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Archive for the ‘Craftwork’ Category

A short cultural history in yarn

Posted in Craftwork, Knitting, tagged , , , , , , on 10 May, 2010 | 4 Comments »

Some people attribute the earliest examples of knitting to Christian Coptics in Egypt in the 3rd or 4th centuries; others consider the earliest knitters to be Muslims working for royal families in Christian Spain in the 13th century. (note 1) Partly, it depends on whether you consider items like those below to be knitted.  They [...]

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From baked beans to luminaire

Posted in Art and exhibitions, Craftwork, Melbourne cool, Philosophy and culture, tagged , , , , , on 8 April, 2010 | 5 Comments »

Still lingering on the attractions of the portrait, so I thought I’d have a go myself.  I’ve selected one of my unsuspecting friends, Jan, as the first guinea pig. Meet my friend, Jan Flook, industrial designer, ranconteur and king of the rubbish dump.  Jan is passionate about transforming what other people call rubbish into high-end [...]

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The yellow bathmat

Posted in Craftwork, Philosophy and culture, tagged , , , , on 9 March, 2010 | 4 Comments »

Finally, I finished the yellow bathmat. Not quite before the Olympic flame went out, but soon after. And after consulting the IKOC (International Knitting Olympic Committee), aka the Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, I decided I did qualify for one of these. As Stephanie said: I’m proud of everyone who gave it a shot and fell [...]

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Not working, knitting

Posted in Craftwork, Knitting, tagged , , on 1 March, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

It’s 1:00pm on Monday afternoon and instead of working I’m knitting. Because the closing ceremony of the Vancouver Olympics is only hours away and the border of my putative bathmat needs to be twice as wide before the flame is out. Trying not to brood on the hours I lost last night having to rip back [...]

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Going for (solid) gold

Posted in Craftwork, Knitting, Philosophy and culture, tagged , , , on 16 February, 2010 | 7 Comments »

My favourite famous knitter and Canadian citizen, the Yarn Harlot (aka Stephanie Pearl-McPhee), has convened the second Knitting Olympics and I’m competing.  The challenge? You must cast on a project during the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, Friday, February 12, 2010 and finish before the Olympic flame goes out Sunday, February 28. That’s 17 days. [...]

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Needles on a plane

Posted in Craftwork, Knitting, tagged , , , , , , , on 17 January, 2010 | 6 Comments »

On Christmas Eve, Australian knitters got the Christmas present they’d been waiting for.  The Australian Government finally removed knitting needles from the list of items prohibited on a plane. It’s been a sore point for many years that famous knitters in North America like Stephanie Pearl McPhee could swan on to a plane with an armoury of [...]

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Socks and jocks

Posted in Craftwork, Knitting, tagged , on 22 December, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Well, the car’s half packed, the wine’s chilling, the presents are wrapped and the socks knitted.  Here’s the pair I showed you before, all ready for my brother (no need to worry about spoiling surprises; no-one from my family and few of my friends read this blog). My brother’s not usually on a first name basis with yellow (I [...]

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Call that a knife?

Posted in Art and exhibitions, Craftwork, Knitting, Philosophy and culture, tagged , , , , on 19 November, 2009 | 5 Comments »

Scene from Crocodile Dundee.  Hoges (alias Mick Dundee) is walking along New York street with Linda K (alias whatsername).  Young guy walks up asking for a light, and … (pulls out knife) … Mick’s wallet. Linda: Mick, give him your wallet. Mick: What for? Linda: He’s got a knife Mick (laughs): That’s not a knife … [...]

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My personal general-purpose eye: Quotes from October

Posted in Art and exhibitions, Craftwork, Literature, Philosophy and culture, Quotes from the month, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on 2 November, 2009 | 10 Comments »

In October, as well as South, I read a stimulating article in the London Review of Books by Bridget Riley, the artist.  It’s one of the best, blow-by-blow descriptions of the process of artistic discovery one could read.  It begins with the recognition of her ignorance: For me, drawing is an inquiry, a way of finding out [...]

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House of old money #1

Posted in Art and exhibitions, Craftwork, Philosophy and culture, tagged , , , , , on 28 October, 2009 | 2 Comments »

I live in a posh suburb of Melbourne.  An “old money” suburb, at least as “old money” as Australia gets.  It’s much more of an accident than good management that I happen to live here, and my artist soul often feels like an imposter.  But happily, it’s not usually too long before my aesthete’s heart re-asserts itself and [...]

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