"I am not afraid of storms…”

“...for I am learning how to sail my ship."

There’s a much-discussed analogy about life being a piece of music. Something we’re supposed to enjoy while it’s happening rather than focus only on the ending.

Well, Philly-Fans, I feel I’m making the decision to dance along rather than trying to skip the track.

I’ve been living and working in London for about 6 years now. At first it was exciting and fun but over the past 18 months or so it’s dawned on me that I don’t actually like my day-to-day existence very much.

My job is very stressful, my commute is very stressful, and once I get home I just want to sit in my pyjamas and knit. I’m not taking advantage of living in London but I’m getting all the disadvantages. 

So why am I doing this? Wishing away my weeks but being so tired on the weekends I don’t do anything? Never seeing my friends? Always worrying?

Well these are questions CB and I have been asking ourselves for a little while now, and we’ve slowly come to the decision that it makes no sense. This is not how life has to be. This is not a situation we are stuck in. This is our life and we have control over how we spend it.
To that end, we are moving. Moving jobs, moving house, moving lives. Moving, in fact, about 200 miles from where we currently are to live in the north of England. Better jobs with more income, more autonomy, and shorter commutes, in an area known for friendly people, good quality of life, and being more affordable.

And it’s terrifying, my god it’s terrifying, but it’s also really exciting. I’m taking stock of what I have and comparing it to what I want, and I’m turning one into the other.


*Quote from Louisa May Alcott

“Everything will turn out alright…”

“…the world is built on that.”

I have talked at length about the amazing month-long holiday I recently took to New Zealand, but please allow me another post that references it.

As I mentioned here, CB and I had been searching in every wool shop we could find for something to float his woollen-scarf boat. Eventually we found this lovely shop:

And found some rather nice wool:

It took two trips to Fjordland House for CB to finally choose, but I think he chose wisely. He went with two colours – Oceanwave and Pukeko Blue – of a merino and brush possum blend. It has a vague halo and is nice and soft. I think it will make a lovely scarf, very warm and fuzzy.

As he’s a boy and he’s boring, CB didn’t want any kind of fancy scarf. He also made it clear that he wanted a scarf, not a cowl. This was one of the reasons we opted for two colours – if I can’t do an eye-catching pattern at least it can have a more interesting colour palate.

He agreed to the Rimu DK Ribbed Scarf (link here) which I think is a good mix of being reasonable plain and yet has a nice texture. CB also wanted a long and wide scarf so hopefully this fits the bill for that as well.

The wool did take a bit of beating flying home:

From this...

...to this!

But I’ve started knitting with it and it’s all going well. I wanted the darker blue at each end of the scarf so I weighed and split the ball. I should have counted lines really but I’m sure doing it by eye will work fair enough. The ribbing is very stretchy (obviously) so I will block it out to ensure the scarf is wide enough. 

Sorry I don’t have another FO to show you, but hopefully it won’t be too long until I can post the scarf shots!


*Quote from Mikhail Bulgakov

“And now that you don’t have to be perfect…”

“…you can be good.”

Having knitted a scarf for my Mother for her birthday I felt I had to do the same for my Father. His birthday is only 2 days after my Mum’s after all.

I used a pattern from a fantastic knitting blog Knitigating Circumstances (found here) by Kelly Sloan. It’s called Business Class Cowl (Ravelry link to the pattern can be found here) and has an interesting waffley stitch.

The original design used fingering weight wool, but I just used wool I had already so DK had to do. It’s really nice actually, Rowan Summerlite Cotton (colour Ocean), and hangs well.

My Dad does a lot of cycling and horse-riding so I thought a cowl would be more practical than a scarf. Don’t want the ends flailing and catching in something! Mental image of my Dad’s bike going one way and my Dad the other…

I’m starting to plan out my Christmas knitting as well. Might seem a tad pre-emptive, but I want to knit a toy and a piece of clothing for each of my niblings and it can get really dull! My friend Charlotte’s been asking me for a while to knit something for her Goddaughter so I think I can knit two of whatever I choose for my nice, save on wool purchasing. Don’t judge me, wool’s not cheap!

Anyway, I want to intersperse present knitting with selfish knitting, and I want to start early enough that I can take my time and not rush anything. Famous last words – flash forward to me panic-knitting at midnight late in December!

I want to knit another jumper for myself and I’d like a skirt. I also need to knit a scarf for CB (should probably do that next actually). Plus every time I peruse Ravelry I end up with a load more favourites… Who knew that knitting would be so addictive?



*quote from John Steinbeck.

“Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day…”

“…with no mistakes in it yet.”

Another FO (that’s Finished Object to we cool knittists) for you!

I finished this scarf for my Mother’s birthday at the end of April and it’s all blocked and done and lovely. One mistake – well, two mistakes – and otherwise it’s perfect. Well, not perfect, but leave me alone you didn’t make my Mum a handmade scarf. And if you did, well, that’s pretty weird.

ANYWAY to match the scarf I commissioned my cousin to make a brooch:

This is the only picture I have of it as it came in the post all wrapped up and I don’t want to disturb it. Here it is wrapped up:

The scarf was fun to knit. It has a knit slipped edge which makes it dead straight along one side:

And then some easy lace detail on the other side as well as increases/decreases:

My track record with lace isn’t great, I frogged the last bit I tried, but this has gone well. I got a couple of nice messages from Stella Ackroyd, designer of the Border Ballad pattern (Ravelry link to the pattern found here) which was really encouraging. I love how nice the knitting community is! So supportive.

The wool feels lovely while knitting too. I used Sublime Extra Fine Merino DK (Colour Julep) which was lovely and soft. Very elastic though, which made it tricky to get a consistent tension… Hopefully Mum will like it. Hopefully she’ll wear it. Hopefully she won’t see too many of the mistakes…

*quote from L. M. Montgomery

"I believe in dressing for the occasion. There's a time for sweater, sneakers and Levis…”

“…and a time for the full-dress jazz.”

A few bloglets ago I mentioned that I had taken up knitting in the middle of last year. Obviously I have had a few finished projects since then, but I thought I would write about my latest:

Terrible photo, I know. I need to work on my blog photography. 

This is the Paloma jumper designed by Kim Hargreaves in her Whisper book. Isn’t it nice? Here is the pattern picture for comparison:

http://www.kimhargreaves.co.uk/view-books/whisper/#3004-3004/611

It was quite a fun knit. The detailing is made through rows of wrap stitching, where instead of wrapping the yarn once round the needle, you wind it twice then drop the extra loops on the next row.

Here is a close up of the border, which I think is particularly nice:

This is my first grown up jumper (I’ve made a couple of cardigans for the niblings, and an abortive cardi for myself) and I’m very proud of it.

I didn’t use the suggested yarn (most of the yarns in Kim’s book are discontinued or out of my price range) but I think this drapes well. I haven’t blocked it, I’m not sure it needs it. It’s a baggy jumper, which I wanted. It’s been noted elsewhere that Rowan designs seem to come out a bit large, but this works in my favour. I wanted a slouchy jumper that was still work appropriate, and this fits the bill perfectly.

Of course, now everyone wants me to knit them one too!



*Quote from Ginger Rogers

“Farewell sweet earth...”

"... and northern sky"

(Should really be southern sky, you you gotta work with what you got)


One last New Zealand post to show our route in full:

North Island

South Island

Copyright blah blah blah for our annotated Rough Guide maps. 


*Quote from J.R.R. Tolkien

“I am glad you are here with me…”

“…Here at the end of all things, Sam.”

1. Friday 17th March

Left Wanaka for Queenstown. We stopped by Arrowtown but bypassed the Chinese village (not enough time!) and wandered along the river there, re-enacting LotR once again ("If you want him, come and claim him!")

We also stopped by Kawarau Bridge where AJ Hackett do their bungee jumping. We stopped to get a great view of the river for another LotR moment - the river Anduin and (I think) the Gates of Argonath.

It felt like the beginning of the end of the holiday at this point so I think we tried to squeeze all we could out of where we went. Alas, Queenstown proved a little tricky for us to do that.

There’s surprisingly little to do in Queenstown if you’re not into thrill-seeking or skydives etc. And what there is left to do is really expensive! For instance, we could have got the cable car (or ‘gondola’ as they call it *eye roll*) but at NZ$30 a pop we decided against it.

2. Saturday 18th March
Queenstown again. We should have walked up into the mountains today, but we just didn’t want to! The sun was shining and we weren’t very enthused by the City, so we just basked in the sunshine and did puzzles. So rock and roll.

3. Sunday 19th March
We drove to Te Anau – not a lot there either to be honest, but there are fantastic views. We also went to the cinema to watch Ata Whenua – Shadowland, a 30min cinematographic film of the fjordland which was absolutely fantastic. Whet the whistle for Milford Sound, even if we knew we wouldn’t be able to get to the incredible unexplored country in the film.

We also visited the Punanga Manu o Te Anau (Te Anau Bird Sanctuary) which was well worth a stop. We didn't get to see Kiwis as we didn't visit at the right time of day, but we did see paradise shelducks, käkäs (forest parrots), and (stars of the show) gorgeous big blue flightless takahë.

On the way to Te Anau we drove out along a long gravel road to see the Mavora Lakes. About 10mins along the road I was regretting it, but honestly the views and the peace are so worth it. We stopped for a picnic by the water and quoted the Fellowship of the Ring at each other (Mavora Lakes is where they shot the scene at the end when Frodo tries to leave without Sam, and Sam runs into the water after him and almost drowns and I’m TEARING UP AT THE THOUGHT).

4. Monday 20th March
Driving from Te Anau to Milford Sound – there are so many stops and walks and things to pick and choose from! We saw the mirror lakes:

Saw some ridiculously tall waterfalls:

This is the mid-section.
Imagine it going further up and further down.

Some beautiful woodland:

And amazing rapids and rock erosion at the Chasm:

Everything is so beautiful, every sight and colour and view is turned up to 11.

5. Tuesday 21st March
Our first night in Milford Sound was in a shared dorm. We were in with two other people who both took the bottom bunks and who both snored. Never again!

The boat trip today completely made up for it though. We ummed and ahhed about which time to go (weather was cloudy but supposedly clearing later in the day) and we lucked out as we chose the perfect time and the perfect trip.

We went in the middle of the afternoon when the clouds had cleared, and we paid extra and went on the smallest boat. We got soaked by a 'waterfall of youth' and saw some happy-go-lucky dolphins too.

 

We also got dropped at the Discovery Centre when everyone else had left so we had the run of the place and all the fishies to ourselves!

I loved it. Loved it. I wouldn’t want to live here though – they had 21 straight days of heavy rain in summer, 200 days of rain a year (7+metres) and if there’s no rain for 6 days it’s officially classed as a drought! It is beautiful when it rains, but I think that kind of drizzle would get you down after a while.

6. Wednesday 22nd March
Te Anau again!

This time we got stuck into the wool shop! We had been looking in every wool shop in every town, but CB is unpredictably picky about wool. He wanted it really soft, certain colours, and not too expensive. Well I’m sorry bub but that doesn’t exist! We did find some he liked, after coming and going and coming back. Possum and Merino mix.

I’ll write another bloglet when I get round to knitting it into his NZ scarf…

7. Thursday 23rd March
We had originally planned to go back to Queenstown for our last couple of nights, stay in a fancy hotel and enjoy ourselves. But, as we didn’t love the city on our first try we weren’t about to waste our last couple of nights there!

Instead we drove to the other side of the island and visited Dunedin! 100% one of the best decisions we made. The drive was long and flat and without many stops (though we did get through a significant number of Bruce Springsteen albums) but we made it to Taiaroa Head for a late lunch. Looking out onto the seals and albatross, we knew we had made a good decision!

Hungry for more wildlife, we drove back south to Sandfly Bay and settled down to watch the sunset and the penguins come in. Top tip #whatever number we’re up to – Sandfly Bay is named for the flying sand, not the biting buggers. So me getting bug spray in my eye was entirely unnecessary.

We spent a good few hours there but couldn’t find the bird hide (turns our it’s closed) and I wonder if us being there scared the penguins off. We did see one. One crazy Yellow-Eyed Penguin scrambling up a near-vertical sand dune. That’s perseverance, my friend.

8. Friday 24th March
Dunedin is lovely. It’s very steep and pretty windy, but it feels familiar, it feels like I could live there.

We visited the Chinese Gardens first, which are meticulously put together to be true to its roots (geddit?) and it absolutely pays off. It’s beautiful, peaceful, and educational. Another happy place.

We spent hours in the Toitū Otago Settlers Museum, which was absolutely fantastic. Better than I thought it would be, and I didn’t think it would be bad! We saw detritus from the settlers and read about the history of Otago, and then passed into the ‘modern’ exhibition. I always think these aren’t as good, but this was fantastic! I learnt so much about the modern history of New Zealand and about The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (Dunedin Study) which sounds boring but was so good I will now spend about 3 hours reading about it online. Excuse me.

We ended the day at Speights Brewery, a tour of the facilities and then an open bar.

I liked that. I liked that a lot.

9. Saturday 25th March
We had to leave Dunedin reasonably early to drive back to Queenstown to fly home L

Bought last minute gifts and snacks (including a nail-biting ride to make it to a LotR store before dropping Ron the Porn Car back in time) but honestly the less said the better. I had a cold, CB had a bad tummy, and we were both sad to be leaving a country we had adored so much.

10. Sunday 26th March
Flying, then home.

New Zealand, thank you for one of the best months of my life.

I will return.




*Quote from J.R.R. Tolkien