Inspired to Dye

This is the result of a brief experimentation with some kettle dying I did a few nights ago. The yarn was from Virgina Farm Woolworks and I originally bought it to try out colouring with Kool_Aid in a microwave. The resulting mix of Yellow, Red and Purple was pretty average and the whole process of Glad wrapping and zapping I found to be fiddly and messy.

The gorgeous colour is from a deep enamel pot mix of Landscape Kingfisher left on the stove on a rolling simmer - a few rinses later and this rich hue resulted. I had heard that Kingfisher is a difficult colour to make fast so I made sure all the dye was exhausted before taking the yarn out.

I think there may be more skeins heading for this pot and the lad wants to tie-dye a few t-shirts while I'm there!

Looking at the Chooks

The next best thing about the Easter Show besides the Craft are the animals.

We were rained out of the Woodchopping so we sought shelter in the Poultry Shed. That's where I met this beautiful breed of Chook known as Laced Wyandottes. I didn't think a hen could look this pretty.

Some of the more exotic poultry breeds with poofy hairdos and strange protuberance were a bit too much but these fat colourful girls caught my eye.

There was also sheep shearing for the kids, both machine and hand,



three little piggies and a few more,


corn,





cows and








gentle fairground rides (as different from the ear-splitting, in-your-face carny kingdom at the other end of the Show.

Going to the Show

We went to the Easter Show yesterday. We bought our tickets from the Post Office a few days before, checked out online which show bags to buy and took all our own food and drink. It still cost us over $100 for the day which is why it's not an annual event.

My main aim was the Craft section to see how Captain Underpants was faring in his Creative Knitting category - as I expected he didn't win any ribbons but he did stand out among the nice Cardigans and Sweaters.





As is traditional we went to the CWA for Scones and Tea, bought some of their preserves (no Plum Jam left but I did get some Quince Jelly) and then checked out the baking and cake decorations.




The displays were mouth-watering, entertaining and magical.








I'm still at a loss as to the criteria and standards for judging - among the knitted categories they seem to be a well-kept secret known only to those who have been initiated but that won't stop me from trying again next year. Subtlely subversive is my motto.

Bliss

The garden is coming inside - the traditional built-in sunroom of our fibro cottage has been replaced by an open verandaha that brings air and light into the rooms it once enclosed.

The process has been gradual as work commitments and weather allow but the difference is wonderful. A fence has yet to be put up but in the meantime I enjoy the uninterrupted view through the doors and down the garden.

I've mostly been an observer of all the hard work that's gone into this process but I appreciate the skill and commitment that has broken down the barrier between inside and outside space.


While all the hard labour was going on the background I tried to gain some leeway on the Bag Swap I entered in Ravelry. As I don't really trust my sewing skills I've been making a test lining out of calico to make sure it will fit. The postal deadline is only a week away but I don't want to rush this project.

The past two weeks busy-ness has finally slowed down but it seems to have taken its toll on my brain. I knitted a full 6 inches of a new project only to find that I was making a mobius strip. You'd think that 5mm needles and bulky wool would make a twist in circular knitting obvious but I did it twice. I do like this soy/wool mix rich colours of this yarn but the Hourglass Sweater and the Moda Vera Mousse is having a little respite until I get my brain back.

Perhaps a few hours sitting amongst the greenery will help achieve this.

The 306K

This is the favourite of my many Singer sewing machines - it is in full working order and has just finished seaming up the lounge curtains.

It's not a pretty machine and it has obviously seen a lot of action in its working life. All the shiny enamel has been worn away and the timber veneer is paper thin but the motor purrs like a kitten and the shuttle action is smooth as silk.

The action of this machine is so simple and straightforward that I think it would easily match the output of a modern counterpart. It brings to mind the comparison audiophiles make between the warmth of analog valve amplifiers and the clinical sound of modern digital equipment.

This lovely machine reminds me of the big old Steam Engines of my youth and it has a similar warm smell of oil and metal once it gets into its stride. I can't remember exactly where I got this robust workhorse but it came with some valuable additions - lots of strange and wonderful attachments and full set of Bakelite stitch templates.

I've not had an opportunity to use the Ruffler, the Foot Hemmer, the Multi-Slotted Binder, the Edge Stitcher or the Shirrer but it's nice to know they're there if I ever require them.

Captain Underpants

This is what is keeping me occupied when I'm not doing mad hours at work. The deadline for delivery to the Sydney Royal Easter Show is the end of this week and Captain Underpants Mark 11 is still missing a goofy smile and a red cape.

If I had bothered to read the entry form several months ago I would have noticed the category I applied for was "Creative Knitting: of Original Design". Captain Underpants Mark 1 did not fulfill this criteria because it was someone else's pattern. I could have entered him into the "Soft Toys; class 202" section but this was several pages on, past the "Slipcast Ceramics" and "Mosaics" sections. Bleedin' obvious.

Nil Desperandum as they say, so rather than forfeit my $10.00 entry fee I set to and made my own Original Design. The body is knitted flat with a back seam and the limbs are a combination of i-cord and Double Knitting. Some parts are not as neat as I would like but as I'm not planning on winning any prizes with this fellow I'll let it stand. His entry is a mild protest against the clowns and toilet roll cover dolls that seem to make up the vast majority of knitting at the Easter Show.

One of these days the permitted entries may be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century and ipod covers and funky handbags will be allowed to see the light.

Big

Big Bird;

This is what greets us in the morning with a big sqawking complain if we don't put some seed out quick enough

Big Mushroom;

A big patch of Horse Mushrooms growing in the front garden because of all the recent rain - large but tasteless.

Big Boats:

The QE2 crosses paths with the Queen Victoria this afternoon so we all stop work to check it out..

Big Day:

Another 0700 til 2300 working day. Put in the Ornette Coleman Quintet, then take it out.

Amazing Jazz but a tiring day.

Big Mistake:

Got a new wireless router because the old one died (probably a lightning strike) and then forget to put on a password - wondered why all my Data Allowance got sucked up so no blogging until I got it back.
Live and learn.

Love and other bruises

Happy Valentines day - without the hype and pink hearts. I only realised what day it was when I saw a van selling roses parked on the M4. Anyone stopping on the freeway with B-Double's speeding past at 110k must be desperate.

This is Romeo and Juliet from the Shakespeare Place sculpture opposite the Mitchell Library. It's an island also surrounded by roads or "an isolated wasteland between on and off ramps of the Cahill Expressway." Nicely put. It is an interesting monument to explore if you are willing to negotiate the traffic.

Yesterday was an historic occasion that has been recorded and written about in many media - I watched Kevin Rudd's historic speech and applauded his Government's prompt resolution of an outstanding wrong.


Yesterday was also the 30th anniversary of the Hilton Bombing.

February 13th, 1978; I was on a bus travelling to work in a Sandwich bar in the CBD. I didn't understand the enormity of the event at the time - it just meant that I got to work late because my bus was held up. I had been in the city for 2 weeks and was heading back to Dunedin the following week to finish my final year at Otago Varsity. Coming to Sydney was a good way to make a bit of money to fund that year and to experience life in the big city.

Several years later I worked as a Guide for the Opera House (among many jobs I've held in this place) with Rosamund Dallow-Smith. I didn't know then that she had been on the street at the time and had narrowly missed being injured herself. I also didn't know that "it was the Hilton Hotel bombing that finally led to the formation of the Australian Federal Police on October 19, 1979."

The cause of the bombing was never satisfactorily resolved and resulted in the arrest and subsequent acquittal of several members of the Ananda Marga sect - an easy target.

"There was a lot of rumour and innuendo going around at the time we were on the scene. The strongest being that ASIO had stuffed up. It was common comment around at the time that ASIO had in fact planted the device and planned to find it for whatever purpose, but the garbage men were early that morning. " Keith Burley

Today I was very pleased to read; "a new plaque will be unveiled in Sydney's George Street today at the site of a bomb blast outside the Hilton Hotel 30 years ago that marked Australia's entry into the age of terrorism" or the age of Conspiracy.

Computer says No!

This afternoon I spent 2 hours trying to upgrade my Mobile and Landline. A simple thing in this digital age one might think? Just go online, browse through the numerous communication packages available, bundle them all together, press the submit button and have a cup of tea.

Reality: do all the checking and filling in of forms then press the submit button and "Computer says No!"

"This service is not available to your area" in fine blue print at the bottom of the last page. AAArgh! I don't get it - I'm already on this provider - mobile and home phone.

Another 20 minutes on the phone listening to the saccharine tones of a fembot until I can get on to the Calcutta call centre to find out that all those cute little raccoons and penguins don't apply to my phone - I'm in the enemy territory no less. I therefore have the privilige of paying an extra $30 a month in Line Rental and can't get any of those tempting discounts for subscribing online.
Bring on the competition I say so the Mega Communication Oligopolies will get their due.

Hone Tuwhare

To Kath

I like ya smokes, woman

They kind of ease the
knot in the belly?

Like, before I go on
and read out the boiling
in the gut. And

when the smoke swirls
like dreams, I come
easy. Oh sure...

Ah, Kath, the meeting
is okay. And now
you've only got two
left!

Time I moved on.

New Zealand's "most distinguished Maori poet writing in English" Hone Tuwhare.
He passed away on 16th January 2008.

From a Poetry Reading in 1977 when I was at Otago University and he asked me for a cigarette in exchange for a poem.
I got the better end of the deal.

Treasures in the Rain

We went exploring a treasure trove today.

The Victory Theatre in Blackheath is an Antique Centre just full of old and new goodies .

Outside it was bucketing down with rain but inside there was two floors of little alcoves to explore with teapots, jewellery, chairs, books, records, chaise lounges, magazines, and lots and lots of memoriabila, collectibles and knicknacks.

This Green satin embroidered ball gown caught my eye but the price was a bit prohibitive. I could see it being displayed on a wall to show off the embroidery flowing down the front. It must have made a striking impression in its heyday.












I got lost among the haberdashery section and 40 year old copies of Woman's Journal, pretty little pinifores and a stack of handbags. The only thing I actually bought was a few bags of vintage buttons and some commemorative spoons for the lad but the mass of shapes, textures and colour was inspiring.

Edward Scissorhands

"How did you get the Scissors through Customs?"
That was the level of questions at yesterday's Media Launch for Edward Scissorhands. I don't know why I was surprised. Maybe I was expecting in-depth discussions about the dance aspect of the production or more artistic based questions. The main thing is I lit the show, photos were taken, interviews done and I could go home.
I was a little impressed with how it looked in this morning's paper - I missed seeing the Channel 10 news clip but I'm presuming it all went well. There was enough smoke being pumped on stage to mimic a small bushfire so there was plenty of 'atmosphere'.

Now I'm in the middle of more mundane matters - three loads of washing, a young lad to get off to the first day of School and overdue DVD's to return. Ahh, domestic bliss.

To Date

Would you buy a used lighting rig from these women? Here is Roxie, Kate and Christine in the early hours of Sunday after a fun time taking down the curvy Murundak rig in the Concert Hall. Yes, we all look mucky and sweaty because we are.

I went home that night morning to pass Chris coming in for his 6am rig, in the same Hall, of the Korean Christmas Youth Spectacular. We did finally manage to catch up with each other on Sunday night around 9pm.

Tonight I'm looking forward to a relaxing bout of non-technical knitting. I have several projects on the go at the moment but I only have one with me in Sydney;

This is The Bag from No Sheep for You and I'm making it from Corn. Once I got my head around the slip stitch pattern it is a proving to be a fantastic knit. The Corn is a bit like a ribbon cotton yarn without the splittiness and the texture is fantastic. When it is lined it will make a lovely bag. It is destined for a Handbag swap that's been run on Ravelry and I have three patterns that I am trying to choose from. I may end up doing all three if I can finish this in time.

The problem is that de-rigs like the aforesaid keep using up all my energy but the Sydney Festival has finally finished, school holidays are over and I have three days off after the Edward Scissorhands media launch tomorrow, so I should be back on track anon.

Form over Function

Helen Mirren has a wonderful memoir called "In the Frame" in which she makes the observation "I love to see design that does not fight with the materials or performers but informs and frames the production in an outstanding and imaginative way."

These sentiments were echoed in a recent discussion in the Entertainment trade magazine CX, when John Weston, a technician of long standing, observed "Acts are no longer complemented by their light shows, they compete with them...The modern lighting designer has forgotten how to trick the human eye with subtlety and contrast."

Many of the shows I have seen in theatres over the past year have been guilty of this - the designers and programmers seem to be seduced by the special effects of computer-enhanced state-of-the-art control boards and moving light technology. Somewhere under all the flashing lights and strobing colour changes is a performer who is often in the dark, figuratively and literally.

John mentions a few lighting 'greats' that never let the technology supersede the art. Designers like "Mel Conder (the Czar of Darkness), (the late) Bill "Angel" Akers, (the late) Roger Barrett, Peter Rooney, and Sue Nattrass," could make a set, costume or performer seem so much more without resorting to excess or extravaganza and with a lighting design that would draw a fraction of the power of present day rigs.

I had the pleasure and the honour to work with most of these and other skillful lighting designer who didn't need pre-programmed macros to create magic on stage and understood that the name on the theatre billboard was not Wholehog 3 or Grand MA.

This post may seem ironic considering that many of these shows take place in the ultimate example of form over function - an Architect's Dream and a theatre technician's nightmare.

Meanwhile, back at The House...
The Grand Circus has moved on to be replaced by the relative quiet of the SSO and Joanna Newsom. Her amazing ethereal voice and harp have no need of flashy lights or strobing colours but it was expedient to leave Murundak's big Lighting rig in the air and use the Mac 2000's and Vari-Lites in a more restrained way than usual. I must say it is a very pretty rig using wavy lines of truss to recall the lines of the Rainbow Serpent. Once again I'll be taking it all down on Saturday night to make way for a much smaller side-bar arrangement for Sunday's Korean Christmas Spectacular and International Youth Festival; that's for the other half to sort out.

Dismantling the Wheel of Death.

I took the lad to see the acrobatic spectacular Le Grand Cirque and it was absolutely stunning.

Once I got over my annoying tendency to make disparaging comments about the unlit areas and the dark spots I really started to enjoy the whole theatricality of it. The acrobatics and daring feats of strength and agility were very impressive.

Tonight I had to help take it all down. The magic and colour all disappear once the House Lights are up and the Star Cloth has been struck. Smoke and mirrors - that's all it is - but it works.


These are some of the tools of my trade and lately they've been getting a lot of use.
The Festival Factory has all the venues in the House working hard - as it should be. I recall several years when there were no Sydney Festival events happening in the House - which seems strange considering its flagship status for the city and the state.

Now I have to constantly check my diary to find out what I'm doing and which theater I'm in; Playhouse one day with Construct; Concert hall bunp-out of Spanish Harlem Orchestra next; back to the Playhouse and put in Akmal; - prep for the Media Release of Edward Scissorhands in the Drama; What day is it? Where am I ?

I think it will all calm down in a few weeks when the SSO comes back to the Concert Hall and a good dose of Shakespeare is installed in the smaller venues. Then I can look forward to swapping my Shifting Spanner for a set of circulars.

Bags, Bags, Bags.

I've entered a Bag swap on Ravelry - just because.

This has caused me to review my Bag situation and it's a sad prospect. Not being a handbag for every occasion type of person this is the total of my current usable carriers. The big Backpack at the back is for commuting to work and staying overnight in the city. It usually holds enough to support anyone shipwrecked on an island or stranded in the bush for a few weeks; Books, Laptop, change of clothes, toiletries, snacks, tools (spanner, Leatherman) and at least 2 knitting projects and supporting paperwork. Needless to say it is not light.

When I'm just going to the local shops the magenta bag in the front used to suffice - until the strap broke off - for the 4th time - probably because I started to overload it. It is looking very battered because it has served me for many years since I found it in a Mt Victorian Treasure shop for $20. (Maybe I should go back up there and see if they have any more). The short term replacement is the lovely marmalade paper raffia bag in front - again from a treasure shop in Charing Cross for about $20. (I don't spend big on my bags). The problem is that paper raffia is not a durable product - especially when they are mistreated handled a lot. I give this bag a few months at the most.

The final bag is the "my husband went to New York and all he bought me was a Macy's Store Bag" which I really do appreciate and which I use for my Knitting Guild hold-all. I know if I put it into general circulation it will start to look as tattered as the others so I'm trying to keep it for 'good'

Getting back to the Bag swap I have been impressed/overawed by the number of free bag patterns in the Knitting 'verse and have reduced my choice to two - guided (I hope) by my partner's preferences. The final choice of pattern was partly decided because I wanted to try Cascade 220 - a knitting staples overseas and now finally available in Australia at Yarnsonline along with a few other goodies I am trying hard to resist.

What happened to the week?

One minute it's New Year's Eve and the year is brand new - then it's the middle of January.
What have I been up to?

I have been reading: - The Golden Compass Trilogy,
watching DVD's: Randall & Hopkirk (deceased)
Playing PS2 (badly): Lego Star Wars I & II
Knitting: Captain Underpants and Wicked.
Sitting: at the Pool
Online: Ravelry

I've also been working some mean shifts and doing Big Bump outs. It's Festival time so that means a constant stream of shows across four different venues all lasting about four or five days - a real production line of theatre.

My current show (being performed even as I speak/type) is construct, a beautifully choreographed, wonderfully lit, very clever dance piece that just reinforces that tragedy of the accidental death of its creator, Tanja Liedtke.
The production is moving to the Riverside at Parramatta next week, I recommend it highly.

A Fresh Start

As a positive start to 2008 I'm going to get rid of my Stash - not the Yarn stash, the Fabric Stash, harking back to the time, many years ago, when I thought I could sew.
I have about 12 sewing machines or more but they are more an indication of my fascination with vintage Singers than my ability to construct a garment. The pile shown here is about half of the total and I am going to donate most of it to the school to sell at their next Market Day - if they will take it. I have put aside a few choice pieces for people I know will be able to make better use of it than me.

The positive side of this divestment is that it will make me feel better about the Fibre Stash I have (much easier to use and manage) and maybe make some room for future (yarn) expansion.

They say it's your birthday...

...We're gonna have a good time.

It was a great time. A big thank you to Lara and Mark for hosting the Western Suburbs Affiliated Branch of Rubi & Lana's Knitting group.
Despite having to work in the morning I was able to make it in time for Cake cutting and a rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday".

Mary-Helen and Sandra were there, as was Jenwren, Sally and her ever-so-patient David.
Young master Inigo was a bundle of dark-eyed cuteness matched only by the soft bunnies in their hutch.

Much knitting was done, books and yarn admired and cake consumed. Sally's assertion that she was not a lace knitter was completely contradicted by her wonderful lace scaves while Mark quietly knitted his Intarsia .

Ravelry meanwhile continues to impress. I received numerous birthday greetings through gmail and ravelry mail because a little birthday cake icon had popped up on my avatar - it is very nice to get good wishes from afar.