Matariki

Matariki is the Maori name for the constellation the Pleiades - the Seven Sisters.  Matariki is also the name given to the Maori New Year, which begins in June when Matariki appears in the southern skies.
Matariki was traditionally a time of being indoors, the harvest is in and the storehouses are full.  It was a time for stories, being with friends and family, and for making and mending.  In that spirit I've spent the day snuggled on the couch in front of the fire and while my kids are home "sick" playing Club Penguin, I'm working on a new design for Matariki.  It's my take on a traditional shawl collared fair isle sweater, reinterpreted as a top down raglan for the seam adverse modern knitter (i.e., me!).

Like trying to count the stars in Matariki/Pleiades the stars on this jersey vary from 5 to 8 stars, but depending on the size rather than how much you squint.

I really enjoy this bit of working out a pattern, even though pretty much anyone with half a brain, a tape measure and a calculator could do it, it makes me feel smart.  I'm feeling particularly brainy today having charted out my stars to fit my stitch counts all by myself - and it's all worked out beautifully logical and simple.  I've got this one sorted I think, just have to knit it to be sure.

My notebook also contains thoughts on one of my still-in-the-head designs - the Goth Sweater.  Thinking about names:
April Skies
Happy When it Rains
Just Like Honey
Taste of Cindy
Psychocandy

Oh yes, I was a teenager in the '80s.  The goth sweater involves black mohair and a big lace cowl, it's either going to be very, very cool or really, really bad.

Kia pai tenei tau hau.

Any young kiwi ....

More joy to share from Fontana. Knits for the little ones this time, 1940s style:

Those pocket posies are so beautifully embroidered.  Too cute?  Try these:

I am going to have to knit those aeroplanes - it's called Nosedive!  I shall not be knitting the intarsia deer, Frisky as they may be.

I love this from the Delightful Designs for Toddlers book:

And finally:

"Any young Kiwi will be comfy and warm in this Fontana knitted".  My youngest kiwi turns 6 next week, and still loves to wear his mama's hand knits.  But apparently kids at school pull on his jerseys and stretch them.  He told me, sadly, that some kids weren't treating his jersey very nicely, even though he told them they should because his mum made it.  Well, I'm not a Homemade-Nazi, and I don't want the boy to feel picked on, so I bought him a couple of nasty cheap slave labour fleece hoodies that aren't so satisfying to stretch.  He says he feels too cold in them.  Hah!  Say it loud and say it proud:

HANDKNITS ARE COOL!

Just take a wander down Cuba Street and marvel at all the hip young things wearing '80s picture knits I wouldn't be caught dead in.  I'm starting to understand why my Mum laughed when I used to wear full skirted frocks and penny loafers.

Raining

It's raining.  A lot.

Three months worth of rain in one day, and my children finally agree to wear their raincoats.  Should we ever get 6 feet of snow I might even get them to put on a sweater.  Or socks!

The knitting bit: Miss Z is wearing the result of my third testing wench experience.  Olearia by the very clever Georgie Hallam/Tikki.  This is a lovely design in sizes from baby up to 8 years (Z is wearing the 8), with a range of options - shrug or long; runching at the top or all the ways down; capped, short or long sleeves; plain sleeves or fancy edged.....  And like most Tikki designs Olearia is knit top down in the round with simple raglan shaping - perfect knitting for mums!  I've made 2 so far.  Are ya sold yet? ;-)

Disclaimer:  Wellington has not had 3 months worth of rain today, I made that up.  But parts of the country are supposed to be having up to 300mm of rain and that sounds like 3 months worth of rain to me.  I would Google average monthly rainfall, but that's too dull and geeky, even for a weather obsessed fact freak me.  All I know is it's pouring with rain.  And somehow one of my cats is covered in concrete.

Couldn't resist this now could I?

Searching, searching...I found it!

I'm putting my money on the Hermitage as the location for my Fontana books.


Right mountains anyway.  The current hotel buildings were built in 1958, so the era is spot on - it would have made a daringly new and stylish location for a fashion shoot in the early 1960s.

Like the Chateau, the Hermitage was at various times a government owned hotel.  Imagine that - the government funding luxury holiday lodges.  It sounds faintly ludicrous today, like Stalinist era Black Sea health resorts - I'm thinking Butlands meets Borat.  The THC (Tourist Hotel Corporation, although I much prefer its earlier title, Department of Tourist and Health Resorts) owned the Hermitage and several other hotels until as recently as 1990, I can remember THC travel posters from my childhood (and I don't mean smoke dope and fly home ha ha).  Ah yes, I grew up in a socialist wonderland where everyone had the same TV (Phillips K9?) and it took a month to get the phone on.

I've never been to Twizel, and I've only seen Aoraki from the West Coast side.  Maybe I should take advantage of the Volcano Hiccup sale....

http://www.hermitage.co.nz/

I love the internet!

Fabulous Fontana

Stitchcraft is so last week.  My new opshop gold is Fontana booklets - homegrown 60s style. 

I am a bit worried about the gun obsession...

Especially the 2nd pic - a little dark and brooding for a knitting booklet surely?  Very Kiwi Gothic, don't tell me little Susie's out with that Hohepa boy again....

I orignally thought the pics in some of these were taken at the Chateau Tongariro on Mt Ruapehu.  But looking more closely I think I'm wrong.  The windows look the right, but the mountains don't.

I'm going to talk about the Chateau anyway because it's one of my favourite places, it's well worth popping in for a coffee or a cocktail just to soak up a little bit of shabby glamour.  Have a drink on the deck at sunset and pretend you're a mid century jet-setter, very James Bond - if you squint enough.  The views are stunning though.  Doesn't this sound good? (from the Chateau Tongariro website):

After a long day on the slopes, guests would return to fine wine and cuisine served under grand chandeliers, and to staff ready to attend to their every need, as they relaxed in front of the grand arched Ngauruhoe Window, taking in magnificent views of Mount Tongariro. The ‘chink’ of crystals glasses, the sounds of live music and laughter, tales of the days’ adventure and the crackle of a roaring log fire filled the air in the Chateau’s opulent Ruapehu Lounge.

Doesn't it make you feel like knitting a fair isle ski jumper?

While I'm glad I wasn't around in the 60s (for a start I'd be really old now), I'd really like to dress like this.

Please send me all your nana's old Fontana booklets, thank you ;-) 

And what was that in my pocket?

This:

The Honeycomb hat from The Knitters Book of Yarn by Clara Parkes.

This is more wool dyed by my friend Angie.  She's so clever, this colourway is called Lavender Garden.  Hence the lavender bush background. 

Spot the cat.