Do you remember my Moroccan Cross Stitch Cushion?  It looks a little bit like this...

It's raining today. I have a pot of tea with me, and I'm working my way through some intensive documentation for a client. What better way to take a break than to reflect on some happy stitching from this last week? And - lo! a Wednesday WIP post on a Wednesday? My, things are getting better around here.


I've finished the mint stripe on my Up & Away balloon. I love this stripe. It's not only marks the half-way mark on the balloon (not counting the bazillion rays of sunshine that go in the background, of course), it also marks a happy deviation from the pattern which turned out exactly how I had imagined it. While stitching in my mint green, I also recklessly abandoned the dots in between each star's top point which was supposed to be done in yellow and caramel brown. I think that the green is very light, and it just stands out as it is against the pink and yellow stars. I didn't want to complicate it with dots. That also meant that I had to go back and fill in stars where I'd skipped a block for the brown, but that wasn't too bad.


Okay, not all my stitches go the same way. That's mainly due to the stop-and-start nature of the project (I'd like to think). I really like the mint against the warm cocoa brown bunting, like an Aero Mint chocolate feast for the eyes. What an excellent pairing. Ho hum.


In between my stitching, I also cut out the appliqué letters for that bunting project I mentioned. Traced, applied, cut, ironed and voila. We have names. The bunting's going to need another ironing to straighten up those edges, though.


Here's the "boy bunting". I still really like this fabric, it's very cheery. The robots look like they're doing the hokey pokey.


This is my favourite square. Once I've finished sewing up all of the squares, I'm going to stitch around the appliqué letters in a matching thread and neaten it up.

We're off to Paris next weekend. I'm beside myself with excitement.

Winter is here. This weekend, the temperature dropped to a chilly 3'C. I spent most of the weekend faffing about in the lounge, picking up sewing bits, rearranging piles of fabrics, and trying not to let my winter sniffles develop into 'flu.

I also took a pattern from my favourite bag and sewed all the pieces together; it worked like a dream. I discovered that pattern-making isn't so bad, and that using the wrong fabric can be terrible for the final product. I used thick canvas-like cotton that I bought at the market. After cutting the edges, it frayed horribly and all the pieces were just slightly smaller than I wanted them to be. Ah well, I shall have to buy a little spot of oh-so-nice fabrics for more testing, won't I? At least the pattern turned out well.


There are some nice things about winter. I like being warm, inside, while it's cold outside. I like drinking hot tea and warming up from the inside. I like warm colours and snuggly blankets and snow. This will be my fourth snowy winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and I'm looking forward to snow balls, snow men, and that crunchy snowy underfoot noise you get as you traipse around in piles of soft white fluff. In Cape Town, this time of year is all about cocktails on the beach, swimming in the summer sun and enjoying braais outside with friends. I have snow. I'm not jealous. Not much, anyway.

The other thing I like about winter is warming up with hearty loaves of breads, homemade soups, and chutneys.


I suppose chutney is an all-year-round conserve, but I rather like the warmth of a good spoon of chilli chutney on a good hunk of steaming hot bread in the dead of winter. So, after realising that winter had hit, I gathered my fruits and vegetables, chopped them up into decent-sized chunks, and cooked them all into a thick, treacle-coloured chutney which managed to fill up four jam jars. With red spotted lids, I kid you not.


I love the hearty colours and eclectic ingredients that went into my delicious weekend chutney: oranges, chillies, apples, the hugest onion ever seen by man (a 600g whopper), dates, walnuts and a handful of chopped tomato cubes. Not to mention malt vinegar and muscovado sugar. It's funny how all of the Autumn colours melted down together to form a rich treacle brown - like a secret supply of autumn that's just a spoonful away when you're feeling glum in the white coldness of winter.

Yesterday was frantic. In fact, this week has been frantic and hectic and all things -ic. But sometimes, in amidst all the frenetic to-and-fro you have a moment.


This was my moment. I was walking to our Knit & Natter, a little late, had just come off of the sardine-packed tube, and was being pulled along the pavement with the crowds. The sky was lit up like a lightly toasted marshmallow with a roasty spires and trees burnt into the bit where you've gone too close to the fire. The twinkling car lights and street lamps instantly reminded me so much of the glow worms we used to get in the bottom of our garden when I was very little. It was like looking at the world with warm, rose-tinted glasses.

I stopped to take a picture and lo! somehow, everything just stopped for a second.

You'd never know that there was a queue of buses behind me, that people were shoving and shouting as they competed to get on first. That I was just a little late for the start of the natter. That my phone was frantically ringing. That the taxis were honking and stopping willy nilly on the side of the road. Sometimes photos are nice like that - they leave off things you'd rather not have in a picture.

This week's WIP update is all about new beginnings. I was unexpectedly kept at a client all day yesterday so I wasn't able to make it a Wednesday WIP, but these things happen: I was updating you all in spirit. Promise.

The first new beginning of the week is the new Knit & Natter group!



An EEWI-inspired group, our first Knit & Natter met last night at The Crown Pub, E3. It was a very pretty pub, with couches and large tables and candles. The hostess was anxious (knitting in public tends to do that to people) and the drinks were ridiculously overpriced (£6 for a glass of wine!), but it was a nice venue for a cosy gathering. Together we knit in the round, admired knitted boot cuffs, used giant chunky needles to make a snood for a chilly moped-rider and got a few rounds done on a pebble. There were pug puppies, chatty locals and bar snacks too.

I rather brilliantly left my glasses in my laptop bag, so I ended up with twisted yarn (subsequently cut) and a frustrated bag strap which I think I may replace with something more durable and less knitted - like leather - so I'm afraid no photos this time. Next time we'll be trying out a new venue that has better lighting.

We had a good chat about UFOs - unfinished objects, which are sort-of discarded WIPs - and confessed that we all had them. In fact, that's why I started updating a weekly Work In Progress post so that I'd be motivated to get through some of my projects.

My worst UFO is my Noni-Knitalong Ruffle Coat which I started in January this year. I have very nearly finished it (two rows left, with buttons to sew on), but I just don't like it. Not one bit. I think when we get further into winter I may wish I had a comfy purple knitted coat with pink beaded ruffled sleeves, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

I do have a plan to finish one of my UFOs soon though: last night at the K&N, the lovely Julie very kindly offered me some stuffing which I'm going to use to finish up my Moroccan Cross Stitch cushion! I'm really pleased about that.

But I digress. This post is about beginnings, not endings.


The second new beginning for the week is this: I'm making up a pattern for my very favourite cross-body sling bag. It's the kind of bag that everything fits into: books, notebooks, knitting - even a (small-ish) laptop, if you feel like carrying it. It has no lining, is double-sewn around the edges, and needs to be replaced thanks to a leaky blue pen that I can't seem to get out. At least you can't see the stain. I've cut out the pattern parts, and now I just have to go about figuring which one needs to be sewn first, and at what point I put the zip in if I want to add lining (do I? Hmm).



I really like this Cathedral Window Pincushion. I made it using this free pattern when I was learning how to sew and it has been well-used in the time since then! I like how colourful it all looks with the pearly pins sticking out of it and bits of embroidery floss strewn about. Organised chaos.


And the last new beginning for this week is a quick little project I'm making on request. I'm making two sets of bunting for two very lovely little people. This one, above, is for a girl.


This set is for a boy. This fabric is from the Makower Space range which I love love love. How can you not love rockets and spaceships and robots and swirly patterns in blue?



I'm going to appliqué their names on to the front of the bunting - and then pack them up and post them all the way to Sunny South Africa. I think that this may be one WIP that is finished sooner rather than later!

By the by, I just thought I'd explain some of those photographs with a small confession. I do a lot of work on the ironing board, mostly not ironing. It is such a good height, and it is a portable, practical little cutting table for small projects. So, an ironing board of some description usually features in my crafty projects as I always photograph them where they stand rather than arranging them. And, we have a few ironing boards. Things just happened that way. Phew.