Crafts, knitting and art....

I have to admit there are two things I miss while I'm in New Zealand - my knitting needles/yarn and my sew on patch blanket - both are in storage and I can't get to them anytime soon!  And what is in storage are not things that I can buy out here and start again.  I don't fancy re-buying knitting needles I already own and neither do I want to buy loads more yarn when the yarn I have in the UK is breeding like nobody's business! 

But most of all I miss my sew on patch blanket, this is a blanket I "acquired" from a popular well known airline and started to iron/sew on patches from places I have been all over the world, the blanket in storage is almost full and has patches from all the countries, cities and towns I've visited to all the musuems, zoos, galleries, Native American Tribes, Botanical gardens etc I been to around the world.  I love it and while I've been out here I've collected more patches so I'd love to add them but can't and I don't find starting a fresh blanket until the original blanket is complete. 

But it did get me thinking about some things that I made for some people last year, they were little notice boards which I just thought were a little quirky.  Very simple to make and you can do them in any style you fancy, with any patterns you like or even draw or paint a pattern or picture.  Sadly I can't draw or paint so I tend to find things and styles to do.  But I have some pictures of the boards I made.

This one was I think the third of fourth I may so it was getting easier to decide what to do and how to do it.  I found a wonderful craft store in York, England were I got the bits and pieces from, I hightly recommend the place.



I actually didn't realise there were so many different gingham colours, my friend got me int them because she loves the country farmhouse red/white gingham look.  I can understand why, they are beautiful.

With my knitting I'm on a mission to make a blanket.  The idea is to knit lots of squares in different yarns not just textures but different colours, then when I have a large collection of squares I'll stitch them together into a blanket.  It'll be a crude looking blanket I'm sure but It'll be made by me and will be quite an individual item.  Here are some squares that I have done already.

There are so many different colours and textures, I think it'll be interesting so see the finished product.  Maybe one day I can pop a photo of the blanket on here.

Along with the blanket I hope to one day pop up a photo of my iron/sew on patch too.

I would love to get into more arts and crafts here in New Zealand, get inspired by the Maori arts.  I would like to return to pottery which I haven't done for years.  To would make for a good challenge and certainly an enjoyable one.



Update on life in New Zealand

Having looked back at what I have previouly written, I thought I had better update some things.  Once I arrived in New Zealand I was originally staying in a hostel, but took to trying to find somewhere straight away for me to live by myself.  I found staying in the hostel quite hard, as I can be very shy and I really don't like crowds at all, I'm just not so good with large numbers of people.  I also tend to do my own thing and go my own way, I tend not to follow a crowd or any person and though, like anyone I'm happy in company, I am also happy enjoying my own company - just writing, reading, art/crafts etc - so the hostel was a bit much for me.  House sharing it appears would have put me in pretty much a similiar situation, parties and such stuff, I just don't cope with well.  I'm the last to arrive and the first to leave.

So after 2 weeks in a hostel on Queen Street, in Auckland's CBD, I found an apartment to rent by myself.  I'm still there now and this is going great.  It is still in the CBD and I'm so central to everything, it couldn't be better.  Next I had to find work, I had already decided not to travel around as I want to stay in New Zealand long term, so showing the Kiwi Government that I'm up for earning and paying taxes would look better to them than the travellers/tourists move of fruit picking - again I would have been sleeping in a bunkbarn and I wouldn't have coped to well.  So about two weeks after I got myself my apartment I started going round the temp agencies for work, signing up with as many of them as possible.  In the meantime, I took to voluntary work down at The Auckland City Mission in helping them prepare for Christmas and everything that they would be undertaking in order to help those that collect benefits and don't have much.  By mid December I had myself a job with a Government agency and thankfully I'm still working for them now.  So all is going very well :) I still continued at the Auckland Mission and spent Christmas Day helping out as promised.

During Bank Holidays/long weekends and weekends I try to take off around the North Island for my road trips and exploring the island in the usual way a wandering spirit does.  I've already eyed up places to learn to surf, Muay Thai Kickboxing (not to fight), deep sea fishing and I'm on the lookout for the best places to spot Orca, oh and I do need to find places to return to horse riding and hockey (field).  There is nothing like a fantastic road trip driving around and exploring the open road and the back tracks that make up New Zealand's North Island.  No drive is the same, no view is the same and all of it is absoluately stunning.  My camera is working overtime.

To compliment the wonderful people, views, drives etc there are also so many small musuems and art galleries dotted around that where ever you go, you will find one and they have some stunning stuff in them, mostly from local artists and people you wouldn't have heard of outside of New Zealand.  I'm not an artist myself (neither pencil nor paint are my friends!) but I do go in for other arty/crafty things and I love photography and I certainly love looking and admiring other people's works.

Which brings me to following blog's, which I've never done before - It appears you can't search by subject, or indeed search at all - so I simply use the "next blog" button and add the ones that I like, ones that are new (like me) and any others that take my fancy - may they be art, traveling, animals, books or anything....maybe I can encourage others and others can encourage me and maybe I can make a few friends along the way :)

Happy blogging to all!