we all keep telling him how handsome he is

but he'd not going to be dissuaded from his firm clothing preferences.

He does wear it though, and here is the modelled shot to prove it.

A pouch for everything and everything in its pouch.

;
Wonky hand-made charm strikes again. Who needs neat neoprene? Things that need protective cases get felt pouches around here: camera, big ipod (currently not functional but I live in hope), nano, and now the laptop is ready for its ski trip.


Update: Alwen's comment reminded me of something I meant to mention here. I think, in my several years of felting, this was the first project I have swatched/made a tension square for, and as a result, the sleeve felted to the perfect size (except for the flap, which I would prefer to shape a little differently, but that's not to do with the swatching). Sometimes it pays to be sensible.

Reputation's changeable, situation's tolerable

Okay, it wasn't so bad. Most of the mini pods that hadn't felted too well just needed a little more coaxing. I'll need to have another go at blocking them though - at this size they need careful coaxing to sit on a flat bottom and look balanced, not wonky. A little bit of hand-made charm at the usual size can translate to something pretty shoddy at miniature size.

Mama Leone left a note on the door

As well as the pears, I'm hoping to have some mini pods/bowls/vessels for the Call of the Small exhibition. Since this photo was taken (on Wednesday), I've discovered that some of the fine wools I was using did not felt very well. No matter, I went stash diving and found some old handpainted laceweight from the Knittery that does work. I always like a bit of variegated colour for felting. And I'm using such small quantities that I should still be able to use that skein for something lacy.

Here's one I prepared earlier

The Shopping Sherpa is curating a miniatures exhibition at Craft ACT next month. For quite a few of the participants - including me - working in 1/12 scale is a new experience. It's been quite a challenge but I have enjoyed getting my head around it. Not just technically how to go small enough, but also the logistics of handling and and storing tiny, light, 9mm high pears. (I handed one to my sister the other day and it bounced away to the floor - luckily we found it easily).

TSS came over this morning for a 'studio visit' and took photos of the process of making these little pears. They are not knitted, but wet-felted like this one.

Antipodean Aunty didn't want it?

I rescued this delightful brand-new tea towel from my local op shop the other day.

I wasn't sure if it was a real fundraiser tea towel from a real school, or some sort of pop-culture tie-in I didn't know about. One of the lesser-known wizard schools? I guess that would more likely be Pixie St Peters.

Turns out there really is a Pinkie St Peter's school (it's in Musselburgh, Scotland, and named after the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547) it seems that these charming self-portraits are by real kids. I love it and will use it to dry my dishes.

on visions and envisioning

“it matched my initial vision pretty well"

"it popped into my head fully-formed" (except that one turned out to be a lie, I realised it was inspired by another piece)

These phrases, or similar ones, sometimes come out when I talk about things I’ve made. And then I always do a little double-take when I re-read.

I am pleased when these things work out. But I don't think I'm especially good at turning my 'visions' into reality. The house is littered with things that didn’t turn out quite as envisioned. Some are abandoned at an early stage. Others have gotten closer to making it, but just need a bit more thinking or tinkering. Sometimes by the time I try again I can think of a better approach or even have new skills (or have seen something helpful online). Thought it's just as likely by the time I try again I will have forgotten what I was trying to do.... or don't really feel the love anymore.

The other reason I’m surprised at myself using these words is that I think of myself as someone who CAN’T visualise things in much detail. I visualise in impressions and flashes. I've never been able to drawn well (though I know to some extent this is a skill you can work on). A long time ago I described my envisioning skills before as kind of fuzzy

Here's something kind of fuzzy. Ever since I bought this ceramic ring stand at a market, I've wanted another one like it. (too many rings, pretty funny for someone who had 'claustrophic fingers' only a few years ago.) For some reason I "envisioned" a felt version.

Yes, ok, I do have a tendency to envision felt versions of things.

In the 'vision', the wire frame was going to be totally covered in felt. But when I tried that, it became too wobbly. Maybe I needed to try it with thinner felt that could be stretched tightly. I really think this is one ugly ring stand (though more-or-less functional - just not as stable or elegant as the ceramic one). And I've even positioned it to hide the ugliest part of the wire for the photo.

A vest for EJ

I've gotten a lot of mileage out of the dress I made for my niece (and so has she), but it really was high time to make something for her twin brother.

My sister favoured something light in cotton for EJ, as he tends to run a bit hot and she wanted it to get lots of wear (like the cotton dress has) as part of a daily outfit, rather than a warm woolly item that might only be put on for a short time. I would love to make something from some of my wool stash, but I appreciate her reasons and can't really disagree.

It's 4ply mercerised cotton from the dollar shop. (! cost more than a dollar, but a good price. And they had a colour that I liked for him - it's hard to find 4ply cotton in interesting colours.) A lot of knitters hate using this kind of cotton, and it is considered to be more for crochet, I think. I wasn't sure at first, and I'm not a fan of really shiny, hard cottons, but this one was fairly soft and it swatched into a really nice fine drapey fabric. So I went for it. I added some thin stripes with leftover Tofutsies. I liked the way this added a few other colours without making it like I threw a rainbow at it. It's hard to get much of a range of colourful clothes for boys. I think this will brighten up lots of his outfits.

I started at the bottom, casting on enough stitches to get the right width/circumference. I made it a little wider than the roomy t-shirt we measured, to give a little growing room. And I used some ribbing up both sides to draw in any extra fabric a little bit so it would have that room but not look too baggy. I also did some lines of purl stitches, for some fun texture and to make it a bit less serious - it is a toddler garment after all.

The rolled edge was a few rows of stocking stitch before establishing the ribbing. I usually like this effect a lot. It doesn't sit quite right in this cotton, but I thought it was ok. I knitted the body in the round. While this was in progress I looked at a number of vest pictures and patterns to work out the basic proportions for when the armholes should start (about 2/3 of the way up the body I think).

From that point I adapted this pattern for the v-neck and armhole shaping. Then I seamed the shoulders and picked up stitches for the neck ribbing. And then, I panicked about the apparent smallness of the neck hole. I really wanted it to be a standard v-neck vest and not a baby vest with buttons on one shoulder. But I was quite worried it wouldn't go over his head without tears! So I had to spoil the surprise and get him to try it on.

It was fine! Well, apart from him, with his 2-year old fashion sense, NOT LIKING IT. Apparently he's getting over that now. They say you may have to present new food options many times to a toddler before he will try them. This vest might be a bit like that.

So I took it home and finished the arm holes with ribbing, and wove in sixteen thousand ends. Approximately. I normally don't mind weaving in ends, even when there are a lot of them. But it's just not fun in cotton; they are so much harder to hide. I did get it done though, and I was very happy with it in the end, as it fit the kid and matched my initial vision pretty well.

A very goth church

My friend Elizabeth in Canada has just taught me something about my own city. I knew that this church had been moved to Canberra after a former life as a railway station. I didn't realise it had been a station for Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney. And it hadn't occurred to me that the train lines and stations servicing cemetaries (necropolis) were as much for the transport of the dead as for the mourners.

All Saints Church is a pretty noticeable landmark in Canberra, being such a young city. Apparently after it had fallen into disuse as a receiving station, and lost its roof in a fire in the 1950s, the church purchased the stonework for a mere £100. The transport to Canberra and rebuilding in Ainslie would have cost a great deal more - apparently it was 782 tons of stone, requiring eighty-three semi-trailer loads.

But the only birds I saw were seagulls

During the time we spent on Cockatoo Island last Sunday, I was only partially focused on the art. The time walking around the island between installations was just as good and I had the camera out the whole time.

It's a gorgeous old industrial landscape, if you like that sort of thing. I really do. It is completely built-up and there are so many interesting colours, textures, and layers of history.

The earliest buildings on the island are convict-built sandstone. This one has a metal second storey plonked on top. Delightfully utilitarian - mostly in Sydney the sandstone buildings are treated with more respect!


I had a thing for the decaying metal and wood cranes dotted around the island. I always find those freight cranes and other stuff around ports interesting.

For those who were troubled by my mention of "lots of little dark bunkers and tunnels" - there really is a lot of open space, and big indoor spaces, too.



But we did go inside some slightly spooky spaces.


I didn't take a lot of photos of the Biennale works, although at least it was allowed at Cockatoo Island - the MCA doesn't allow photography, at least for special exhibitions.


At first we just thought these guys posing with one of the works (a massive image from Althea Thauberger's La mort e la miseria) were amusing. They took turns posing as part of the picture, a cool effect because the figures in the photo were life-sized. But long after I took these pictures they were still fooling around in front of it and there were quite a few people waiting, quietly annoyed, to get a proper look. Also, they were touching the work, which is rude and inappropriate.

People behave very differently in spaces like these compared to the more formal atmosphere of an art gallery. There were lots of families with children visiting Cockatoo island, which was great to see. The weather was nice for the first weekend in several, and it was obviously a more welcoming location for people to bring younger kids, than some of the other venues. (Though it could be kind of dangerous as well - there were lots of things to trip over, and to climb, as well as unprotected edges to fall off into Sydney Harbour too.) But I also found myself feeling irritated in a couple of the smaller rooms with video works, where groups of kids were tearing through, giggling about how spooky it was, and then an adult came in shouting 'time to go now! Get out here'. It's not as though I think people should be hushed in the presence of art (far from it) but some respect for others wanting to view and take in the work would be nice. They were treating the place like an amusement park.

Speaking of which, when I saw this jumping castle in the distance I thought, cool, even the jumping castle is made up to be a bit arty for the Biennale. But it was actualy the other way around. This is Brook Andrew's Jumping Castle War Memorial. The patterning is related to his indigenous (Wiradjuri) heritage but I gather the memorial is for all forgotten victims of genocides. There are black and white skulls suspected in the corner sections. There was supposed to be a choice of whether to jump or not (adults only), which I suppose would add emphasis to the juxtaposition of the serious theme and playful object. We were told that they had had to stop permitting anyone to jump on it though, as apparently it was not standing up to the punishment.