Friday arrived so David and I drove down to Struan Farm.

Fall colours were everywhere.

It looks like middle earth in this part of the country, and coincidentally, they were filming Peter Jackson’s Hobbit in the vicinity recently.

Here’s how Struan Farm looked when we arrived late on an autumn afternoon.

I think it’s agreed that we all love sheep. During the weekend I learned some important facts about them that escaped me back in childhood when I was tending to Bunty, my pet lamb.

Romney sheep (which these are) can have difficulty giving birth so may need help. I mention this because all the sheep you see here are pregnant, mostly with twins. Note to self: return to Struan Farm soon after lambing has occurred.

Sheep are perfectly fine with posing when you’re at a distance, but come closer and they’re off at a gallop, or maybe it’s just me. They obviously didn’t get the memo that I don’t eat lamb. [I tried for an evening to upload a video here – wordpress, I've had it with you – to no avail so you can click here to see those sheeple skedaddling]

Struan farm is a beautiful place set amongst rolling hills.  We stayed in the cottage, which is charming and cozy, perched on a knoll with acres of green to be seen out of every window. Little touches of Karen’s thoughtfulness are everywhere:

Candles made with vintage creamers on the bathroom window ledge

 She has decorated the homestead with knitting memorabilia.

Karen plans to host knitting retreats in future. Watch this space.

There was great relief on Saturday when we woke to sunshine.

Clifford the family dog, watching the proceedings from his temporary exile.

Just a few of the 75 knitters and fibre artists who attended.

Please remind me to try for the elegance displayed by this woman in her poncho

 You can take your spinning anywhere

I wish I’d had time to learn everyone’s name

On the left is Julie, of the Riverdale Alpaca Stud and Fibre Mill.

Do not be fabulous in red high-heeled Mary Janes (with shorts and tights) and expect to avoid my camera

Karen and John, our gracious hosts

An important part of the feast: cup cakes decorated with yarn balls

Inside the homestead

My friend Marian looking positively Bloomsbury with her sharp bob and black stockings

 Hand made everywhere. Who said sheep have to grow wool?

In the cottage bathroom, there was a picture on the wall with a quote from Mae West: “when in doubt, take a bath”.

I’d like to add to that: when in doubt, paint your front door black. It’s always elegant.

This was the most beautiful book event I’ve ever attended, and it was for my own book! A big thank you to Karen and to all the lovely people who joined us.

Karen and the caterers relaxing after the knitters had left.

David is ready for his next trip to middle earth, with or without a crowd of knitters. He didn’t want to leave.

Hi Knitters,

Tomorrow I’m heading down to Pio Pio for the book signing and morning tea at Struan Farm on Saturday. There are 75 knitters coming! Wow! I’m so excited to meet everyone. I’m hoping David will drive so I can knit all the way (an easy project that allows for viewing the gorgeous countryside as we go).

A thought that’s been simmering in my brain all week: ask readers what kind of vintage patterns you’d like to have access to and why. I intend to make more available and it would be helpful to know what you’re interested in. Please leave comments.

Now to this wee lassie, Daisy Dachshund from my book.

Daisy is based on a real life gal who had quite a few adventures in her 15-year life, some of which involved breaking the law. She was a drama queen in the best way and was the beloved pet of my kids. Truth be told, I made this project for them, even though they’re adults now.

She’s a versatile little thing –  a soft toy or a pencil case. The publishers scratched their heads when they saw her and asked me to explain why she’s in the book, which I do.

Toys are such fun to knit and put together and I think the finishing is the fun part. They take on distinct personalities and sometimes it’s quite a surprise. They’re also wonderful gifts. I was looking through Susan B Anderson’s work the other day, on her blog and in her book Itty Bitty Toys, and came away with a big smile on my face. She must have so much fun coming up with those cuties!

Daisy is straightforward to make as a softie; you just have to join her across her back, by stitching or grafting. Here are some photos of how to make her as a pencil case. The written instructions for this are in the book, but I thought it would be helpful to see some photos:

Prepare the pocket insert. The fabric is stiffened with iron-on interfacing.

Before you place the pocket inside, stitch some fabric to the tops of her legs and to the base of her neck to keep the leg and head stuffing in place.

Place pocket

Baste around the top, leaving room for the zipper to be inserted between the lining and the knitting.

Now she’s ready for inserting the zipper

I’m exhausted after all that, say Daisy, I think I’ll have a lie down and rest until car pool arrives to take me to school

I love vintage patterns, don’t you? I have an eclectic collection, many bought during a new-to-ebay obsessive buying frenzy, with a few handed down from my Mum.

This week I was a guest blogger at the Lovecrafts website in the UK, talking about my childhood spent waiting with my mother for the English Womens’ Weekly to arrive. Even then, it was all about the knitting patterns. I still have some. You’ll see them there.

I made a wonderful discovery this week that I’d like to share with you. Highly inventive designer, author and blogger Annie Modesitt reviews my book here, and while cruising around her website I discovered her online classes. Watching the sample steam blocking class, I learned so much about blocking, the need for it, how to do it and best of all, it’s infused with Annie’s wickedly dry sense of humour. It whet my appetite for more. If they’re all that informative and funny, I’m signing up!

Now, back to vintage. Ingrid, a reader from Sweden, wrote and asked me if I might be willing to share a design I included in my 2009 post about vintage patterns. It’s a cardigan from a WW2-era pamphlet of practical designs suitable for wearing while you contributed to the war effort. 

It just happens to have been Anzac Day here. For any non-antipodeans readers, Anzac is an acronym for the Australia New Zealand Army Corps, who fought together during both the world wars. We honour their memory every year and there’s even a delicious biscuit named after them which we eat all year round, not just on the day, because it’s so rich, crunchy and delicious, You can find a recipe on Ryan Reineck’s blog. Ryan lives in Brooklyn NY, is an avid knitter, gardener and foodie, and seems to know about Anzac.

Back to the cardigan. I decided to share it, and I may share a few more of my vintage patterns. I feel that they’re not my designs to sell, and what’s the point of them gathering dust in my closet?  The one Ingrid requested is the Utility or Service Cardigan (below), a v-neck with a nice ribbed yoke. You’ll find the PDF in my list of free patterns.  If you download it, please, be so kind as to leave a comment.

Happy knitting!

Even though my own little girl is all grown up, I’m still attracted to lovely children’s knits (who isn’t?), so when I saw this intriguing, beautiful book, Labour of Love, I just had to have it.

[note to readers: the title in the USA is Lovely Knits For Little Girls]

It’s for little girls, aged 3 to 8 years.

The author, Vibe Sondergaard, is a Danish knitwear designer who works in London. She says that the collection is an accumulation of ideas of shape, texture and colour. Judging by this book, she is a woman of style. Everything about it is lovely, a charming combination of traditional and modern.

The designs are fashionably grown-up, but age-appropriate. They’re presented in an appealing way, like a designer look book, which shows off their dress-up potential and their practicality.

There are sweaters, cardigans, scarves and snoods, even dresses and skirts. All the the projects have quirky details of the kind you don’t see often in kids’ knits, or even adults’ for that matter. There a few simple knits for beginners, but most of them are textured and patterned, with interesting details that would keep any knitter happy. Many of them I’d wear myself. Ms Sondergaard, would you please write a book for adults next?

I adore this book and hope for a little girl to come along and point to one of it’s pages, saying, “will you please knit that for me?” because it wouldn’t matter which one, all of the designs are lovely and I would happily knit any of them.

a few of my favourites:

Clara Butterfly Sweater

Nora Wide Aran Sweater with Ribbon

Zoe Fan Stitch Jacket

Laura Frost Flower Hat and Poncho

I’m partial to a ruffle here and there. Nothing overdone. Just a little fluttery something on the most minimalist outfit adds glamour that you can toss off when you revert to your Garbo (I just want to be alone) mode.

The Lulu Scarf in my book wasn’t intended to be a ruffle.  It was an experiment with geometry. What resulted was a feminine, undulating shape that is part shawl, part scarf, and can be warn several ways.

Lulu is shown in blue  Kidsilk Haze in the book. Here it’s knitted in the beautiful taupe color 590-pearl, and with a slightly looser gauge.

Here are the ways:

regular scarf style

capelet style (the little gold crocheted bag she is peeking into is by Lisa Toland)

more capelet

and beauty pageant

It seems I’m not alone in liking a diagonal ruffle. When checking out the spring collection of my favourite designer, Dries van Noten, I saw this

and this

and then, there’s this

see what I mean about a little fluttery here and there?

hand woven hats from Niue Island

Good news this week – my new book is going to be published in Finland, translated! To me, Finland means marimekko. I love the Finnish aesthetic, so I hope the feeling will be mutual.

The other good news was this review in NY. If you’ve read it and find yourself back here, yes, I made those tangerine tights. I bought the yarn at Wildfiber, worked on them  for a week in a Santa Monica garden (what else does one do in LA but knit wool tights, you might ask?) knitted all the way home and then some. To quote Jean Paul Gaultier from last year’s New Yorker article: “why not?” and yes, they are a long knitting project, but the good news is that they’re made from the toe up, so you can, if you so desire, stop anywhere on the leg that find yourself wavering, and you have ribbed socks. I made some thigh-highs as a gift this past Christmas, using the same pattern.

As has become obvious to all, one of my ongoing struggles while living here in NZ is that I miss my children (yes they are grown but they will forever be my children. You can’t look at your grown son or daughter without remembering their sweet babyness and wondering where the time went).

Lucky for me, both of mine have visited recently. Pete and his girlfriend Polly were here for a whole wonderful month, long enough for me to become accustomed to their company every day and I now can’t go anywhere without thinking of them. What’s a mother to do. Break camp and move around the world again? More on this subject in months to come. For now, I’m enjoying (through the tears) looking back on our adventures.

They insist that NZ has the very best cafes, far better than London and even the good ones in London are run by Kiwis anyway. On their first morning, after they’d wandered out of customs looking surprisingly fresh after a 28 hour journey, I took them to Queenies.

From outside

to the cute interior

and the paint by numbers mural

every inch of Queenies is my idea of exquisite – water in a recycled milk bottle, real leaf tea in modern retro cups and saucers, and a real teapot.

We’ve had a chilly summer, swimming plans went out the window and we had to be content with hovering near the water instead.

Polly hovers in bright green Saltwater sandals worn with the airplane ankle socks from my book.

Cool weather is good for beach combing, at least. Muriwai on the west coast is a family favourite.

and here’s the famous cave where the graffiti dates back to the early 1800s. Not to be ventured into that day, the treacherous West Cast tide rushing in… you feel a little foolish calling to your grown son “don’t go too far in!” but a mother’s instinct is ever present, yes?

Popping over to the east coast (yes, it’s skinny country here in Auckland, only a half hour from one coast to the other at the narrowest point) This day was a beauty at Goat Island, named because some early settlers put their goats there for safe keeping and returned to find that all of them had swum to the mainland in search of fresh water. It’s not far, as you can see, but still.

a colony of tiny snails

this guy was waiting by the road as if to say goodbye to us before we ventured home.

Back to town and the Pacifika Festival, a glorious day of food and crafts from the many islands of the South Pacific. Each one is unique in its own special way.

Niue Island was our favourite. Perhaps a family holiday next visit? All the ingredients for a good time are there: embroidery, tivaevae, hand weaving. Who needs to swim?

Look at this beautiful place!

I’m going there in a few weeks because the owners, Karen Barrett and John Robertson, have generously invited me for a book signing over morning tea on Saturday, May 12 at their property, Struan Farm, near Piopio, Waikato.

If you’d like to attend, all you have to do it email Karen at:  info@struanfarm.co.nz  to reserve a spot, get directions, and pre-order your book for $35 before May 1st. The event will start at 11 a.m.

I’ll be there to meet everyone and sign books. The original designs from my book will be on display and some yarns available too. Come enjoy morning tea with us!

You can read about the farm and its history on Karen’s blog here.

Karen says that we can go walking on the farm if we’d like. Looking at these photos, I am definitely planning to go for a wander, to say hello to these guys

The Piopio bird is the NZ native Thrush which is now extinct. This must be him:

 According to Googlemaps, Piopio is approximately 3 hours south west of Auckland.

Bring a friend and make a day of it, but please do email Karen if you plan on coming so that she knows how many to expect for morning tea.

I look forward to meeting everyone!

I’m a later starter when it come to shawl pins. I shy away because most of them look very pointy and liable to stab you in the heart if you stumble when you’re running across the road in your high heels.

So, how delighted I was to find these knit fasteners, which I heard about through the grapevine because the Los Angeles artist, Laurie Gilbert, was having a trunk show at my old shop in Santa Monica.

I love the organic shapes and the fact that they’re inspired by nature. The one below is Calla, after the lily. It’s photographed on the ladylike Mrs Lovechild Shawl, featured on the cover of my book.

After looking at Laurie’s website I  got excited and placed an order for three, one for myself and two gifts. Now that my order has arrived I find myself tempted by the Wave Pin Fastener. Love that it closes like a brooch! What to do!

Laurie holds some stock, but also makes to order, in sterling silver if you’d like. You can email her from her website and ask as many questions as you like.

This one is Pebble

It’s on a wide mohair scarf I knitted several years ago, from GGH Kid Mohair. Now I can wear it as a shawl. If any one is interested in making it, I used 6 balls and the stitch pattern is “Scroll” on page 220 of Barbara Walker’s Treasury of Knitting patterns. 

Happy knitting!

Hi Guys,

Thank you for all the wonderful, detailed comments posted last week. They’re little gems of stories in themselves. I loved reading all of them. There is so much to say about all of our knitting histories. I could read these stories all day. The difference in attitudes between countries, the family histories, all of it makes me wonder if anyone is doing serious study, perhaps a PHD thesis on the sociology of knitting?

Exciting news this week: my book has been released two months early in the USA.

It’s now available on USA Amazon here.

About the three different versions (USA, UK, and NZ): they are all basically the same. The only differences are spellings and the placement of metric vs imperial measurements.

In the next few weeks I’ll be adding pics of the projects, some directly from the book, and others I’ve been having fun with.

Here’s a little preview:

The idea of the book is that hand knits, even simple projects, make everyone feel special and are a knitter’s easy route to real luxury. There are 26 projects, all practical accessories and garments that you can wear any time.

Here’s one of my favourite projects, Shiraz Slippers

They’re made from one hank of Cascade 220 , and they’re an easy knit (in the round). If I’m dawdling it takes me an evening to complete one slipper. I’ve worn them ad infinitum around my house. When they get a bit grungy I wash them, even with the suede soles, for which I’ve included a template in the book. I really recommend the soles. They add a nonslip factor and make the slippers look professional. A friend asked me where I bought mine!

To a pair I made for India I added quilted insoles, made with liberty lawn, quilted on my machine and sewed to the insides. They add a little je-ne-sais-quoi………

I plan to make these for all the girls in my life.

Here’s a couple more images from the book:

July Gloves

Everyday Cardigan

I had a eureka moment recently.

It started with me turning on tv for the first time in months and what just happened to be on the screen? A glamorous Amanda Seyfried talking knitting with Ellen DeGeneres. I was struck by the way it was being discussed as you would discuss any other kind of hobby, like fishing, golf, cooking, gardening. No one said “Oh, I’ve heard knitting is hip”…..

Thankfully, the USA seems to have gotten over that phase. Knitting just IS. Popular. Empowering. Acknowledged. Main stream. Phew.

When I moved down here to NZ in 2007 I was disappointed by the negative attitudes to knitting. Sure, it was popular in some quarters, but much less so than in the USA. This puzzled me, because worldwide, New Zealand is known as the land of sheep, and I knew that there were knitters hiding in plain sight. Whenever someone exclaims that knitting is popular I sigh and wish that it were universally true. In my knitting classes I’ve met women who are laughed at and teased by their co-workers because they knit. Comments like “oh you’re such a granny” are common. The derision comes not so much from men, but from other women.

I think about this a lot. Why I knit. Why others don’t. Why some who know how to knit choose not to, or make fun of those of us who do.

Recently a thoughtful woman asked me about my dedication to knitting. She told me that she never learned to knit because her mother was a bra-burning feminist who was determined to discard the shackles of domesticity that her own mother had felt burdened by.

This was my epiphany.

My mum always had a job. She needed to earn money. Her weekends were spent doing all the domestic things she loved, that she didn’t have time for during her working week. She sewed, knitted, gardened, cooked, raised chickens. I realized that to her, domesticity was a luxury and an escape from the drudgery of, yes, work!  She passed that feeling to me and my sister, and we never felt the need to toss off her apron strings. We’ve both had careers, but we didn’t discard the wonderful creative hobbies of our mother. Why would we when we saw what pleasure our Mum derived from them?

Here she is in our kitchen in Christchurch, probably on a Saturday, curlers in her hair, looking happy to be at home and in her element.

My Mum worked until she retired at 65. Much of her working life was during the 50s and 60s when it was unfashionable for women to work in much the same way it’s now unfashionable not to. Retirement was a thrill for her. She thrived on spending every day being productive at home.

I thank her for giving me her work ethic and a love of making things.

Here she is with my father, wearing her favourite blue and white crocheted dress. She was emancipated in another way too: her naturally black hair started turning grey when she was in her 20s, and she never dyed it, except for a blue tint in the 60s. Credit must be given to my Dad, who encouraged her to keep her natural colour every time she felt the pressure to dye it.