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

Drowned rat puppy...

The Man finally got the pictures off his fone from when the pup when for his impromptu swim...

CCCV - A little less exhausted...

I think I may be getting back into the swing of this full time job thing. Today I actually had energy to go to the shops before coming home and collapsing on the couch :)

The new job is going well - the office is small and friendly, and very keen to help out an eager young upstart who wants to learn the ropes. I love the freedom of not being a uniform -but it does make for some hesitation in the morning while I am deciding what to wear (twice now I have driven into carpark just in time to see my train pullout of the station - luckily I have calculated a little leeway into the travel plans.)

Unfortunately my new life is having a bit of toll on the pupster - poor Pierre is at home for up to 12 hours without my company. He is rather hyperactive when I get home, and then switches to burr mode.

The Man and I knew that we needed to pay some extra attention to the furkid, so on lovely sunny Sunday we took him for a walk along the river. Wanting to give him a little extra freedom, we let him off the lead while we walked along the boardwalk. All fine and dandy until Pierre started bounding down the steps. At the rivers edge he stopped, sat, and stared into the perfectly still water, with algae and reeds sticking out... before leaping into the river...

Now might be a good time to tell you just how much papillons HATE water - the surest way to turn my adorable puppy into the mutt from hell is to turn close the door to the bathroom, turn on the tap and watch him panic!

...so we are fairly certain that Pierre didn't realise that he was jumping into water, and not onto solid ground.

For what felt like forever, the pupster completely disappeared. When he finally popped up (doggy paddling for his little life) The Man was emptying his pockets getting ready to jump in after the pup, while I was laying stomach down on the deck trying to fish out Pierre (that bronze medallion training from high school finally paying off). The Man picked up on what I was trying to do, lay down next to me and had the extra length in his arms to actually lift the dog out of the drink.

The Man took a few photos of our glorified drowned rat with his phone, but due to a software and/or cable problem I can't share them with you.

However, the river dip did solve the green paws problem:)

CCCI - Geelong Textile Fibre Forum

Saturday found me joining Kathy and her friend Daniel at the Geelong Grammar Campus for the Fibre Forum open day. Of course - we bumped into many like minded pilgrims from our S'n'b, as well as a few ravellers and I was very happy to bump into Doris (Lisa G's mum) from my first ever pub-knitting group at Bar 2060 in North Sydney (I think the group has now moved to another location as the pub was renovated and switched to very low wattage bulbs...) anyway... I digress...

I think our little group managed to see just about anything (except for the fabled Habu textiles that apparently were on offer) and I managed to walk away with only one purchase - a pattern book: Norah Gaughin Vol1. I'd already been in touch with Gusseting to grab one, but hadn't a chance to catch up with her to collect it... so really I didn't give in to the impulse buy nerve at all.... (yeah, I know, pure sophistry...)

My absolute favourite part of the open day (apart from bumping into friends including my tapestry teacher, Joy, we spent the week as 'Artist in Residence') was the knitting instillation I have dubbed 'The Womb Room' (don't worry none of us felt the need to return to the foetal position due to stress)

Squishy, red, knitted walls that envelope you and make you feel safe - 'womb' was just the first word that jumped into my head. Kathy and I both knit a row for this project.

(photos kindly taken by Daniel as I forgot my Camera...)
There was another knitting instillation in the next room completed by some elderly knitters in SA. (photos top row below) You can't quite see it, but one of the walls was full of knitted tubes about the size of sleeves. I could imagine people hiding behind that wall and putting their arms into those "sleeves" so they could wave to the world :)


We also enjoyed the "hogwarts" like scenery of the Grammar Campus. Yes, we really are just big kids at heart...

Geelong LYS

Direct cut and paste from a Ravelry forum post I thought I might keep here for ease of reference. (I have linked all of these to their ravelry LYS page - if they have one. When I have time I'll find some more detailed weblinks.)

Twisted Threads is right in the centre of town - in the main street in fact! It has just been taken on by a new owner and would have the biggest variety of yarns. It is the only store in Geelong that is dedicated to knitting and needlework.

If you are keen to go into the suburbs, there is Busy Bee Fabrics in Belmont is an outlet for Bendigo Woollen Mills and has lots of pattern books, and there is the Belmont Drapery across the road that also has some yarns (once you get past all the old lady underwear!).

Woolsy Trading Post is in Geelong West and is a stockist for opal and Ashford products.

After that you may choose to head down the Bellarine Peninsula - there is the Ocean Grove sewing centre which has a selection of yarns, Wildpurl at Port Lonsdale - which is a homewares store with a yarn section out the back, and Coloured Jules at Queenscliff - which specialised in Hand painted mohair.

If you are heading that way you may want to stop at Drysdale. Not actually a yarn store - but Shiloh is a small farm specialising in natural coloured wool that is grown, scoured and spun in Geelong. Quite possibly a good place to get some unique souvineer wool. You will probably need to make an appointment thou (and if you are keen it is right next door to one of the main Bellarine wineries)

Depending on when you are in town you may also want to check out one of the weekend markets on the Peninsula - There are a couple of stalls (including GingerKnits - me!) that sell yarn and crafty stuff.

Heading south from Geelong along the coast you may want to check out some of our famous surf beaches, and while you’re there it would be the perfect oppotunity to check out Pear Tree Yarns in Torquay. Pear Tree also sources local producers and is scoured and spun in Geelong - and has some products to die for.

One last thing to mention - the National Wool Museum (external link) is located in Geelong and definitely worth a visit for any knitter. I don’t recommend you buy any yarn there thou - it is incredibly overprices (I think it has something like a 70% markup!). Save your pennies and go round the corner to Twisted Threads!

We did it in public...

Knit... of course - what were you thinking? (Quite possibly that you did it too!)

Today, being world wide knit in public day (or wwkip for short) was celebrated in Geelong in style. The original plan was to knit outside at the Beach House cafe down on Eastern Beach, but the weather didn't want to run with that plan. Instead, we took over the inside of the cafe - taking up prime position next to the fire.

We took a while to sort out what we were going to do, so it was last minute that I posted it to the official kip website. We had a couple of new faces so it was worth doing.

A few people had left by the time I got the camera out, but the people I caught in attendance were (l-to-r above) the-other-Meg, who showed up in a great hat and scarf which immediately let us know she was a knitter, Gillian in her lovely colinette-tagliatelli cardigan, Kathy wearing a one-piece patons inca jacket, Gwet, who is working on a sideways-knit-blanket-top from a Rowan Book, Trish who is working on a beautiful blue shawl (detailed in a pic below), my Mum who I dragged along at the last minute, and one other lovely lady whose name I cannot remember for the life of me (can someone help me out??)

Below, the-other-Meg is counting her stitches...Trish is apparently famous enough that she hides from the paparazzi behind her knitting...

Gillian and Kathy proudly wearing their Finished Objects...
We all had fun - How bout you??

Happy 30 to The Man!

Yesterday The Man turned the big 3 - 0!

To celebrate this milestone, last Sunday a function room at a pub was booked, money put on the tab and guests catered for. The affair was a joint celebration - one of The Man's friends from his ahem innocent ahem childhood happens to be one day younger, so lots of people from were helping to celebrate. 

Joyously - a jukebox and projector was part of the deal. And in true 30th form, music from the last 3 decades were programmed into the jukebox. We discovered, after a few drinks, how truly dreadful our collective music taste can be! And how terrible some of the music videos were (but man - Jimmy Barnes was young once, Alice Cooper was always ugly and don't get me started on what is wrong with 'I like big butts'...)

We also discovered that Michael is a very entertaining guy. He plays basketball, cycles, runs through the snow naked, wears dresses and once had a girlfriend. No - this guy wasn't at our party. He had the 21st the night before and the photos were left on rotation at the end of the music videos. 

We kicked on into the city (narrowly missing the 2am lockout), had the end of the night Souvlaki at Stalagtites before calling it a night and departing from the rest of the gang to crawl back to our hotel booked by The Man with much foresight. 

Taking advantage of the public holiday monday, we slept in before venturing out to Gingerlee in East Brunswick for a little brunch with our fellow revelers from the previous evening. We topped up on enough coffee to get us back to Geelong before both the Man and I wrote off the rest of the day, bunkering down in either the bed or the sofa.

Yesterday he'd booked in a guys night when they all went out to feast on cow (steak) before realising it was his actual birthday, but to spend a little time with him I managed to abduct him from work to take him out to lunch in Highton. All in all, I think the Man had a great birthday.

Mowm says tocolat isn't good for dawgs..

Yesterday I stayed after class, got a late train home, and grabbed a quick snack at the train station because it was going to be at least another hour before I got home for dinner. Because time was scarce, I grabbed a Mars bar from a vending machine - the type of packet had two 40 gram bars, and I only ate one, wrapped the other one up and put it in my bag to save for (later)Ron.

Subsequently, I had completely forgotten about the chocolate bar left in my bag... 

which Pierre's keen sense of smell picked up on when I was out of the house... 

... and I came home to find an empty wrapper...

...and the little guy led me to a smidge of candy that was all that remained of the 40 gram Mars bar I brought home last night...

Call to Vet:

Me>"Hi, my dog just ate half a Mars Bar... is that going to be a problem??" 

Vet nurse>"Possibly not, how big is your dog?"

Me>"He weighs 2.5kg"

Vet nurse>"Ummmm.... can you hold while I check with the vet?"

hold music

Vet nurse>"Ummm... in a dog that small it could be a lethal dose. Can you bring him in???"

Of course - as chocolate doesn't present a threat to dogs until it passes through the digestive system and liver failure etc happens, Pierre was acting as if nothing was going on.... 

P thought it was a grand adventure - the harness and lead went on him, so he was getting out of the house; he got a ride in the car; he met lovely vet nurses who 'oohed' and 'aahed' over him; he met other dogs; he got treats... 

Poor thing didn't know what hit him when he was made to swallow salts to induce vomiting (which didn't work), and then got an injection to induce vomiting (which did work)...

We got sent home with the advice that the pupster may be a little drowsy as the drugs he got injected with has a sedative effect...

 

For some reason, however, Pierre reacted like he was on speed when we got home. One and a half hours of psycho puppy running from one end of the house to the other. He'd jump up on my lap and wiggle and fidget - the guy couldn't sit still.... above is what happened when I tried to take a picture of him.

Except when he was having a drink. 

Well, you do loose a lot of fluid when you vomit. Of course he'd be dehydrated.

The little guy is doing fine now.. and he got a new squirrel toy (below) that has been named 'Mars-bar'...

(oh... and yes, I did finish all the squares on the green afghan - you like!)

Textile Tuesday

This week brought to you by my current tapestry project - this is my final assessment piece, and I had to come up with the design for it...

Can you tell what it is? (I'll give you a clue: "it's sideways Miss Pat")
The tapestry I am studying is proper woven tapestry - not needlepoint tapestry. See - I am working with string and the colour actually makes the fabric....

This is opposed to needlework tapestry - in which usually colour is stitched onto an existing 'framework' fabric of squares.The big difference is that for this you use bobbins (not needles) and, as you are creating the fabric, you need to work from the bottom up.
I am really enjoying working on this - I have mixed neutral colours for the background, and chosen solid, bright colours for the subject. I hope to create a fun piece that explodes out of the tapestry!

A green afghan*...

This here is one of my current WIP - a wedding afghan for friends of mine. This is it exactly at the halfway mark - only 40.5 squares to go (no-one mention the border, okay!... or that the wedding that this was for was in March!) My friends selected the yarn, colours and pattern from a bunch of colour cards, stash samples, books and magazines I took over to their place, and understood there was a very big possibility it could be running a bit late....

It was originally supposed to be the cable blanket from Jo Sharp contemporary knitting, but I decided the pattern was written by a numpty, and ripped out the third of that pattern I had knitted (after starting it twice because I decided the pattern was badly written). The stitch pattern was making the finished product look a little card-boardy, so I decided to go with good ol' fashioned garter, and keep the diagonal colours as per the original pattern. To reduce the need for seeming, I decided to work a variation on your standard entrelac to get a nice looking blankie without the need of any starter triangles.

This is worked in Bendy 12ply Rustic - have to say that although it is supposedly the same yarn, with the same fibre content in different colours, the lighter colours (particularly the cream fleck) is so much softer than the darker colours. Anybody have any idea why this is???

Needless to say, this is a fantastic knit for rainy days in front of the heater! Now that the weather has turn crisp and chilly, a hellava lot more work is getting done on this project now :)

And because I had the camera out, I thought it was time for a couple of Pierre pics.

This is his favourite place to greet guests as they come in the front door (which is just behind the right of the couch)

It is rather kitten like the way he bounds up to the back of the couch and runs back and forth along the narrow cushion until a guest will pay attention to him.The next thing that happens when we have guests, is that the toy sitting on the couch there gets dumped in their lap, because, of course, the guest is there solely to play with P!

And I took these pics while I was running a few errands today - 

I absolutely love these kimmidolls, but this red-headed one is my favourite (her name is Seiko, meaning success - also the name of one of my Japanese exchange student pals) However, I just can't justify spending $20 on a doll, no matter how cute. 

So when I saw these little key-ring dolls for 7 bucks I got all excited... 7 bucks isn't much, and a key-ring you use for your keys and see it all the time and does more than sit on a shelf and looks cute....

....except there is only a limited number of characters in the key-ring line, and Seiko isn't one of them :( Guess it just wasn't meant to be...

And finally - I just got back from the Geelong S'n'B for May - it marks my knitsaversary as being a part of this group! I loved finding this group - they cannot replace my rubi'n'lana knitting buds in Sydney, but I feel lucky to have found such a great group of friends locally.

*if you don't know the relevance of THE green afghan, you need to get a hold of Yarn Harlot's book of short stories :)

of winners and stock...

It was very remiss of me not to mention who won the april shoppers' contest over at GingerKnits.com - truth be told, May slipped in under the door so quietly I didn't even realise I hadn't drawn a winner until we were a week into the new month.

Bad bad me!

However, a winner has now been drawn - feel free to pop on over to Artificially Mythic and  give the Caffeine Faery a pat on the back. She has already picked out a skein (bunny moth) that will be on it's way to her next Monday.

Of course - I am now running a new competition for the new month. Every shopper in May will go in the draw for a $10 store voucher - those that stopped by in the last week or so, don't worry - you have already been entered. And you don't need a blog to win either - it's just been co-incidink that the winners of the first two comps both had blogs (and both live in Canberra too....)

I have some new stock I'll be adding to the store over the coming week as well - I have some chunky fabric beaded necklaces, scarves made by my Mum (in gorgeous merino/ alpaca / angora/ microfibre yarn blends), beaded shawl pins and some organic* lip balm. I'll be doing a product shoot and website upload with the stock remaining after tomorrows market at Point Lonsdale. I'll post here as I get each item up in the store.

I am also working on a new sock pattern - the plan is to make a pair of socks using entirely garter stitch, two needles, be worked in the round, entirely out of squares, without any grafting. Sounds impossible, non?

If I manage to achieve this design feet feat, the pattern will be for sale through GingerKnits.com. If you curiosity has been piqued, check back in a week or so when I hope to be doing a call for volunteer test knitters. 

*it is 'organic' (little o) rather than Organic (with a captial O) or Certified Organic because it has been made from natural, organic ingredients (such as bees wax, avocado and lime), not from chemicals - I am not going to pay big bucks to claim Certified Organic, which I think is a bit of a crock anyway. 

Sick Sick Sick!

Ugh - I am home from school for today because I am the snot monster from planet mucus!

The absolutely worst thing about taking the happy pills, is that you can not take anti-histamines or pseudo-ephedrines* or any of those other lovely drugs that help you wake up and/or sleep when you have a cold or flu.  So now my head feels like it is trapped inside a high-pressure bubble, my body feels like a whole herd of heffalumps has trampled me, and my brains have been replaced by boogers. There is no way I would make it through 7 hours of classes today plus the 3 hours of train travel - which just makes me feel even lower :(

I am going to anoint myself in vicks and drown myself in ginger honey tea and completely indulge in Dr Phil and Oprah, and then, perhaps a little Simpsons DVDs - and perhaps I'll be able to make it to the Carlton Hotel tonight for the monthly Geelong S'n'B. I could do with a girls night out, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

If anyone has any other good home remedies that work and don't involve gall-bladders of cats or something similar, please, please share!

*Pseudo-ephidrines are actually no longer available in the state of Victoria because they are too easy to turn into speed. So even if I wanted to be norty and mix my drugs I wouldn't be able to. Perhaps I should hang out in some dodgy alley til I find a dealer for speed! 

Exposure...

When was this photo taken? Any guesses???It was taken about 20 minutes after sunset. Yes, that's correct, after sunset. The sky was completely dark! Picture of the street behind South Geelong Train Station.

That bright light you may have thought was the sun - tis a street light. I took the picture with an 30 second exposure, while the camera was resting on my car's dashboard (which is why it isn't really a fun picture - I was just playing) The longer exposure time means that the 'film' (or, as I was using a Digital SLR, in this case the film was really light sensitive silicon sensors) can pick up more detail in low light. 

I had the camera resting on my dash because, even at the best of time, I am not a very steady person. However, with a 30 sec exposure, no-one would be steady enough to take a clear picture - your blood pumping through your veins would be enough disruption to make a blurry shot.

Here endeth the lesson. I gotta get me a DSLR. Perhaps if I save real good I can gets one in a decade or so!

More Pupsters!

Something to help with any mondayitis you may be suffering -

some cute dog pics that I have had on my computer for a few weeks...

This is Pierre sitting in the boot of the car while I was packing up after the Drysdale Market last week. His front paws are resting on the Garment rack I use to display stock.

Yes, my car is a mobile mess. 
Easter Saturday Market at Point Lonsdale - These fellow papillions were visiting from South Australia (Adelaide, I think).  I see that Pierre's camera hogging abilities are a trait of his breed.

This teddy-like pomeranian puppy belongs to another Meg - daughter of the stall holder next to us at the Easter Saturday market...
Pierre was happy to meet so many other dogs his own size!

And this is my first media campaign for the stock in my store- postcards! The colours on this are funky because the file needed to be in CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and key/black)for the printers, and computer screens show RGB(red, green and blue).

spoilt!

Me - well and truly! 

Thanks to everyone who sent comments, emails, messages or texts wishing me a Happy Birthday on Friday - I had a fantastic day weekend!

On Friday arvo the Man, Pierre and I departed for Daylesford. The Man had booked a pet-friendly B&B - hence P came along. We arrived just before sunset - so after finding our accommodation we took the pupster for a wander down the main drag.

When we strolled passed Frangos & Frangos it became apparent we were rather peckish -and they were rather dog-friendly, so we stopped for dinner. Well... The Man and I had dinner - poor Pierre didn't get any of our cuisine...

Due to the fact it was early in the evening, the staff weren't too busy, so I nabbed the waiter to take a pic of us when he brought out our mains - 
(The Man had lamb, black lentil jus and mash while I had canestroni with roast pumpkin, ricotta and mustard fruits - see, it wasn't mere food, but cuisine)

And there wasn't a birthday cake, but we shared this - 

Blood Plum and Rum Trifle topped with gold leaf - so good we had to taste it before we got the camera out...
Oh - and P loved being out to dinner with us!

After dinner we went back to the Double Nut Chalet (appropriate seeing as it was gingernut and Mr gingernut!) where there was champagne sparkly, choccies and a spa bath awaiting for us.

The view from the front door of our 'Chalet'
See those high ceilings? The only thing that went wrong during the whole weekend was that at about 2am the smoke alarm battery decided it was going flat... and was giving out persistent chirps every few minutes and the smoke alarm was riiiight up the top of the wall! The Man had to climb on the table to reach it to shut the thing up!
Funky cosy living (even port supplied for that nightcap)
And cosy heating (and aircon if you need), a good supply of movies, and electric blankets if its your thang (we prefer to snuggle under an extra woollen blanket thou)

MMM... Spa!

After our lingering breakfast on Saturday, we found Purls Palace (more on this in another post!), the Convent Gallery and had lunch (well, I had Devonshire tea coffee) at Rhubarb Cafe and stopped at the bookstore before heading back to Geelong to catch up with The Man's family for dinner. (All dog-friendly... except the 'Bad Habits cafe' at the Convent Gallery, as it doesn't have al fresco dining)

At the Queenscliff Market on Sunday I tracked down  the "Tea with Alice Cupcakes" stall and bought this goigious lime-iced vanilla as a birthday cake treat for myself.

(Well - to keep with the theme, Sunday was actually an UNbirthday for me, but I am sure the Dormouse and Mad Hatter would have approved!)

ME-Yow... or... I'm not a cat person but...

One of the best things about being back in good ol' G-town is the sense of community it harbours.... particularly when it is a one horse (well, team) town...

The past two years I had been in Sydney for the AFL grand final (which is also a one horse AFL town) and apart from the TV broadcastors trying to make it a big deal you would never have known that they were in the grand final both years!

No chance of that happening in Geelong - first to start painting the town blue and white was the art shop...
They started the same week as the finals....I love this set up of the team in their windows....However, they weren't the only ones to show off their blue and white...

Next door, griffiths (the best bookshop in G-town) got a bit of blue and white happening... Prints when up in windows...Blue and white merchandise is displayed all over town...
Yep - even the salvos got in the act!
The band wagon included dentists....
... and real estate agents.......and loan sharks......and crazy P-platers...
...and yes, even the local porn shop...

...and although geelong isn't a country town, come last saturday afternoon, everyone had somewhere better to be....

... Yay Cats....

Everyone in my world is incredibly happy happy joy joy this week....
there will be a lot of smelly blue and white hooped jumpers come next week! *I was tempted to title this post "We love you cos you're a vic-tor-i-an".... especially after storm won the NRL!