Finger Knitting

Our weekend was very wet and Archie tired and restless. So the finger knitting came out. I had tried to teach Archie traditional knitting a few months ago but he was a little young and felt you should be able to stick the needle in where ever a hole appeared. This of course is a wonderful and creative theory but perhaps a little different to the concept of knitting as I understand it. And then I remembered finger knitting. The simplicity of passing one loop over another using his index finger as the stick was a hit. It really helped Archie to understand the need for precision in the wool's placement and he quickly knitted up metres and metres of chain. In fact, his fingers knitted for two and a half hours straight before he felt the need to stretch.

And what does a boy do with those endless metres of chain? Make an anchor of course and spend the rest of the afternoon throwing it off a pirate ship and hauling it back in. It was also very good for tying up captives.

Comfort Crochet

This is a new project I am working on but I have to jumble it up to keep it top secret. Let's just say that someone (not you Lucy) will be receiving a gift soon. These colours are so soft and supportive of each other they make me want to weep. Um, maybe I am a little hormonal at the moment.

Harvest and Plum Jam

Things have been a bit quiet on the blogging front so I thought I would do a little catch up from last week. Now the seasons are changing, the plum jam is coming into its own bringing memories of summer onto our plates. And autumn too is having its celebration, showering our grass with feijoas, windfall apples and pale blue eggs.

A Boys' Own South Island Adventure

They are back!!! Yesterday afternoon in a sheen of rain, the ute hauled its way up the drive, covered in South Island dirt and adventure. Two weary travellers hopped out, with road trip debris, avalanching from their open doors. Yes, Jonno and Archie returned to the family fold. Archie was the photographer for the trip and showed me his photos the moment he was inside. I love his perspective, they are so evocative. I know I am the mother and I am bragging but isn't the top one amazing, he really lets us see what it is like to be six, on the road and with the best dad in the world. By the way, the audiobook peeking in front of Archie's knees is "Swallows and Amazons" which he avidly listened to throughout the trip.

"The Seamstress"

Yes, I completely judged this book by the cover. First of all, how can you go past a title like "The Seamstress" and then secondly, look at it. I have to remember to open it occasionally though. The story so far is pretty good which is an added bonus. Just in the middle of planning another project which of course means that lining balls of wool into a rainbow is a very useful way of spending time....

Dreaming Jars

In the jar pictured above, I keep my little odds and ends of dreams. This painting is in the process of trying to catch a few but is still so early on in its life, it needs to be developed a lot more in order to attract my flotsam of treasures. Thank goodness I have somewhere to store them in the mean time.

boy colours and girl colours

I have two boys so my life is made up primarily of blue and white stripes, or if we are feeling a bit jolly, red and white stripes. I love stripes and sometimes have to physically hold myself back from the boys when they are getting dressed for fear of turning them into barber poles. Our house is full of yellows, reds, blues, greens and deep dark pink (which the Archie and Hugo consider to be boy-pink) but there is certainly no pale pink to be seen. Our boys are the old-fashioned climb the tree and jump from a great height kind. They love Robin Hood and Buzz Light Year and Archie wishes his middle name was Arthur and his first, King. All in all, it is a household of boys.

This morning I found myself at home alone and sneakily climbed back into bed with my wool to finish a particularly girly movie I began the other night. And to my surprise, I found myself reaching for the palest pink I could find and started to crochet these blossoms (yes, from another Attic24 tutorial). Even the mid morning light found in my bedroom was unknown to me as I tend to banish myself from there until after lunch. I find the temptation to dive back into my sheets is too much for me to handle. So this is how pale pink looks in the morning, in my house. Interesting.