprise.