photos from yesterdays walk

camelias in flower

waiting

the stone store basin

Kerikeri river

new roof for the stone store

excited - somebody might bring food!

birds everywhere

no tourists around

so peaceful

more birds

Stone Store with hat

maintenance work on Kemp House

looking back

flowering lillies

Pukeko

more flowers 

grapefruit

hi

last look

going home

sun bathing

another month

has gone, a very busy month, with the Creative Fibre Exhibition in town and Origins 30th anniversary celebration.
I have finally finished all commission work, which was a bit a nightmare. It didn't let me time to do 'real' things. Not sure if I want to do commissions again.
We finally made the decision not to go to Europe this year. Alex is on the waiting list for full hip replacement now, fingers crossed that it doesn't take too long.
Lots of arguments in the co-op about  the future which is not very nice. It makes me think to do my own thing in future. I don't want to compromise on quality for the sake of sales. This is not the main reason, what really makes me ill is all this 'bitchiness', smiling in ones face and cut the throat from the back.
I spend a lovely morning with my granddaughter down the basin. A clear sunny winter morning, well not winter in european sense. It is green here, just some trees have lost their leaves which shows the interesting bodies. The camellias are flowering, some of the lillies are already out, lots of paper whites are around and the magnolias show big flower buds. Lots of chickens were at the basin and all 6 geese came rushing along in case I might have some food. Sorry guys I forgot to take some bread with me, next time.
No photos today, I am too tired and will go to bed now.
A happy day to all the people on the other side of the world

experiments

Almost a month is gone since I wrote here, time is flying.

I took on some commission work which seems to become a little nightmare. People like my ruffly scarves, I brought years ago yarn from Germany and knitted them. I cannot get the yarn here, so I am now trying to produce it on the knitting machine, which works very well for only one colour. But of course my special customer wants it in 2 colours, which slows the process down very much, because I am intarsia knitting for this. I haven't found any other way yet to make it look good. I tried to knit the 2 colours separately and then sew them together, that is worse than the intarsia knitting. I might try out a circular linker to knit it together, lets see how this works.

the 2 colours, black and grey

Intarsia carriage

weight - I count how often it reaches the floor,
that needs to happen about 80 - 100 times to get in the end a good sized scarf

thats how it looks knitted

detail

Beside of this I am not very well at all at the moment. I am emotionally very run down, too much stress (bitchiness) is going on in the coop and I feel very lonely.  I am slowly recovering from a very bad cold, which lasted almost 4 weeks now. Well winter is coming soon, the weatherforecast for tomorrow promises for the southern parts of NZ snow and wintery temperatures and we will have more rain, as we had the last weeks. It seems we will get a very wet winter. So better hide inside. We try to have the fire going most of the time. It is mainly because of the humidity in the house, to get the level a bit down.

Never a dull Moment

Celebrating 30 Years of Origin in Kerikeri
Photos from the exhibition:
https://picasaweb.google.com/ilseseidel/Exhibition30YearsOfOrigin#

in the mood again

After struggling for month it seems I've got some energy back to do things. I had so many ideas and I was so overwhelmed by inspiration but I couldn't sort out where to start. Things start to settle now. Maybe the decision not to go to Europe this years was a good one, even I am still struggling with the idea not to see my son. For mums the kids will always be a/the importants part of our life, but of course that isn't the same for the kids. They move on, have their own life and we have to let them go, just follow them in our heart.
But here is also a lot going on, with the baby granddaughter around every week and my oldest grandson diagnosed with Type 1 diabetis recently. Alex is on the 6 month waiting list to see a specialist for his back and hip problems, which is annoying that it takes so long when he is in so much pain and cannot move much.
Some exhibitions are also coming up the next months...
Anyway the last week I've got some things done, which I would like to show, nothing exciting, just ordinary things to put in the shop.

funky hair ties still drying 

I beat the knitting machine and finally finished a pair of socks.
They are slightly too big for me but I will NOT undo them again. 

just a pair of mittens

and another pair

nuno scarf, wool and silk hand dyed

nuno scarf, silk hand dyed

nuno scarf made with habotai silk which give the nice baubles I like so much
silk hand dyed

detail

nuno scarf, wool hand dyed

nuno scarf, wool and silk hand dyed

plain white nuno scarf

detail
I am not sure if I like it or not. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to be.
I am thinking about some embellishment

silk hand dyed for hair tie

silk hand dyed for hair tie

silk hand dyed for hair tie

silk hand dyed for hair tie

silk hand dyed for hair tie

silk hand dyed for hair tie

silk hand dyed for hair tie

The silk hair ties have to be finished still. And I will also lable everything today to have a good start in the new week tomorrow.

lamp shades

For a long time I was keen to try out to make a lamp shade. A browse through our local charity shops brought me a selection of frames. I didn't find my very favourite shape, but I had a go with 2 of the frames, a bigger one

and a smaller one

I am still in two minds about the smaller one, I might cut it short. But I like the bigger one with just simple rough wooly look.
This 2 will go to our exhibition of 30 years of Origin as well as the wall hanging I made

The title is 'Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle - The magpies say'.
I was inspired by this poem of Denis Glover, which I often heard from Alex. I do like it very much.

The Magpies 

When Tom and Elizabeth took the farm
The bracken made their bed
and Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
The magpies said

Tom's hand was strong to the plough
and Elizabeth's lips were red
and Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
The magpies said

Year in year out they worked
while the pines grew overhead
and Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
The magpies said

But all the beautiful crops soon went
to the mortgage man instead
and Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
The magpies said

Elizabeth is dead now (it's long ago)
Old Tom's gone light in the head
and Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
The magpies said

The farms still there. Mortgage corporations
couldn't give it away
and Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
The magpies say.

figthing with the knitting machine

and partly winning until I missed, that one of the buttons came undone. Nevermind, I will get there eventually