Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Wee Stig - 15 seconds of fame

Here is the Wee Stig's 15 seconds of Fame, snuggled up with Warren in the back of the luxury car.
I nearly missed this spot on the final episode of the Top Gear Australia season so I was very relieved when eagle-eyed Ravelry members told me he had been on.

Wee Stig has now been retired to live with Jules and Marianne among the lobsters. He travelled a lot further than I ever imagined when I made him so I can say he absolutely fulfilled his potential.
What more can a knitted doll ask for.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Orange Grove

It's been a long week at work seeing out the last few performances of "When the Rain stops Falling" so I needed a bit of time away from the inner city and the dark angst of the theatre.
We went orange picking at Penrith Valley - that's the groves in the distance with the mist-covered Blue Mountains in the background and a very cosy horse on the side.

We picked and ate lots of juicy oranges and took enough home to ward off colds and flu, and to make some Marmalade. I had to return to the city that night unfortunately but I felt a bit refreshed and cheered by the fresh air and green fields.

In the packing shed this object was hanging on the wall and it was immediately labelled as the world's largest Knitting Needle Gauge.
I think we need to get out more.







(It's an Orange Sorter - big to small)

Monday, June 15, 2009

Festival of ...Socks

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/778163

Last night saw the final of the Vivid Festival at work - the wonderful images that had been projected onto the sails were turned off, the Opera Theatre started resetting for the Opera season and the ambient soundscape in the Studio was silenced.

The entire Opera House had virtually been handed over to Brian Eno to play with and the majority of performance spaces were featuring something he had curated. Normally this period between the Ballet and Opera Season is a quiet time but the past few weeks have seen the Opera Theatre ringing to the sounds of Heavy Metal Rock and esoteric performances. I think quite a bit of dust was shaken out of the fly tower in the process.

One of my favourites was the 77 Million Paintings in the Studio which, I'm afraid, reminded me of 77 Million Quilting Blocks, but it was still soothing and pleasant to look at.


In keeping with this atmosphere of creative energy I've started on my own Festival of Colour and Texture with an unparalleled outburst of Sock Knitting. One pair finished, three more on the needles and a growing queue of potentials.


The recent Darling Harbour Craft show helped fuel this with tempting skeins of Jitterbug in rich gold and deep greens, Noro Sock yarn and Touch Yarns Merino.

I thought I was remarkably restrained in my purchases at the craft fair but that may have been because I was (once again) juggling work and social obligations and as always, had to be somewhere else.

I missed out on the wonderful WWKIP curated by Sally - another Festival of Yarn and Magic attended by numerous devotees and, other than a strange threat from the Darling Harbour Event Organisers to call the Knitting Police if any "teaching of Knitting techniques" occurred, it was a great success.