Pear brooch

I mentioned before that making pears small enough for 1/12 scale was a challenge. With some practice I was able to gauge just the right amount of wool to roll into the right-sized bead; but to get to that point I first made a few pear-shaped beads that were a bit too big.

These three were all about the same size so I gave them the finishing touches and made them into a brooch to wear to the opening. I sliced part of their backs off so there would be a good flat surface there, and used my new hot glue gun to stick them to the backing (a piece of plastic cut from an ice cream container, covered in black fabric).

Not in my name. Not exactly.

This is my little piece for the Contemporary Art Society of Victoria's Australian National Brooch Show. Australian readers probably know what I'm getting at here. It might be the first time I've tried to make any kind of political statement by making something.


There is a lot of history to asylum seeker policy and 'boat people' in this country, and there sure are some wicked problems each successive government has faced. However, it is impossible to condone the way both major parties have formed and implemented nasty, brutal, inhumane policy in response to the perception that Australia is being swamped by illegal boat arrivals (who of course are all potential terrorists). Especially when the numbers arriving by boat have never been large at all by world standards or even within the context of our regular immigration programs. 

So this idea came up in response to the recent efforts to ensure no boats reach Australia, by forcibly turning them back towards Indonesia, and if the boats are unseaworthy, towing the occupants in those orange bubble lifeboats.

But it's not just that, in my mind it goes (at least) back to the Tampa, the Prime Minister's selective hearing about "children overboard", and the bizarre strategy of excising territory from Australia's migration zone (haha! so you made it but it turns out you didn't). Followed by all the variants of offshore processing, including the debacle of Manus Island where, it seems, no one is getting processed, no one is ever going to be resettled there or in Australia, the locals are up in arms (literally), and detainees are dying, or/or trying to kill themselves. Offshore detention allows everything to be kept at arms length and in relative secrecy. It's not happening on Australian soil. Let's not even talk about children in detention, or the justification for detention at all in many cases, the enormous amounts of money Australia is spending keeping all of these efforts going, and the direct mental and physical toll it has on the people detained for indefinite periods.

And I know that I can say all this happens "not in my name," but of course it is. I am Australian. I know these problems aren't simple. Of course discouraging people from trying to come to Australia by boat is a good thing if it saves people from drowning when unseaworthy boats can't make the distance. But I can't support cruelty to one lot of people as a lesson to those who might be tempted to follow them. The ends cannot justify the means. And I think there are other forces at work justifying the cruelty - racism, xenophobia, misinformation.


I made the brooch pretty quickly to meet the deadline, and it mostly came together as I imagined, just a bit messier. It is actually two separate brooches joined by a chain. I was struggling a little to keep within the size limits for the show, and would have preferred the chain a bit longer. I also took some artistic liberties with scale - this orange lifeboat is really way too big relative to the Customs boat. My first attempt at the lifeboat was even bigger. I still can't accurately predict how much something will shrink with felting.

The Customs boat is black aida cloth glued onto a plastic template, cut from an ice cream container. I would have liked neater corners. And I'm showing you the back of the thing, even though it's not that neat and you can see the glue!

The (grandly named) Australian National Brooch Show is on now in Melbourne, at Fitzroy Library until 30 May and then South Yarra Library from 3 June - 30 July.

Like fool I spent it all on you

The other day I was out of sorts. I had worn a shirt to work that didn't feel very 'me'. This was particularly annoying as I only bought it very recently and it cost quite a bit.

I thought a brooch might be just what it needed, and at lunch time I found a button I really liked at Mooble - it's by Bird Textile. I was thinking I might be able to put it on a felt circle, but when I tried it out at home that didn't seem like it was going to work. I remembered the waxed cotton I used for those knitted cuffs. I still had plenty left to crochet a circle as a base for the brooch. I also had some brooch backs in my collection of jewellery findings, and it was pretty simple to sew the whole thing together - actually I did this part this morning before work.


And here is how I wore it today. I haven't tried it with *that* shirt yet. I never thought I would do one of those dodgy work bathroom photos - I used the wheelchair accessible bathroom to avoid funny looks and questions! It would have been smarter to just ask the ladies I knitted with at lunch time today.

Bling! now in brooch form

I'm wearing it today as a brooch, though I still want to use a piece like this in a more elaborate version of this necklace.

It must have been the tax return eating my brain (PS It's ok, I lodged it the other day), I forgot I wanted to acknowledge that I took direct inspiration from Alwen's gorgeous bead embroidery, though mine is still much less fine.

See the light that's right before my eyes

This is the third one of these I have knitted, but the first that has made it in front of the camera. And it took three tries to knit it - I had to give up before Christmas after first running out of dollar shop acrylic and of course they don't stock it in summer; and then getting it about three-quarters finished in some recycled pink wool, hating the resulting fabric and realising I had made it too short anyway and would have to rip back to before the fringe starts.

The first Hallowig I ever made was for the twins' 2nd birthday last year. It was a deep blue-green colour, and I only made one but there were other (bought) presents including a pirate hat for dress-ups. The second one was a few months later, for their older brother. He knew exactly what he wanted: long pink hair with a purple circle. I drew a diagram at the time he described it, to make sure I had it right. A picture would probably help here - the whole thing is knitted in pink and then I crocheted the purple circle and sewed it on.

My friend saw me knitting that pink one and exclaimed that she wanted one for Christmas. She is going to wear it to do her yoga. (Probably with the airconditioning on.)

I felt it needed a little something extra, so I made a felted bow shape, beaded it and attached a brooch back. So it is a hairclip while attached to the wig, but can be pinned to something else and worn as a brooch.

It's nice to have options

One friend particularly admired that first brooch, and even went so far as to say she thought she would wear one like it. I took her at her word and made one for Christmas. Which quickly turned into two, as I wasn't sure if she would prefer one almost exactly the same, or a variation.

After making my first brooch, I aquired some more of the waxed cotton. The one on the left is dark blue rather than black. I went back to Mooble for two more buttons by Bird Textile. I have plans to take this idea further into other items of jewellery / embellishment. So many plans, so little time! I'll get there.

Unseasonable

I made seasonally inappropriate Christmas presents for my mum and sisters this year. After a couple of mild years, we are finally having a proper hot summer. We might even be edging into a heatwave. The current forecast is for over a week of consecutive days over 30 degrees, with a few in the very high 30s.

Anyway, Christmas will always be in summer, so I didn't worry too much about it. I had certain things I wanted to knit for them, and each of these projects was a follow-up in some way to a previous project this year.

Sister E's purple cabled cowl sat so nicely at first, but after a couple of wears it rolled up into a large doughnut, and she has to use a brooch to keep it positioned. We had settled on the cowl idea after talking about what she likes in a small scarf - something she can throw on and not have to pin, tie or arrange - so I was really disappointed (though she insists she still likes wearing it).
 
I showed her a few pictures and we both liked Sev[en]circle by Kirsten Johnstone. After the doughnut problem, the way this pattern uses the rolling tendency of knitted stockinette fabric was an added bonus. It's a really clever, and simple, pattern. All the circles are joined at the back - I forgot to photograph this, but you can see many examples on Ravelry. There is lots of casting on and off, other than that, beautiful mindless knitting, so it was a good travel project. It's also very easy to customise. Once you see how it works it's easy to amend it to have shorter or longer loops, or both. And I think I only did six circles. I also found (like others have) that eight rows was enough to make a good roll - the pattern calls for ten, but I was trying to make the yarn (Patons Romance merino/cashmere) go further.  I've just finished another one for me, and now everyone else wants one too! I think I'm likely to start another when I take a trip somewhere, or need a simple project in between other things.

Then there was the Teal leaves scarf, which is wearable, but in the smaller gauge it wasn't really what sister D had envisioned. I went in search of bulky wool and did it again (so quick!) as the designer intended. It's Naturally Harmony 14ply on 8mm needles. I was really looking for a colour, not white, but decided I could give it to her for Christmas and then offer to dye it later. But she actually liked it that way it is (and it looks good on her).


The pattern for Mum was easy to choose too, because she had originally pointed it out to me - not something she has really done often. These are the Mica Mitts by Laura Nelkin (sans beads). I had enough Katia baby merino leftover from Mum's Chadwick shawl, and I liked the idea that the mitts would match the shawl in colour, though not particularly in style. I don't like things to be to matchy-matchy.


This is a great pattern too, and the lace motif looks pretty fancy for how simple it really is to knit.  Mum's not too much of a lace person, but these really suit her.

Do these glasses make me look smarter?

This is my new favourite brooch, made by Carly Altree-Williams. There are available here.

I think it is delightfully surreal. And I always kind of wanted to wear glasses. In fact I'm the only member of my immediate family who doesn't.

I found my soldier girl, she's so far away. She makes my head spin around

capelet, originally uploaded by Olma.

You might remember me rabbitting on some time ago about a project I'd been wanting to knit for a long time, and a painful process of knitting and then unknitting to remove mistakes, and wondering if I was really ready for this project. This is what it was, a lacy shawl for my sister. Of course it's not exactly what I had originally envisioned. My envisioning abilities being what they are (kind of fuzzy), it's possible that it's nothing (or then again, everything) like what I had envisioned. I mean, it's the right colour and it's lacy and soft and light. I think it was going to be longer.

I'm not sure if it was supposed to be more complicated. It's quite simple, a big rectangle in star stitch, with smaller blocks of garter stitch to add interest (and make the wool go further). The wool is anny blatt 'fine kid'.

The weather was pretty hot when I gave it to her, and first she displayed it in the living room for a few days.

on boxes
Originally uploaded by Olma.

Finally we had a cooler day and she seemed pretty keen to wear it. I was pleasantly surprised to see how it seemed to fit sort of like a capelet. That's her own lovely brooch. We went out for a while, even had an extensive photo shoot back home, before realising she actually had it on inside out. But really, it looked just fine that way. In the rest of the photos here it's around the 'right' way.


even ok insideout
Originally uploaded by Olma.

close arm, originally uploaded by Olma.

rear
Originally uploaded by Olma.

Knitters seem to be always going on about the magic of blocking. Especially for lace projects. Although this stitch is not quite as open as a typical lace pattern, it still needed to be stretched out into the proper shape, looking pretty scrungy when it came off the needles.
pre-block
Originally uploaded by Olma.

pre-block_2
Originally uploaded by Olma.

I hand washed it gently and then spent ages trying to pin it out evenly, which didn't work too well, because the pins give it a scalloped edge unless you use about, oh, a thousand per side. Then I conceived a plan using tiger tail (jewellery wire) threaded through each edge to keep it straight. By the time I had this system worked out, the shawl had almost dried, so I had to wet it and start again.

Of course, I wouldn't want anyone to mistake this for a machine knit product, but it's okay because I included a 'design irregularity'. It wasn't until the second time blocking session that I noticed a cute (and quite obvious) little region where the star stitch pattern strayed into the garter stitch area. Somehow I decided I could live with it.