the heart of winter

The sun has been shining and we've been having wintry beach adventures on the Bass Strait!
LOVE!

The parade of knitwear...someone's mother is a wee bit obsessed....

yep, that's her...

  and a hearty craft project!

We are making a family of Sami people, nomadic reindeer herders from the Arctic! and Inspired by a most divine book: Children of the Northlights by the incredible artist couple Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire. Such incredibly beautiful illustrations!
It seems very fitting we are making these warmly clad folk in the heart of winter, and having just oh so myuch fun with the details! The hats! The embroidery and little shawls. The shoes with the curled up toes for holding on skis, and darned if I'm not going to whip up some little skis any minute!

not finished yet! The reindeer needs antlers, and where's the teepee!!

And!  What's on the needles??

Here is Hitch, a design by Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark, and appearing in Brooklyn Tweed's Wool People 5: a jumper (sweater/pullover) for moi! It's a very fun pattern, knit in pieces (my lord, seaming!), and a bit of cable and simple lace pattern at the front.
I'm using Rowan Felted Tweed DK in Clay.
Yarning Along with Ginny!
And reading this magnificent children's book by one of my all time favourite illustrators: Mitsumasa Anno. ANNO'S FLEA MARKET. No text just pages and pages of fascinating market stalls in a medieval town square. Love it!

ravelled here

AND Frontier Dreams'  Keep Calm Craft On (very wise advice!)

keep calm craft on

Yesterday my middle child had a "mental health" day off school, and she spent the afternoon starting a toy elephant. The elephant is a project often done in Steiner schools here in Australia to compliment the Ancient Indian epoch the children are immersed in.

We had such a blissful time, me finally getting around to fixing up my Steiner/Waldorf craft scrapbook and lending a helping hand and my girl patiently going through the steps of making an elephant.
I felt our afternoon working side by side was very special, and to me was a clear reminder of what parenting and creativity is all about for me. I didn't really get much "done", except a bit of pasting, but my girl was very pleased with the time with me, and her progress with her pink Elephant.

Lately I have heard a lot of conversations around motherhood and creativity, about "having it all",  living your creative dreams, earning a living from said creative dreams... In fact I've heard so much of this talk that I have started to feel unsettled, anxious even, questioning my choice to stay home with the children full time, questioning my own validity as a creative soul. Should I be doing more, working on big projects, earning more, making more....

And I've had a few thoughts:
For me, mothering is innately creative, probably due to the fact that children are innately creative. I am inspired by children and inspired to see them play, make things, hear them sing, marvel at their curiosity, marvel at how they grow and learn. I've also decided what I want most is to be around my children. I have a full time job. Mothering. There's not a lot of time (or energy!) for developing a career right now. And I'm okay with that.
I am also an intensely creative person. I knit ferociously, I obsess about colours, I sing, my kids sing, we make stuff. I guess we kinda bumble around in a bit of a creative mist.
Even though I may not be recognised as creatively "successful" by the outside world, an afternoon making things with my lovely daughter felt like a real moment. And validation that our small creative path in the domestic sphere is enough. It is special. That this is nourishing the world in a tiny precious unpredictable sort of way.
That's all I've got to say on the topic for now!
Hope you enjoy the snaps!

linking to
Nicole's Keep Calm Craft On

the blanket

We made a blanket for Roger. A knitted gift. From his devoted class of 16 children aged 11 and 12 years whom he had taught for 6 years.
In August a box arrived from Peace Fleece containing 22 balls of yarn. That's 4400 yards (4026 metres).

I knit up a sample piece to inspire the children.

The "knitting bees" began; mostly Saturday mornings and some after school. It was such a joy sitting knitting with these young people, who obviously loved and respected their teacher so much.

There was lots of chatting, including coming to the realisation that Roger wouldn't be their teacher for very much longer. The making of this blanket was a healing, a transition process,  an act of love and gratitude. Appoximately  242,000 stitches worth.

We ended up with 35 squares to somehow fit together, and after arranging the squares in strips of similar size,  ended up having to knit a few extra squares to make it all fit properly.

We also had to consider the squares which spelled out his name, Roger!

I then joined my circular needle cables together from my addi click set and cast on stitches along one edge at a time and knit a 14 row garter stitch edging, alternating grey and colour rows.
Finished 5pm on the night of the graduation party and presented to their beloved teacher, who was pretty overwhelmed.

 He said: "I will treasure it forever"

A Crafty Education.

We visited an Australian Steiner/Waldorf School Fair this morning and I busied myself gasping with amazement and snapping photos of all the incredible craft work!

It must feel like such an achievement for the children, to look upon their craft work over the years. They must feel so capable, so self sufficient , to be able to make such useful and beautiful things!

First was the Pre-school/ Kindergarten work! Plant dyed wool (except for the blue which was food dye) pom poms, oodles of finger knitting, stitching on loose hessian and Knitting Nancies.

Class 1 : more pom poms, first attempts at knitting, stitched recorder bags, knitted lambs(from squares).

 Class 2: Knitted animals, "starburst sticth" pillows, needles holder case, simple weavings.

 Class 3: cross stitch (see my post), bags with stitching and weaving, knitted beanies and toys...

 

 Class 4: the magnificent fair isle knitting! Bags, toys..., picture tapestries based on Norse mythology...

 

Class 5: the introduction of crochet, ponchos, hats, bags, toys and picture weavings

 Class 6: Dolls!!!!