(Vint)age and beauty

A friend has embarked on the journey of renovating/restoring a little vintage caravan. It would be fair to describe its current state as dilapidated, but it has so much potential! Love this water pump tap.

The cupboard doors have these keep-it-secure-while-travelling push button handles. Almost Art Deco lines and curves.

Cupboard doors, all different sizes, the end one curved to follow the roof line.

 

Almost you don't see the light switch... There is beauty in the crusts and wear of age and time.

My friend is going to have so much fun!

Morning tea was rather fine too (the croissants ended up a bit high-baked as we got thoroughly engrossed in admiring the vintage caravan).

 

 

 

 

Cogs and wheels

Saw The Imitation Game today, Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing. He was good and it was good (although I understand there are some historical inaccuracies, it's based on a true story which flags liberties...)

The gears and wheels of the computer he built reminded me of this photo. It's from an old ?farm machine now located in the garden of a local history museum. I liked the patterning of it, the shapes and repetitions. I named this blog a long time ago now, but I am still fascinated and inspired by patterns in the world. It's a very human trait, for all sorts of reasons from economy of effort to imbuing harmony and seeking peace and order.

 

Summer flowering jasmine

In the heavy, humid, still air of a summer evening, the scent of this jasmine hangs, sweet and welcome. This is not the rampant jasmine of spring, but her quieter, more restrained cousin. Still a favourite with the bees, though.

 

 

Noro beanie (or hat?)

I can knit, although I'd be on a learning curve with the top of this beanie (or hat) and all those decreases...

So I bought this beanie (or hat?), because it's beautiful and someone else figured out the decreases, and it's made from Noro Kureyon yarn and it feels nice to wear (but in cooler weather, later in the year...) and it's an interestingly shaped beanie...nah, hat.

 

 

 

Highland Wrist Warmers

Inspired by a travelling relation and Outlander and the interesting textures possible in crochet, I've devised a design for what I've called Highland Wrist Warmers. Because it gets cold there. And while he's off adventuring around the world, I want him to keep warm.

I will write up the pattern here and include it on Ravelry.

(Yarn is Cleckheaton Perfect Day).

I'm really happy with these!

 

 

It wasn't called Frangipani Cottage (but it might have been)

A sweet little weatherboard cottage from last week. Nice place to stay. Beautiful pink frangipani in the garden.

 

 

Work in progress: crochet cowl/wrap

In the Hunger Games: Catching Fire film Katniss wears a very cool grey cowl/wrap. You can read an interview with the designer Maria Dora {here}. She describes it as involving a combination of knitting and crochet.

There are lots of Katniss cowl designs to be found on Ravelry, Etsy and Pinterest. Lots and lots. Like the Outlander knits, it's made friends and influenced lots of knitters and crocheters.

I'm playing with a crochet cowl/wrap version inspired by this, from The Friendly Red Fox, from Kali Dahle. It's one long loop, worn doubled. {Ravelry link, in case you'd like to favourite it there}

 

It's been interesting because I've had to learn a couple of new crochet stitches, and am practising these and another recently learned technique, the chainless foundation.

I started it with a chainless foundation (the pattern says chain then work stitches, but I wanted to play).

YouTube tutorial on chainless dc foundation (US dc, UK treble). Getting better at these. Keeping ease in the 'chain' loop so it all sits flat. You can do these with UK treble or UK double crochet, depending on how you want to start your piece.

The texture on the Friendly Red Fox cowl involves working around the 'post' of the stitches in the previous row, from front to front or back to back, instead of using the loop gap between stitches along the top of the previous row. This is a really cool technique.

YouTube tutorial on FPDC (front post double crochet) (US dc, UK treble)

YouTube tutorial on BPDC (back post double crochet) (US dc, UK treble)

And when you get cleverer still, you can put them together to create a basket weave stitch.

Craftsy tutorial on crochet basket weave stitch using FPDC and BPDC (US doc, UK treble). This is just pictures; I'd suggest looking at the two videos first.

What I'm noticing with these post stitches is that because it's just a double or treble being worked, it feels familiar to the hand, and I can get into a comfortable rhythm. Not having to count, just work familiar stitches. So it doesn't demand intense attention.

The wool I'm using is a rather luscious Aran merino which I acquired from another knitter who was destashing. Baruffa Merinos Otto {Ravelry link}. I'm using a 6mm Addi Swing hook. The original pattern uses bulkier yarn and a larger hook; but FRF also provides measurements, so if necessary I'll add a few more rows.

This very beautiful scrap yarn blanket from Keeping It Stepford uses the crochet basketweave stitch, and the Noro knitting magazine no 5, Fall/winter 2014 has a cowl and some other crochet items using PDC stitches. For now, I'm chugging around my cowl with lovely orange merino, but I see more PDC in my future...

 

 

 

 

 

Rivers of London

I've had this on my TBR (to be read) pile for a while, and was happy to pick it up last week. A couple of afternoons on a quiet verandah, to the soundtrack of cicadas, paddocks being slashed and birdsong (assorted) and I finished it. It's snickering-funny in many places, and the author, Ben Aaronovitch, is enjoying himself immensely (a wee bit more than me, I think). Seems to really know his London.

I'm happy to have read it, and wouldn't mind reading the sequels...but won't be rushing out for them. (Lots of other stuff on the TBR pile...)

Props to the cover designer, using Stephen Walter's incredibly detailed work from his The Island: London series is masterly.

 

365 Leaves : numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

I've undertaken various Project 365 ideas in the past - in photographs, fabric, yarn. I'm not sure if I will confine this one to a calendar year, or Just Do It as the whim takes me (several today, none tomorrow...).

But I've been thinking about leaves for a while. Maybe a crochet leaves project (I seem to have collected some green wools with this in mind...). I've been looking at crochet patterns for leaves, of which there are not a few.

And it makes sense to photograph leaves. Surely I can find 365 leaves to inspire me. It's also a lens for a default daily photograph subject (itself a good mindfulness exercise...).

I know, this is the third time for this photo. But it's also such a good start. Green and grey-green and bruise-purple and bruise-yellow and plum-raspberry; and the chewed edges, and spots, and the variety of shapes, narrow/broad, long/rounded. And the grey-white stalk. So much to see and consider. All on the one small start of a tree.

 

And here are some more, caught after a day of rain. Same thing happening, nature's intriguing game of not-repeating, same-yet-different.

 

So, #365leaves, numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Three hundred and sixty more to find... A year of hunting leaves. Hunting a year of leaves. Keeping my eyes open. Looking.

There's an element of wabi-sabi in this for me, too. Those imperfect leaves are as beautiful as the perfect ones; if not more so.

1. Wabi-sabi (侘寂 ^?) represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete".

Wabi-sabi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

 

 

(Photos are taken via Hipstamatic app, Kodot Grizzled film and John S lens).

 

Crochet with others

Helping someone else assemble what will be a sweet, pretty crochet blanket.

Lots of lovely conversation as it started coming together. Which is one of the pleasures of crocheting/crafting with others.

 

Pattern is from Nicki Trench, it's in her Cute and Easy Crochet book and has featured in Mollie Makes and Simply Crochet. Ravelry link: Springtime Throw.

 

Cormoran Strike

I enjoyed these. Possibly was drawn to them because of the JK Rowling connection, but enjoyed them for themselves.

I hope the BBC series casts Cormoran Strike as written, and Robin as more than a pretty girl.

 

Hydrangeas

There is something particularly beautiful about the way hydrangea petals turn.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Like something almost being said...

The Trees

The trees are coming into leaf

Like something almost being said;

The recent buds relax and spread,

Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again

And we grow old? No, they die too,

Their yearly trick of looking new

Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh

In fullgrown thickness every May.

Last year is dead, they seem to say,

Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.

Philip Larkin

 

(I know, I've used that photo two days in a row. But I love it. One eucalypt seedling/sapling, but all those colours and shapes.)

- See more at: http://www.poetryarchive.org/poem/trees#sthash.Klwl3jEQ.dpuf

Link including Larkin reading the poem.

 

2015 : Resolution

Resolution: to look for the doorways and opportunities.

 

Without losing sight of the details and moments.

 

After the storm: eloquent architecture

1311 after the storm: eloquent architecture
Originally uploaded by rooruu

There were a number of stormy petrels overwhelmed by the previous night's storm, scattered on the beach, some half-buried in sand. This looked like architecture, a sail, wind-ruffled and still. A memory of what it once did.

Hipstamatic, John S. lens, Kodot Grizzled film.

54/365 twin baby shower

1302 54/365 twin baby shower
Originally uploaded by rooruu

An afternoon of babies and little ones, the anticipated fraternal twin boys (clever cake decorator!) and the array of little cousins and friends awaiting them.

Guernsey's children return after WW2

1302 Guernsey children return after WW2
Originally uploaded by rooruu

A photo from the book in the last blog entry.

So much to read in those faces.

53/365 a favourite book

1302 53/365 a favourite book
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Love this book. Loved it the first time I read it, loved the audiobook version. Sad that Mary Ann Shaffer never really got to see how her first novel, written later in life, would find so many friends.

There's a film being planned, with Kenneth Branagh directing and Kate Winslet as Juliet, and location filming on Guernsey. All good. I think I'd like Clive Owen as Dawsey.

One of the most touching moments was based on a real event, one of the characters talking about the return of the children at the end of the war. This edition of the book has photos of Guernsey in wartime, including one of this. I'll put it in another blog entry for you to see.

52/365 stripey scarf

1302 52/365 stripey scarf
Originally uploaded by rooruu

I saw this scarf in the top patterns on Ravelry.
http://shadesoflynx.blogspot.fr/2013/01/stripes-and-stripes.html

Love it. Love the thin stripes and thicker stripes. I went cruising on Etsy and found some mini-skein bundles of sock yarns.

But at some local markets I came across these. They're intended for tapestry, or embroidery. I think some are 4 ply-ish. Others would need two strands to be so. The market lady and I did some back and forth bargaining, and I ended up with these skeins for a price that made us both happy.

I'll start with the thin stripes. Might need more yarn when I get to the thick stripes, but for right now I have exactly what I needed: small quantities but many colours, all wool and some hand-dyed.

The crochet project is finished and given; my photos aren't great so I'll wait for better ones when the twins are out and about using their stripey blankets. (The twins aren't born yet.)

I seem to be in a stripey phase.

51/365 shelfscape

1302 51/365 shelfscape
Originally uploaded by rooruu

The Laura Ingalls Wilder books are the ones I read so avidly as a child. Maple syrup. Nine patch quilts. The wonder that was a treadle sewing machine. The challenges of starting out as a teacher. I can trace lots of things back to being mentioned in these books.

The Diana Gabaldon books are ones I have read avidly as an adult. And listened to Davina Porter's excellent audiobook renditions.

There are other books on this shelf: all are keepers. I've come to realise that some books are in transit in this house, and I haven't missed any that have travelled on. But these are keepers.

The softie figure I found in a craft gallery in Victoria on a road trip a couple of years ago. I'm not sure exactly what it represents, apart from itself. But I like it, especially the simple, effective machine-stitched face. It looks like it has stories to tell, too.