Showing posts with label craft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label craft. Show all posts

Tuesday, 30 July 2013

Yarn bombers hit Little Collins Street

There's been a bit of yarn bombing going on in Melbourne again.  I noticed the banisters at one end of Australia on Collins a few weeks ago had been prettily decorated.


Yarn bombed banisters- Australia on Collins
© divacultura 2013


One section
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© divacultura 2013

Today I was at the other entrance, on Little Collins Street, and noticed some more cheerful yarn bombing.

I think I've mentioned before that I like looking at yarn bombing sites, but I really couldn't be bothered - too much work to know that it will inevitably be destroyed.  These yarn bombers are doing some serious work too.  There are lace patterns, stripes and a pretty leaf pattern.



© divacultura 2013

© divacultura 2013

© divacultura 2013


I'm happy to appreciate the work of others who choose to brighten the world in this way.  I love the paisley.



Monday, 24 June 2013

Off the needles.

I've been very productive of late and made some things other than socks!  See anything you like?

"Displaced" hat
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 I made this hat with myself in mind.  I was attracted to it because of its unusual asymmetrical construction.  It was interesting to make but it didn't suit me, so I gave it to a friend for her birthday.  It really suits her!
Socks #9 for the year.
©divacultura 2013
 These socks are made in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn and the colour is called Bittersweet.  I gave these to my 84 year old friend Sonia.
Bathmat prototype
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My grandmother used to crochet bathmats out of cotton yarn.  When I saw the Zpagetti yarn made from t-shirt off cuts at my local craft store I thought it would be perfect for a bathmat/floor rug.  I was right!  I adapted this by looking at one of the mats made by my grandmother and counting.  It's very thick and nice underfoot.  I used a 12mm crochet hook.
Mimku shawl/scarf
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 I was wearing my Mimku shawl when a friend said she wanted one just like it.  I offered her mine and then she commissioned her one of her own.  It's a big garter stitch triangle made using Noro Kureyon on 12mm knitting needles.
Cloche
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This hat is called Lucy and is a classic cloche with an asymmetrical brim and contrasting band.  I'm pleased that I've finally invested in a "head" to block and model my hats.  This hat really suits me and I can't wait to wear it.  Just waiting for it to dry out after blocking.  I think I'll call my model Lucy after the hat.
Basketweave scarf
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This scarf is knitted in basketweave stitch using Schoppelwolle Zauberball which is a sock yarn.  The combination of colour and texture is a match made in heaven.  It seemed to take forever to finish the whole ball of yarn, but I'm really glad I kept going.  The finished scarf is 170cm long which leaves plenty of scope for wrapping.

Socks #8 for the year.
© divacultura 2013
 These socks are made from the Australian Skein yarn called Top Draw Socks.  The colour is called Dolce.  They are soooo soft to wear.
Gaptastic cowl
© divacultura 2013
This cowl is made in superbulky yarn in moss stitch.  Very warm, but also very heavy.  I like the idea of this more than the reality of it.

Sunday, 22 July 2012

Eat Pray Laugh - Farewell Barry Humphries


Image: Her Majesty's Theatre website.


Yesterday afternoon I did something I've never done before.  I went to see Barry Humphries live on stage in his show, Eat Pray Laugh at Her Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne.  It's the farewell tour and I'm so pleased that I didn't let the opportunity to see a master craftsman performing pass me by.

Before Dame Edna took to the stage after interval we spent some time with Sir Les Patterson and the dead Sandy Stone.  I'd heard of these characters and seen snippets, but didn't know very much about them.  I knew that Sir Les is disgusting and wasn't sure about Sandy Stone. (Click here for photos of Sir Les and Sandy Stone.)

Sir Les is disgusting, but still, somehow, likeable.  He has a generous spirit and a big smile on his face to go with the innuendo laden crudities and racist epithets that fly out of his mouth - along with the spit.

The show started in Sir Les' backyard, somewhere in the unmistakeable Australian suburbia.  Silhouetted against the sky is a row of two storey houses with their television antennae reaching towards heaven.  The yard has a lawn and is surrounded by a hedge. Everything is covered in astroturf.  In the corner, there's a piano, also covered in turf.  There's the obligatory garden shed, complete with painted cricket stumps  and a barbecue set up near the back door to his house and the outside toilet.  We know it's a toilet because Sir Les is having trouble with his guts.  Suddenly the audience is roaring with laughter while they squirm at the bowel sounds he is emitting.  He has already warned us about his "volatile emissions".

His outfit is marvellous: a bright orange, yellow and black, ugly  "Hawaiian" shirt, over orange cargo shorts, black socks pulled half way up his calves and bright yellow Crocs on his feet.  Sir Les is apparently very well endowed and wearing shorts presents a problem as his enormous appendage appears below the hem line of his strides.  It's outrageous and screamingly funny because he's so open hearted!  He refers to the enormous bulge in his pants, telling us not to worry, it's just his stash of cab charge vouchers.

Not only does Sir Les provide satirical comment on current affairs, he speaks frankly of his wife, Gwenny's, charms, variously referring to her nether regions as the "gates of paradise", the "tarantula" and thus himself as the "webmaster".  And then he tells us about his latest venture - he's to be the latest celebrity chef.  He's going to try out a recipe for us - rissoles.  His helpers are The Condiments: four very buff dancers - two men and two women - and they wield their ingredients with aplomb while dancing around the stage showing off their incredible bodies.

As Sir Les plunges his hands into the raw mince to start mixing the rissoles by hand, the trouble with his guts takes hold again and these rissoles become even more revolting to think about than they had been when he was merely spitting all over the place.

I was left wondering why fart jokes and sounds are so funny!

Sandy Stone was the character which surprised me.  I found the image of this old, softly spoken man standing on stage in his dressing gown unbearably poignant.  I will even admit to tears as he remembered and sang, "My Blue Heaven".  The imagery of the set, with an easy chair and lamp which descended from heaven, looking like it was made of clouds, was gorgeously fitting.

What a ride!  To take the audience from guffaws to quiet comtemplation of our mortality illustrates the incredible craft, in writing, performance and direction, which was on display.

I needed the interval to recover before meeting Dame Edna.

She was fresh from a stay in a very posh ashram in India - the Dalai Lama may or may not have been one of her fellow travellers - and resplendent in a sky blue gown, sparkling with diamantes and reminiscent of a sari. We'd been shown a tabloid scandal reel to bring us up to date on the history of Dame Edna and then Dame Edna herself arrived on an elephant. She was up for a chat with the audience, engaging and terrifying the front rows - they could be singled out for her scathing assessments at any moment.  Dame Edna does vitriol like no one else, leaving the audience relieved that someone else is in the firing line.

Showing skills as an improviser, there were some moments where the ordinary responses from the selected audience members were hilarious with no embellishment required.  I'm thinking of Debra (Dame Edna's second favourite spelling, she prefers Deborah) who lives in a mud house in a suburb called "Research" with a cream coloured ceiling and coffee coloured bedspread.  Or poor Isabel who was criticised for her "laser sharp intellect" after she could not explain what an epiphany was.  Isabel was accompanied by an apparently elderly looking man.  Dame Edna asked if this was her husband and there was uproar when Isabel revealed him as her grandfather!  Denise described her home in Leongatha as being "Tuscan".  Quick as a whip, Dame Edna imagined all the people in Florence who are living in houses which could be described as being built in the "Leongatha" style.  Hilarious!

The people singled out for conversation were invited onto the stage, including Isabel's grandfather, who turned out to be blind.  A substitute senior citizen was found and he stood up to reveal himself to be hobbling on a stick!  It took considerable effort for him to climb the stairs, but he made it.  Dame Edna affectionately did the Australian thing and immediately gave him a nickname - he was referred to as "Seeny" henceforth.  (Short for Senior Citizen.)

There was a well-deserved standing ovation for Dame Edna after she had flung stems of gladioli to the audience and ordered us to sing "Wave that glad" with lyrics that went something like: "It's part of the show that's quite traditional, I was taught this song by an old Aboriginal, wave that glad!".

Another short film reel was shown and then Barry Humphries took the stage, with his trademark hat (a Fedora?) at a suave angle.  The audience rose to its feet and I felt a wave of affection and respect for this incredible artist.

As I waited for my friend in the foyer, I observed the audience.  They were considerably older than I am and their eyes were lit with the endorphins pouring through them as the result of almost three hours of laughter.  I spied "Seeny".  People were calling out to him and congratulating him on his "performance".  He beamed, clearly enjoying his new found celebrity.

Don't miss the opportunity to see this show!

Wednesday, 4 July 2012

Blooming flowers - making a little bit of spring

I've been admiring the Blooming Flower cushion over at Attic24 for a while.  With a stocktaking sale on at my local yarn store and a lovely assortment of colours available in cotton, I decided to make one for myself.
(c) divacultura 2012

Choosing the colours was easy.  I just bought one ball of every colour I could see and then used them randomly.  I love clashing, random colours together.  The end result can be rather spectacular.  When I say random, I mean I just put my hand in the bag and used whichever colour I had in my hand.  I've heard that some people go even further and roll a die to determine the colour sequence.
(c) divacultura 2012

Looking at this cushion makes me happy.  It's brought a little bit of springtime sunshine into winter.  I might even make another one.

(c) divacultura 2012
Lucy's tutorial at Attic24 is excellent.  If you follow that, you can't really go wrong.  I do suggest that you count everything on every round though!  Much better to discover a missing stitch quickly than to have to rip hours and hours of work.
(c) divacultura 2012

Here are the technical details:

Yarn: Panda Cotton Blend 8 ply
Hook: 4mm
Cushion insert - 16 inch diameter

What do you think of my pillow?  Will you make one too?

(c) divacultura 2012

Thursday, 19 April 2012

Viking yarn arts

My two new playthings have arrived: a nostepinne and a set of three lucets.

I had never heard of these things either until recently, but lots of people have.  In the age of google and youtube it's really easy to discover new arts and learn the skills to practise them.

A nostepinne is a stick to help wind skeins of yarn into a centre-pull ball.  Here's a picture of mine.


(c) divacultura 2012

Of course it isn't just a stick - handcrafted though it may be!  What this nifty - and beautiful - piece of wood does is allow me to wind a ball of yarn that I can pull from the middle.  This is fantastic because it means the ball doesn't run away while I'm knitting.

I have a fancy ball winder which attaches to a table and has a handle to very swiftly wind a ball, but it's limited to about 400 metres of yarn.  Any bigger than that and it won't wind.  You can see one in action here.  It's definitely better than using the spurtle I usually use to stir my porridge.  It worked well, but probably isn't ideal.

Now to the lucets.  They are also known as "knitting forks" and here's what they look like.
(c) divacultura 2012
I'm still getting the hang of how to use them, but you can see one in action here and get a better sense of what is produced by this method.  Aren't they cute!  Vikings used them to make cord.  Cord was essential to keep your clothes on in the absence of things like zips and buttons.

Here's two more pictures so you can get a sense of scale.
Papa bear
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Baby bear
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When I picked up the parcel at the post office, another woman was collecting a parcel.  She commented that my parcel looked interesting and asked me if I knew what was in it.  I told her what it was and she revealed that her parcel contained flower making supplies.  It would seem that various crafts, obscure and mainstream, are alive and well.  I love that I can learn a skill which is so old and practise it so far away from the people who created it!