Scarf Festival Update: Workshop Program

Forwarded to me by the lovely Gillian - http://leafygal.blogs.com/

Dear Scarf Maker

 

I am pleased to announce the festival program for Transformation: Scarf Festival 2009. I hope you will find an activity that suits your skills and interests with nearly 40 different classes on offer by 22 professional and amateur craft practioners from across Australia!

 

Bookings for the workshops open on Monday 18th May at all venues across Geelong and Melbourne. Please note the venue of the workshop and contact that venue directly to make a booking, Monday - Fridays during business hours. Bookings and prepayment are required for ALL workshops regardless of the venue.

 

Please note the special offer for the NWM membership which is open to all participants and attendees. NWM Membership attracts a 15% discount for scarves entered into the Transformation Showcase and workshop fees and free entry into the Museum for 12 months.

 

We hope you will join us in transforming your winter this year!

 

Kind Regards

Lynette

 

Lynette Nilaweera (Christie)

Scarf Festival Coordinator

National Wool Museum

PO Box 104

Geelong VIC 3220

T: 03 5272 4864

F: 03 5222 1118

E: scarffestival@geelongcity.vic.gov.au

W: www.nwm.vic.gov.au

 

The Workshop program is available in google documents here:

Scarf festival 2009 Workshop Program.pdf

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=F.7116d928-05b1-49d0-9d1f-76c01719933e

Check out the grey furry pumpkin!

okay - I found some video footage of the giant grey furry pumpkin... and best is that at 0:57 my dress is seen making its way down the catwalk...

The video is available here: http://www.nbntv.com.au/index.php/2009/04/17/a-toast-to-wool/ (sorry, I am not tech-savvy enough to embed the movie in the blog)

Now I think I should point out that I am not being sour grapes over the whole awards - firstly, there was a lot of great competition that made it too the finals, and, in particular, many great entries in the knitting section. In order to be considered for the grand over-all prize you had to win your section - which I didn't - so I was never in direct competition with the furry grey pumpkin. I just don't think that the winning design was wearable, innovative, marketable or a particularly good use of colour - and I don't think it relates to any current fashion trends or forecasts. HOWEVER - I do think it is a great peice of sculpture and a great example of wearable art*.  And I certainly think that the winning garment is certainly contreversial and will likely create a lot of publicity for the awards and the use of wool - which is what the awards are about. 

But I still think it looks ridiculous!

*a category that is no longer part of The Australian Wool Fashion Awards. 

TAWFA Linkies :)

• Even though I didn't quite make it, you can see the full list of prize recipients here.

• Managing Director, Liz Foster, is interviewed about the Australian Wool Fashion Awards in this video here - I think the dresses featured in the interview were last years entries.

• Fashion designers say wool must go casual -  Article from abc.net.au, and I quote 

Overall winner Rachel Hunt, from The Oaks in New South Wales, says the use of wool has to change to stay modern.

"A lot of the designs on the runway tonight experiment with a lot of different shapes, and a lot of quite casual things," she says.

"I think people expect wool to be in suits or in something a bit dressy, so I think it's great that it's a lot more casual these days." 

because dressing up in a grey sueded dress shaped like a butternut pumpkin that makes you look like your pregnant with 8 is just what you would wear out for lunch with the gals.... (yes, I am narky, but you will see what I mean when I finally find a picture of the monstrosity!)

• Troubled AWI pledges not to cut wool promotion  - Article from abc.net.au - mentions TAWFA
  

• Blog post  I stumbled upon last night of one of the winners - *I think* Eva Pu. Check out the rest of the blog - it has some cute outfits she has designed and sewn on it.

Pictures of the dress, at last!

The rockin' 40s frock on the catwalk!

This dress was swatched, knitted, finished and mailed off to the competition in under a month!

It is knit completely from pure Australian Merino Wool (Patons Merino Deluxe DK purchased from great LYS "CCCK")

Construction is knit all in once piece, with the exception of the belt. The bottom 'frill' is knit side to side with short row 'pleats' and grafted together at the back before stiches were picked up on the side and the body was worked. The paneling effect is due to incorporated i-cord 'piping' and the shaping is due to various increases and decreases within the green panels. Short rows were worked under the bust before a mock cast-off 'braid' was worked between the bodice and bust. Gathering of the bust is due to slipping stitches in the middle of the bust. Cute cap sleeves were created by casting-off the underarm stitches in one round and then casting on the sleeve stitches in the next. The dress is finished off with scalloped crochet edging at the neckline, and double crochet at the hem (to prevent roll) Sleeves were left 'unfinished' as i like the small 'frill' the stocking stitch roll created there. 

Belt was worked seperately, in moss stitch to add a bit of texture and so it would lie flat. 

The only error I really had to amend was that I miscalculated the number of stitches to cast on for the sleeve about three times. (I was frequently trying it on as I worked it to see if it fit - when I didn't have the mobility to get out of the dress without help I knew I had a problem) In the end I didn't have time to rip it back AGAIN to fix it, so I got a little crazy, did a crochet chain about 5 rows before the underarm cast off and then literally cut through those rows to make a bigger armhole. This left me with a metric-shipload of extra ends to weave it, but it was quicker than trying to reknit the top of the bodice.

Of course, this model is leaner and taller than I am, and she really worked the catwalk well and deserves credit for this frock rockin' the catwalk as much as it did :)

More pics of the awards and royal easter show here http://www.flickr.com/photos/gingerknits/sets/72157616772530761/

Dress on Ravelry here http://www.ravelry.com/projects/gingernut/rockin-40s-frock

Flying Sydney Visit Update

Mum and I will be arriving tomorrow arvo - and we are staying in Homebush for the night and heading home Thursday. Drop me a line if you wanna catch up.

Let me know if you have something entered and on display in knitting / crafts - and if you could give me a hint on where to find them that would be great too.

I am very excited about the Australian Wool Fashion Awards Presentation night. I am not certain I will win anything (I think my design is a little too 'classic' and 'conservative' - ie wearable - rather than 'daring' and 'innovative' - ie sculpture, but I am just glad to be a finalist). I shall certainly have fun dressing up and attending the cocktail party and fashion show with Mum. Too bad I hadn't planned ahead - I could have knit myself another outfit to wear to the awards!

Anyway - apart from that not much happening in the life of me. Still applying for jobs, still not hearing much back, still have hurdles to jump with centrelink and still pretty much broke. 

Oh - but there is some good news. Apparently the camera with the pics of my entry (and finalist) dress has been recovered - and I should have some pics for you later this week. (I won't be collecting the camera before I go to Sydney, so I may even have pics from the fashion show before then!)

And I finished a pair of socks - holly-dazed from last years rockin sock club - I made a small change to the pattern so the socks were symetrical, and once I have camera I will share on Ravelry. 

some good, some bad...

the bad news first - 

• I got made redunant from my job at the start of March
  
• I am still unemployed
  
• I hate dealing with Centrelink
  
• The Man and I split up
  
• I need to find new digs  - somewhere pet friendly (for the pupster and I) to live 
  
• Currently I am 'between' fixed addresses, crashing at my parents and couch surfing in the interim

the good news - 

• I finally paid off my car loan with the paycheck before I got made redundant
  
• I entered The Australian Wool Fashion Awards....
  
• ...and I am a finalist !
  
• check out the details here - if you make it to the Royal Easter Show look for a green dress with purple i-cord 'piping' - very fitted and very 40s. I don't have a picture because I can't find the dang camera I used :( However, it is knit completely in one piece (apart from the belt) in gorgeous 8-ply / DK / Light worsted merino yarn :)
• I had a fairly good interview for a retail management training position last week so hopefully will be gainfully employed (and not reliant on centrelink) very soon...
  
• I am surprised at how resiliant I have become - I had quite a bit of crap land on me at once and am dealing rather well. Yay for minimum black dog issues in a time of crises!

Anyway - please excuse the lack of blogging recently... didn't really know how to start telling the negative stuff.

Mum and I will be in Sydney about the 15th of April (next Wednesday) for the presentation night of the Australian Wool Fashion Awards - if anyone wants to catch up while we are in town drop me a line :)

Lets all be a little subversive....

Yesterday I got an email from Amazon telling me that this book was finally shipping to me:




(there was no way I was ever gonna be able to make it to the exhibition)

Yesterday Gwet posted a link to this video on facebook:

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Nailed 'Em - Radical Knitting

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Co-incidence?


I think not!

knitting for psychos

stumbled upon this mildly disturbing website today...

Everything is comin' up Milhouse!

Fringe!, originally uploaded by pierretheyarnsnob.

Thanks for the good vibes sent yesterday for my interview - I was a little bit nervous, but when I had this fantastic public art installation on my tram (as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival) I decided that it was obviously a sign that there was nothing to worry about...

And today I got a call to tell me I got the job!

I start on the 6th, so I have just over a week to get my sleeping habits a complete 180 so I am no longer keeping the hours of a vampire bat and can stay awake for my 9-to-5 :)

Don't forget that you should be leaving comments as part of my big 300th post give-aways!

I'll be doing one for the locals, and one for the OS 'tourists' (actually, do those from OS know that it stands for Over Seas - or is that a Oz expression seeing as we have coasts rather than borders??)

Edited to add this cool video that Damo posted to ravelry - if you're not a regular on the Australian Knitters boards you may have missed it

Red Bubble

I have just come across this cool Australian site you can use to promote your own artwork and sell prints, posters and t-shirts... kinda like a local cafe-press (but IMHO easier to use)

Needless to say, I joined up (it's free) and uploaded a couple of pictures I have taken. There is a cool widget in the sidebar that slideshows through my work.

If you're interested, pop on over and check it out here - this link goes to my profile (a bit of shameless promotion) but it's a place for you to start :)

These images are the ones I have uploaded so far...