Time and Travel

Somehow in the last ten years or so some of the discarded objects of my childhood years have become desirable. With labels like "retro" and "vintage", these everyday objects are now attractive, relatively rare and possibly valuable. It's taking me a while to catch up with the trend. And, having moved house more times than I care to count in my young adult years, I have few relics of those early days. So it was that I found myself scouring the back shelves of Vinnies yesterday in a hunt for suitcases.

I'm planning to share a stall with a few others at the next Made 'n' Thornbury Market. We need a way to tie our diverse product ranges into a unified display. Old suitcases could be the way to go. I didn't own any. Now I do. Thankfully these were sold to me as just old so I got them for a price I was willing to pay. I'd like do a bit of patching and cleaning without investing too much time and energy. If we decide to go with some other display theme they will be useful for storing my wares. 

Something New

There's always something new around here! This time it's a badge machine.

I have hired it over the long weekend. I've just done a few practice badges using cut outs from a magazine. It's as easy as everybody said it would be. The woman who rents it out said her four year old could do it. Now I believe her.

So I'm off to the studio to look for likely candidates to be turned into badges. Christmas is coming. I have lots and lots of novelty fabrics in my collection. There are hand-dyes, silks and all sorts of other precious bits and pieces. This is going to be fun!

Armchair Mini

Now that I've had some improvement in my elbow situation, I'm back to working on the baby blanket. Thankfully I have plenty of time for this project. Baby isn't due until March next year. And it's a Queensland baby, so I doubt that there will be much demand for woollen blankets until a few months after that.

I've said this before, but it's a truth that never fails to delight me, so I'll say it again. I love, love, love the process of making. Especially a project like this, which is imbued with significance. While I'm stitching there's a constant undercurrent of thoughts about the baby; the Mum and Dad; the wider family; the pregnancy so far; the potential . . . At a visual level I'm thinking about the yarn, the colours I've used and the ones to come. The whole experience has it's own rhythm dictated by the stitches I'm forming in my fingers.

I call these blankets armchair projects because that's where I sit while I stitch. That's practical. Even a miniature blanket like this involves eight different balls of wool. This one is small enough, though, that I could pick it up and move to a cooler environment as the weather warms up. It's also an "armchair" project because of the relaxed attitude I like to take with it. A few rows here and a few rows there, often accompanying my morning coffee or favourite music. So, it's a miniature blanket with a big place in my heart. 

Breakfast--and the Meaning of Life

My first task for this morning was to mix up my breakfast cereal. That process got me thinking about my art-making. What's the connection between breakfast and art? I'm glad you asked.

Let me tell you what goes into my breakfast cereal. Basically it's porridge, but there's more to it than you might see at first glance:

• rolled oats
• oat bran
• brown rice
• buckwheat
• rolled rye flakes
• quinoa flakes

Oh and water of course. I heat that up, let it sit for a while, then heat it up some more until it just bubbles nicely. Then I add a combination of psyllium husk, LSA meal and brown linseeds. A good bit of skim milk and I'm ready to go. Usually I leave it at that, but I could add, fruit or nuts or honey when the fancy takes me.

What I'm talking about is a combination of simplicity and complexity. When I spin my yarn, I'm aware of the origins of the fibre. The wool might be from a farmer I know. There might be a bit of silk mixed in; or bunny fibre. When I dye I mix and match colours. Say I want blue--I often want blue--there might be five different blues in the pot. So there are layers of colour, just as there are layers of flavour and texture. And usually there are a sequence of processes.

It's fun and interesting and varied. And it's satisfying. It keeps me going all day. So, now I've had breakfast. It's time for coffee and a day of making.
 

Dear Anonymous, I Don't Know What to Do

Dear Anonymous
Some of my best friends are Anonymous. They don't have a profile that my blog recognises. I love the fact that they read my blog. I want to hear what they have to say.

Maybe some friends I have yet to meet prefer to be Anonymous too. I don't often touch on controvertial subjects in this blog. But there may be things you want to say that you'd rather not put your name to. I can understand that.

But some of you Anonymous posters must be desperate! Every day I receive several messages linking me to all sorts of things that I'm not interested in. I try to respond consistently. "Mark as Spam" is my most used button of all time. Still you persist in your unwanted attentions. What am I to do?

I don't want to treat you harshly, but I have better things to do than getting rid of unwanted comments from my blog. Yesterday I accidently hit the wrong button on my comment moderation page and ended up promoting pirated handbag designs and phone accessories on a post I'd written to welcome an old friend to my home. I don't like that. It could have been worse!

I'm pretty sure I could solve my problems by turning the "please prove you are not a robot" captcha feature back on in my blog. I turned it off when a friend of mine described it as "torture". I find that feature challenging on other people's blogs so I wanted to make it easier for everybody on my blog. Maybe that was a mistake.

I don't know what to do about my relationship with you, Anonymous. It's affecting my blog relationships in a variety of ways. So I'm writing this public letter. Maybe some-one can help us to find a happy way forward. Or maybe I just need to bite the bullet and ban Anonymous from my page.

Please help me.

Warm Fuzzies

I've cut out the fur fabric for the Selat. This s a special birthday request from a teenager with attitude and a love of things Star Trek.

The last soft toy I made for her was a tiny teddy bear like the one in the picture. Oh--too many years ago! If I remember rightly it was pink and wispy. I couldn't help reminiscing just a little as the new creation starts to take shape.

E will finish her Secondary school career in the next week or so. She still loves fluffy and shiny things, but often with an unexpected twist. I do believe her chosen footwear for the end of school-year formal dinner-dance occasion is her beloved Converse. They will be tucked under the full-princess-with-sequins-and diamantes-floor-length skirt. Her feet are huge and why should she be uncomfortable! "No-one will be able to see my feet".

So I shouldn't be surprised that I'm working on something that would be a teddy bear if it wasn't for the extra tusks and tufts that will mark it as originating from the planet Vulcan--should I?

 

Meanwhile, Back at the Wristies

I concentrated on display props and spring blooms for my recent market. These frilly wristies lingered on my needles. Today I've finished them off.

My earlier versions of these have all been in my handspun wool. These ones are a Bendigo 8-ply, hand-dyed by me. I'm particularly keen on how the colour has distributed to form little stripes in the finished result. That gets broken up in the ruffle to add to the playfulness of the overall result. It's going to be a wrench to put these on the "for sale" stack, but I do have plenty of happy wristies for myself.