november garden

Lots to see in the garden this month and I keep finding myself out there checking on how things are growing, marvelling at all the changes.

The Thompson Seedless grape I planted four years ago finally has grapes forming on it! I really thought it had died and it was only through luck we didn't pull it out. We removed the big self sown weed tree next to it last year, removed concrete at its base and improved the soil which must be why its finally happy.

The leaf cutter bees who usually harvest my rose leaves for lids for their nests are obviously fans of this Vietnamese mint which has a wonderful pattern to it now. I love the serried rows of baby tomatoes forming too, both planted and self seeded. I'm starting to eat the early ripeners and hoping we'll have loads of fruit soon.

I harvested some of my homegrown garlic this week, its small but perfectly formed and looks so pretty hanging up. Hopefully I can improve my results next year, I need to get it in earlier, but its making me very happy.

Also making me happy is the fact that after buying and losing two packets of borage seeds in former years (?) I finally flowered a plant grown from seed, what a wonderful blue! As are the cornflowers which actually came from a swap packet marked poppies. A nice piece of serendipity as I'm a big fan of cornflowers.

Speaking of colour we are so organised as to have colour coordinated katydids on the Rosette Delizy rose. And look, more frog's eggs in this low water pot hidden in the leaf litter. (Do you remember my big surprise last year!)

Thank you so much my friends for all your well wishes on my 5th blog anniversary :-) Today is the fifth anniversary of the first sale in my flower press shop. In a wonderful coincidence it is also the day of the 800th sale. There have been lots of sales outside the shop and in other venues but I like the synchronicity, don't you?!

five

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the flowerpress blog!

Thank you to everyone who has visited, blogged, pinned, inspired or been inspired by this space. Thanks too to everyone who entered my giveaways, followed my tutorials or visited the flower press shop.

And a big thank you to all the Show & Tellers who have shared their interviews here.

I'll be back next week to celebrate with some more posts, a sale in the shop, two giveaway winners (still time to enter!) and some new sewing, but I just wanted to mark and share this milestone here :-)

my creative space - Zigo Zago Giveaway

I was delighted last week when Alex from online yarn and fabric shop Zigo Zago contacted me about a having a giveaway for Flower Press readers. Zigo Zago stocks the most beautiful collection of artisan yarns, sewing and knitting patterns, fabrics and knitting needles.

All the fabulous artisan yarn brands are here, including Swans Island organic hand dyed merinos, the famous Madeline Tosh and Malabrigo brands, Cascade with all its beautiful colours, Skein, the Fibre Company, Abuelita and Dream in Color. What a fantastic selection. And how wonderful to be able to buy all these greats in one place with local shipping.

Alex also has a carefully curated, well priced selection of fabrics, sewing and knitting patterns, and knitting needles. There are some lovely kid's knitting patterns that I haven't seen before from Coastal Kids and Never not Knitting, and the great French Citronille sewing patterns for children and adults as well as lots of Make it Perfect designs. She stocks needles from Addi, Knit Pro and cute Tasmanian wooden needles from ArtViva.

I'm so lucky - Alex sent me a skein of Classy with Cashmere to try, the wine coloured In Vino Veritas above. This hand dyed yarn made by small indie company Dream in Color is a mix of merino, with 20% cashmere and a touch of nylon. It is sooo soft against the skin, such luxury. I'd told her I'd been dying to make a cowl and this will be perfect for the project. (I'm thinking the Honey Cowl pattern by Madeline Tosh). There's nothing worse than spending ages knitting something that turns out to be too itchy to wear. I really think this is going to be a learning curve for me, a new stage in my knitting, working with a luxury yarn like this, I feel there might be no going back!

The really fabulous news is that Alex sent two extra skeins of this wonderful Classy with Cashmere yarn and a cute pattern mag called PomPom Quarterly to give away to you guys! Between us we've chosen two beautiful colours, Deap Sea Flower and Cocoa Kiss, you really need to see these in person to see the subtle hand dyed mix of colour and to feel the softness of the cashmere mix! These would be perfect to knit up a special Christmas gift for someone special.

To enter all you need to do is tell me which of the skeins you would like to win, the Sea Flower or Cocoa Kiss, and what you think you might make with it. There will be two winners of a skein each. Easy! The Giveaway is open for a week, closing Wednesday night with the winners announced on Thursday. The first entry chosen will also win the copy of PomPom Quarterly, produced by two ladies who work at the famed LOOP in London. It has some great new patterns, don't you love this cardie.

One more thing, Alex has also generously given Flower Press readers a discount code of 10% to use on purchases - the code is Flowerpress and just needs to be entered at checkout to redeem.

For lucky locals, Alex is opening a bricks and mortar shop in Castlemaine next month. I'm jealous of all of you who will be close enough to check it out. I think she has such a great selection and I would love to be closer to support a small indie yarn and fabric seller!

So my creative space for the next little while will be filled with beautiful wool and meditative knitting.