floating world

a teal vest

The vest is finished and I'm really happy with it. I love the teal blue, especially with Ali's eyes, and it is very easy to get on and off, and soft and snuggly.  I made the same size as in the pattern, and it is perfect: not too big to wear now, but a little roomy, so it should hopefully fit for the rest of winter and into spring.

Thank you so much to Sooz for sharing the pattern. The details of my vest are all over on Ravelry, and there is a photo of it being modeled here.

And thanks for the comments on the last post, it made me feel much better about the stroller situation!

this is..... my best op shop find (& some other things)

This is a recent discovery: Last Saturday Mark, Ali and I were pottering around in Camperdown, enjoying the sunshine, when we stumbled on a clearance auction house. There were all manner of treasures inside: vintage tea sets, old postcards, retro furniture... all piled high and covered in dust. The thing that caught our eyes straight away was this dolls house. I left an absentee bid and by Tuesday it was mine for a paltry amount.

It is nice chunky wood and beautifully made - all it needs is a bit of a polish and maybe some new curtains. I'm not sure just how Ali will play with it (right now it is a useful support as he does wobbly laps around the room, holding on to furniture) but I'm hoping it will be part of lots of imaginative playtime in the future.

Thank you to Three Buttons for organising "This is..." and to Lino Forest for this week's topic. It's always fun to play along.

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Right now it is a gorgeous sunny Sunday morning, Mark and Ali are sleeping in upstairs and I am making the most of the quiet to drink coffee, play on Ravelry, read the paper and hang washing out in the sun. Later we are planning to head to Cockatoo Island to see some of the Biennale. Days like this make me think Sydney is a fantastic place to live... I can't believe it is midwinter and I can go out in a skirt and no tights and not be cold.

Update: Cockatoo Island was fantastic, highly recommended. There are free ferries there from in front of the MCA for the duration of the Biennale (until Sept. 7). I am keen to (i) go back and see more of the art, we saw a bit today but we spent more time just exploring the island and (ii) camp there for the weekend once the Biennale is over and the days get a little longer.

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A brief aside - usually this is my happy space and I don't like to dwell on bad things or daily irritations, but I would just like to say "Bad Karma to you!" to whoever took my stroller this week. And, Sydney residents, if you should see anyone pushing a stroller with a liner that looks like this please shake your fist at them and shout "Boo! Hiss!"

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And, since this is already the randomest post ever, here are a couple of blogs I have started reading lately and love.
Garance
Yarned
The Toy Society

wonderful basket

There's been a meme going around, and one of the questions is about where were you ten years ago. It made me realise that ten years ago I was in Zimbabwe; it was midyear break during my first year at uni, and I went there on holiday with my family. It was an incredible holiday, my first (and only) time in Africa so there were so many new sights, sounds and experiences. While I was in Harare I bought this basket, now it lives in my study and holds a pile of mending. With Zimbabwe so much in the news right now I think of the person who made it when I see it, and the other people we met there, and wonder how they are faring.

chickpea and apricot cake (+ some links)

It was cold and grim this weekend, so perfect for baking. I made a huge batch of baby food for Ali, an apple and rhubarb crumble and this chickpea and apricot cake. It was really yummy, and since it has chickpeas in it I feel quite virtuous eating it.

125g dried apricots
300ml apricot nectar
2 cups cooked chickpeas (1 can)
3/4 cup brown sugar
250g sifted self-raising flour
100g (1 cup) dessicated coconut
50ml olive oil
4 egg whites

Preheat the oven to 170 C. Grease and line the base of a 10 x 23cm loaf tin.
Soak apricots and nectar in a bowl for 20 minutes. Transfer to a saucepan, and simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add chickpeas, and cook for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Place in a food processor and blitz until smooth. Add the sugar and blend for a few more seconds. Tip into a bowl, and fold in the flour, coconut and a pinch of salt. Add the oil and 100ml of water, and stir to make a smooth batter.

In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold into the batter until combined. Pour into the loaf pan and bake for 1 hour, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. (If it browns too quickly, cover with foil.) Turn onto a wire rack to cool.

Dust with icing sugar, and serve warm with natural yogurt and honey. Or leave it to cool, make a drizzle icing with some icing sugar and warm water, and sprinkle dessicated coconut on top.

(This is from an old issue of Delicious magazine, but I cut the recipe out and stuck it in a folder so I have no idea which one - sorry!)

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Some Links:
I really like the colours and contrasts in Jan Vorman's work Dispatchwork... he fixed old Italian walls with Lego. So cool, see photos here.
And I finally finished reading Three Cups of Tea, which I loved. It's such an inspiring story, and I learned a lot about the culture and history of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the way that people live there. I highly recommend the book, and you can find out more work about Greg Mortensen and the Central Asia Institute here and here.

this is ... the space in which I create

Since we moved into our house almost a year ago I have, for the first time, a dedicated space for my "stuff". It's only little, about two by three meters, but enough space for a couple of desks, a filing cabinet and a bookshelf.

It means that I no longer have to keep the sewing machine in a cupboard and take over the dining room table to sew, or have the computer in the living room, which is wonderful.

This is where I work, sew, plan and potter. The boxes on the shelf store all my fabric, wool, gocco supplies and other crafty bits and pieces, and the file boxes are full of old magazines, knitting patterns and  notebooks. It's a bit of a mess, but I love spending time here. And the best bit is that if Ali wakes up when I'm half way through something I can just close the door, leaving it set up until the next nap.

(Thank you to quilting mick for the "This is..." theme.)

brighter

When I was pregnant with Ali I did a bit of research into prams and strollers, and decided to get a Maclaren Vogue. It was light, compact and inexpensive, and according to the almighty Choice they are safe and reliable. Overall I have been really happy with the stroller - we've used it since day 1, it doesn't take up too much room in the boot and Ali seems comfy in it.

However, I have one gripe. It is very, very grey.

I'm not a fan of all the orange and lime fluro baby gear, but I do like a bit of colour. I've been thinking about making a stroller cushion like this for months, ever since reading Kat's post about strollers, but kept putting it off due to lack of naps and other distractions. Once I bit the bullet and sat down to make it, it took all of 90 minutes, so I wish I'd started earlier. This one was made from Ikea fabric, a bit of wadding and some bias tape. Now I've worked out the measurements I have plans for more... perhaps a patchwork one from Cloth scraps? It is the perfect way to use up bits of fabric and bigger prints. I love it when a sewing project works out just how I imagined it, and all the better when it's as quick and simple as this one.

(What I think Maclaren really needs is a Pimp My Ride-style makeover option, to equip the strollers with leopard-print seat covers, sub woofers, flashing lights and disco balls. It would be fabulous, no?)

this is... my favourite travel memory

I've been enjoying everyone's this is... posts, so thought I'd play along this week.

This photo was taken in September 2003. Mark and I were living in London, and as our summer holiday we spent two weeks travelling around western Turkey; Istanbul, Gallipoli, Cappadocia... basically the usual tourist circuit. The whole holiday was fabulous, but I really loved the three nights that we spent on a wooden sailing boat on the Mediterranean. The rest of the trip was packed with sightseeing, but for those three days we just lazed in the sun, went snorkelling, played backgammon and read books. The water was beautiful and I remember swimming over an old Roman graveyard - you could still see the tombstones underneath, amazing and slightly creepy. The cabins on the boat were tiny and smelly so we slept on deck, and it was an amazing feeling to be rocked off to sleep and then wake up with the water all around me.

The book I'm reading in the photo is "A Fez of the Heart" which I loved - digging this photo out has made me want to read it again. 

Thanks to Hila for this week's theme.

another very good thing

Add-Art, found via Keri Smith. A quick download for Firefox and all ugly web ads are replaced by rotating art exhibitions. The current one is all ukiyoe, Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, which I love. Hooray!

knitting in the rain

It's been wet all week here, which makes keeping an energetic 9 month old entertained challenging. So far we've been staying (mostly) sane with trips to Gymbaroo and the library. Our local library is great - it has nursery rhyme sessions for babies several times a week, and a great toy section. Yesterday we picked up a xylophone / piano thing for Ali, which he has been bashing away at enthusiastically, and some knitting books for me. The one I'm most excited about is Natural Knits for Babies and Mums - there are some really lovely projects, including a cushion that looks perfect for using up my scraps of Blue Sky Alpacas Cotton and a very sweet boys kimono.

Other rays of sunshine: I am knitting away on Ali's version of Wil's vest. The pattern is fabulous and I love working with the cashmerino. It is especially pleasing that the colour matches so nicely with my knitting bag, which was made by the very talented Allison. And Ali had a massive nap this morning so I had time to sort out my knitting stash, and organise it all on Ravelry - very satisfying. And I cooked lamb shanks for dinner last night, which is perfect wet weather food. And I'm reading Three Cups of Tea, which is amazing and inspirational and puts any gripes I may have into perspective. And Momo is being very cuddly, and is currently asleep on my lap. So despite the weather life is pretty good.

paper dolls

I love paper dolls. I have a bunch of beautiful old-fashioned Queen Holden ones that I bought last year, inspired by Amy's framed doll. And the same bookstore in Wentworth Falls that had the vintage knitting patterns also had a whole lot of paper doll sticker books. (It was my perfect bookstore).

The books have dolls on laminated cardboard, and then sticker clothes that you can take on and off. I spent ages choosing which one to get, before settling on Aiko, who is Japanese, and Maya, who has a range of outfits from different regions of India. So cool!

I'm not quite sure where my paper doll fixation came from, but I am sure it is linked to my childhood passion for playing dress up, Fashion Plates, dress up puzzles (like this one) and those flip books (like this).

Update: Hillary has just posted about some gorgeous new Wee Wonderfuls paper dolls that are in her shop now - they are so cute!

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Other things - is anyone else being driven crazy by the new Typepad compose interface? It makes my browser run really slow, randomly underlines things and refuses to remember my preferences. I am also being driven crazy by Blurb, because I want to make a book out of my Japan-era blog entries and it won't connect to Typepad to import them. Has anyone out there done this successfully?