spring feelings

Written By Melissa Wastney

The days are getting lighter, literally - today we lost an hour to daylight saving, and woke with the sun streaming through the curtains at 6am. I do love this time of year, with its kowhai flowers, blustery gales, longer evenings and early morning tui songs the first thing we hear.

I’ve been working on a few small projects, mostly gift-related. The crochet blanket you see above is for a friend’s new baby. This is just a big granny square, worked up in various yarns I had plenty of - mostly possum-merino from cones I bought at last year’s Woolyarns sale. I’m enjoying the way the colours work together - I’ve combined a peachy pink, chocolate brown, dark blue, and black. The cream yarn is leftover from a top I knitted last summer and is the only different fibre- a cotton/silk blend. If I have enough of this, I’ll use it to crochet the border on this blanket. I’m planning something about 36” square, which will hopefully be useful for pram and car-seat purposes.

This past winter was my hooded scarf era! I made two - one for Keira and one for her cousin, using the pattern ‘Sophie Hood’ by Petiteknit. I also helped Keira knit another for her friend, in a peachy pink shade. I think these scarves look so great wrapped around the head and neck on a freezing winter’s day. I am keen to have one myself, but definitely need to have a break from this much garter stitch for at least 6 months.

And more makes for small people! I unravelled a sweater I knitted myself a few years ago but rarely wore, and re-used every last bit of the yarn to knit this little set for a new baby of a work colleague. I had held together one strand of mohair-silk and one of a cotton-merino, both in a soft grey-blue shade. The mohair had lost most of its fluff in its first iteration as a sweater and so the resulting yarn was very soft and smooth. I think it makes a lovely lightweight but warm fabric for the baby set.

The patterns I used for this set were:

  • Garter-stitch cardigan by Erika Knight (from her book ‘Simple Knits for Treasured Babies’)

  • Baby socks by Kate Atherley (a free pattern on Ravelry)

  • Baby bear bonnet by Knitting for Olive.

You can find the links to these patterns on my Ravelry page here.

There was a little bit of yarn left and so I used it for this little cat’s jumper and scarf. I was inspired by this pattern on Ravelry to make this little guy for my niece who turned 2 last month.

I loved making this and will no doubt knit more in the future to donate. This pattern, called the ‘Izzy Doll’ originates from Canada. Master Corporal Mark Isfeld was a Canadian peacekeeper whose mother created the Izzy Doll so he would have something to give to children he met while on missions. In 1994, Mark was killed by a land mine explosion while serving in Croatia, but the tradition of making and donating these dolls to children affected by war continues.

Lately, I’ve returned to some beloved music for comfort and peace:

And signing off, praying for peace in Palestine. This is an Aotearoa-based fundraiser to help provide absolute basic needs for those suffering in Gaza and it would be amazing if you wanted to contribute or share the link.

With love,
Melissa

Melissa Wastney
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