1/52..

a portrait of my daughter, once a week every week in 2015...

olive: snuggling into bed between us, she wakes with a big "mwaah" and plants wet kisses on our faces..

I was hesitant to join in with the wonderful 52 project this year, I didn't finish last year and I don't like not seeing something through to the end.  But this morning, lying in bed with this little darling nattering sweet nothings and planting endless wet kissees, I was reminded that its these very moments I want to record and remember forever.

I have documented so much here of the boys in my early years of blogging, but now that they're getting older they are much more difficult to capture in a moment, and much less willing for me to share.  So perhaps this year will just be her, and perhaps I'll manage to see it through to the end.

join beautiful jodi and her project here..

one word..2015

nurture ~ to foster care, nourish, encourage, cultivate..

And so, we farewell the year that was and welcome in the new.

My 2014 was, well, momentous actually.  There were so many significant moments of varying emotion.  The weight of grief, the terror of bushfires, elation, gratitude and joy for the simplicity of life and the gifts that surround us.

It's a year that I am pleased to see come to a close, while at the same time, feeling overwhelmingly grateful for experiences that have challenged me, enlightened me and changed me.

I'm still learning to embrace the changes, they go way down deep, and so the word I choose this year needs to open me up and be a constant reminder.

My word this year will be nurture. It's a lot broader than to just nurture myself, I know I need to do that.  Finding balance, taking care of myself in order to take care of my family, it goes without saying, and I need to give this much greater priority.  But to nurture also needs to be about giving back, and it needs to be far less about me.  I want to nurture the foundations that surround me, within my family, my community, and the village that I want to be a part of.

What's your 'one word' for the year ahead?  You can share it with Bron..

Happy New Year to you, friends.  May 2015 bring all that you hope for x

the extra long, extra lovely scarf..

I know we're in our very first days of summer here, but I've had a bee in my bonnet about making this scarf since I posted this one a little while ago.

I found myself some chunky cotton in just the right shade and couldn't wait to get started.  It's extra length and can wrap around me twice! But I love it all loose and dangly, and I can see that it's going to be a staple next winter, especially with that tan clutch those tiny fingers are trying to reach up there.

In fact, I might even have been wearing it curled up on the couch some nights recently, but who can blame me..

2014..on reflection

All of a sudden we are here in December!  Beach bags at the ready, alfresco dinners and sand between our toes..oh, yes please!

2014 is coming to a flying end, and I woke yesterday, the first day of summer, reflecting on the year that has been. 

My body tired, my mind weary and my heart a little heavy.  Its been a year of great loss, with the passing of two beautiful members of our extended family.  The sadness becomes a part of your everyday, but you don't always acknowledge that its there.  You worry about other family members and how they're feeling, if they're coping, the enormous weight of grief they must be carrying in their hearts.  Though there is comfort in the fact that our family is so big and so very wonderful. We are lucky.

Then in October, we welcomed my darling niece into the world.  My baby brother's first baby, what an absolute joy! Seeing my brothers become fathers, and watching our family grow is really something very beautiful.

Its been a year so busy and so distracted, that I feel changed.  Hopefully for the better, I'm not sure yet, my head is still spinning.  My mantra for this year has been 'let go', and boy, have I had to let go! Let go of everything being so perfect, let go of commitments that were not a priority, to not be as available to school as I would have liked, to not care so much about what everyone else might expect of me, or what they might think of my absence everywhere.

To let go this year has been my survival mechanism.  Sometimes for the better and if I'm honest, also to the detriment of this family and these little people that are my whole world.

I came across our very favourite christmas story book recently, it's tradition to read a story from it every night in the month of december, and a sudden realisation hit me like a tone of bricks, 'we haven't been reading bedtime stories! When did we stop reading bedtime stories??' I don't even remember!  I picked up that christmas book and we started that very night.

Ever so gradually, our priorities had shifted.  Work went to the top, managing the house close second, and everyone else fitting in the gaps.  I'm sad to say, that somewhere along the way I let go of the values I held most dear, being available to my family.  I could see it happening, too.  But trying to stay on top of everything else was completely consuming.  I was forgetting things, important things, life was spinning out of control.  Then I got really sick with a shocking flu.  My boys were so wonderful, offering to help with all kinds of things, giving me extra hugs, doing their best to behave and not fight (at least so they didn't think I could hear them).  Through endless fevers and aches I worked, got them to school and back, made dinner (of sorts) each night and cried, I cried a lot, at the craziness of it all.

After a week the fevers broke, and everything looked different.  The illness was gone and with it, the distorted way of living life I'd become accustomed to over the last few months. I can't ever get that time back, but I can make sure I do not let it happen again.  Remembering to be in the smallest of moments.  Sitting in silence.  Listening to my kids, and talking with them, not at them.

Of course, this time of year has a way of becoming manic, with all the tying up of loose ends, preparing for christmas, school books and uniforms for next year, and so many dates to remember. It's busy, but I will make lists, I'll plan ahead and I will not loose my way like that again.

A new clearer, brighter year is just around the corner, but for now I'm just looking forward to our christmas break and living each beautiful day with the blessings that surround me.

the blossom cowl..a pattern

Here it is! It's the Blossom Cowl pattern requested by so many of you.  Even though we're heading into much warmer months down here in Aus,  you might make it a little summertime project, all ready to wear in plenty of time for Autumn. For all those who are rugging up in your winter woolies right now, the timing is perfect to start something new!

I think this is one of the prettiest crochet stitches of all, and although its finished products look quite complex and detailed, it's actually very straightforward.  Like most of my work, it's simply one stitch repeat, repeat, repeat!   

To begin, you will need:

• 200gm in your choice of 8ply yarn
• 5.00mm crochet hook *
• tapestry needle
• scissors

The stitch we are using here is the shell stitch, and a single shell is made up of:

• double crochet (dc)
• treble crochet (tr)
• single crochet (sc)

When working a shell stitch we work in increments of 6 (one shell for every 6 chains).


Let's go!


Chain (ch) 120, plus 2

First Row..
be sure to push your hook through both top stitches of the chains in your foundation chain, this will ensure you have the scalloped edge at the bottom of your cowl (see third pic).

1 double crochet (dc) into the second last ch, skip 2 ch, 5 treble (tr) into the third ch, skip 2 ch, 1 dc into the third = one shell.
Continue all the way to the end of your foundation chain, then ch 1 (turning ch) and turn your work

Second Row..
3 tr ** into the first dc (we only work 3 tr at the ends, the rest of the row work 5 tr per shell), skip 2, 1 dc into the third, skip 2, 5 tr into the third, skip 2, 1 dc into the third and repeat to the end

Continue this until your cowl is at the required length, this usually uses the full 200gm, but be sure to allow enough yarn for stitching up your seam.

To stitch up your seam, fold the cowl in half so that each row is lined up and carefully thread with your tapestry needle. Tie off, weave in the ends and voila!
Of course you might choose to work your cowl into the round and avoid a seam altogether.  Or you might like to leave it open and pop a button or brooch  on to keep it in place.

*the size of your hook can vary depending on your yarn and wether you generally work your tension tight or loose, it can vary from one person to the next.

**I like to treble 3 at the end as it gives the work a neater finish.


So there you have it.  I hope this is easy for you to follow.  We had a practice at The Craft Sessions recently and I've since made some amendments to really break it down.

making as medicine..

I tell you, you people are very lovely.  I have been inundated with pattern requests these last few months, such a compliment!  I must apologise for tardy responses and being oh so slow at getting those patterns up here for you, though. 

Firstly, there's the simple lack of time to sit and think and write, and secondly, as you know, patterns are really so far out of my comfort zone, both the following and the writing!  

But I will do my very best, bare with me,  I'm so looking forward to sharing them with you all. 

To be perfectly honest, I struggle to know where to begin, I think perhaps I over-complicate it in my mind.  My pieces are very simple, using straightforward, repetitive stitches.  I enjoy the simple rhythm, and therapeutic nature of the making.

I had a very special moment with a beautiful friend recently.  She told me that making for me is medicinal.  It's my medicine.  I'd never looked at it this way, but she's right.  Time to stop and crochet those repetitive stitches are as valuable to me as a yoga class or taking time out to myself.

What she said next made me cry happy tears.  She said that when I make, I'm sharing my medicine. Sharing the calm, nurturing qualities that those pieces hold.  Woah!  I love this, and it makes perfect sense to me.  You know that feeling you get when someone asks you to make something for them, or when you have the perfect gift in mind and you can't wait to get started?  It's all about how it makes you feel.  Its a part of you, and the love you put into creating for someone else.

So, anyway, I just wanted to share that with you all and to assure you that my pattern posts are on their way, and I hope that through these you are able to share the love of making as medicine, too.

thirteen..

Can you believe it, thirteen!  I can't.

This beautiful boy who fills me with awe, and pride and so much love.  

I look at him and he makes me smile.  Actually, I look at him and listen to him talk, with his shakey pitchy voice, and I can't help but giggle.  Watching him move into this new phase of his life is giving us so much joy right now. I know things will most likely change, that's what they say isn't it, the years ahead are supposed to be our toughest yet. But right now, he is joy, and we are loving watching him grow.

I listen to his thoughts, his ideals, his plans for the future and I'm so overwhelmed by all that he is and all he might be. I'm also completely terrified as his independence broadens, of all that lies ahead in the near and distant future, and I pray that he is wise and sensible and has good judgement.

This boy who made me a mother has taught me so much, and we continue to learn from one another every day. He's always been a little beyond his years, an old head on young shoulders, perhaps experiences have shaped him this way. He's faced a lot of challenges in his young life already, and its been hard, really hard.  He doesn't realise just yet, but through his courage he's made a difference, and that's a pretty incredible thing.

Now, as I watch him grow, I don't see him changing so much as I see him becoming more of who he is. His confidence, his humour, his expectations and perceptions.  It's like watching a butterfly ever so gradually emerge, and I'm completely fascinated by him.

a pattern for you..

I've been overwhelmed by lovely people admiring my ribbed cowls lately, so I thought it was high time I shared the pattern with you all.

This one is  l u s h !  It's enormous and incredibly soft with super drape, and it is one of the fastest projects you will ever make.  I would love to see this as a simple long open ended scarf too, I think it would be quite stunning all loosely wrapped around and hanging.

Little feet interrupting my shoot and standing right in the middle of the cowl give you an idea of the scale.  It's big.

I chose 'Hudson' by Vera Moda for the yarn which is a wool/acrylic blend, simply because it was the fattest yarn I could find.  Something in a thick cotton or jersey could be nice too.  I have also used a 10mm hook to create the airy drape element.

Using this size yarn creates a cowl which measures approx. 60cm high x 48cm wide this might vary depending on your tension.  I like to keep my tension quite loose.

So to break it down..

350 grams of super chunky yarn (the actual size wasn't on the label)

10mm hook and loose hands for airy drape

To begin, I have chained 50 plus 1 (this is my turning stitch)

First Row..
1 treble into the back loop of each chain all the way to the end
chain 1 and turn your work

Second Row..
just like your first row, 1 treble into the back stitch of each treble in the previous row, do this all the way to the end
chain 1 and turn your work

Subsequent Rows..
Repeat as per row 2 until your work is the desired width

After about the third row, you'll be able to see the rib effect taking shape

To finish..
Tie off your yarn, leaving a long tail.  Make sure it's long enough to stitch your cowl's sides together.
Fold your cowl in half, the ribs running vertical (running straight up and down).
Using a tapestry needle, join your sides.  Be careful to keep your stitches neat and you'll find they will be almost invisible when you hold/wear your cowl.
Weave in your ends.

And that's that! So easy!

Give it a go and maybe you could do a post to show us your finished product.  If you do, share your link here in the comments, I'd love to see!