Spinning a Yarn

One of reasons I was inspired to get our my french knitting (and the reason I remember how to do it after all these years!) was a show I saw a few weeks ago the the Perth Fringe Festival.

Ms Polly Ester and Ms Poly Mer - the Plastic Bag Ladies of the Sea - put on a super cool and intimate show called 'Spinning a Yarn'. Inside the Fringe Festival Gardens there is a little wooden tent, draped with colourful yarn creations. A tiny door opens, and the audience - a maximum of 8 fit inside - squeeze in. Absolutely everything inside is covered is knitting!! It was an amazing experience! They told stories and chatted, and as each little knitted sea creature came out they shared with us how plastic is destroying our marine environments. Sad, but true.

We also all joined in to knit on the large knitting loom you can see in the middle of the space - the plastic vortex.... (aha! with that reminder I can now figure out all loom based knitting, including my french knitting!

You can check our more about the show, the concept behind it, and the wonderful presenters on their facebook page.

french knitting

I knew she must be hiding somewhere .... and I finally found her!

Her name is Frankie, and she is a French Knitter!

But can I remember HOW to french knit?!?!

If you fancy trying some french knitting, here is a tutorial you might find helpful :) 

MEN make music

In Perth it is Festival time!! I visited the Festival Gardens of the Perth International Arts Festival on Sunday night to see MEN. It was most amazing!

cd and poster that i purchased on the night

I danced non-stop, and was literally in the front row - I could touch the stage from where I stood! It was mind blowing getting to see JD Samson up close, performing and dancing and smiling! And a few of us stayed after the show and had a conversation with JD!!! It was an experience of a lifetime for me.

These photos taken by a most awesome friend, and rad dancer, Alex. Thank you Alex!

Their music is political, with roots in Riot Grrl and Punk music, with more of an electronic bent now. You might like this song - I do!

surprises in the mail

I arrived home to some surprises in the mail!! 

The Arlene Texta Queen playing cards and postcards are from my GG :) And the makedo kit I won in a competition! On their facebook page, they asked what you did as a kid, just for fun. My winner answer read: when i was a kid i made beautiful crazy bird wings from old tube-shaped post packs and flew from the old fig tree in my backyard just for fun! :)

get your 'stache on!

I got the most exciting surprise in the mail today! And envelope arrived on my desk at work, and this is what it was ......

Thanks so much Danni and Molly for thinking of me! (ps - these are 2 super inspiring creative types, you should click the links and see what ace things they are up to! oh and danni makes amazing jewellery too!)

knit the beach

Knit the Beach is a community project I have been working on with the City of Stirling for their Summerset Arts Festival.

I was absolutely astounded by the number of knitter and crocheters and beginners who were interested joined in and created the most colourful pieces for the project. Thank you!

Two community workshops were held, and I was unable to facilitate them, as I was in bed sick :( but never fear, the lovely Annie Rawle took over the workshops - thank you Annie! Annie is a super lovely person, and an amazing textile artist. She sells some of her creations here :)

On install day, I headed out to Scarborough Beach, and with the generous help of about 8 committed people, we installed metres of colourful creations!

The amphitheatre where we installed all of the work was the location for a number of Festival shows, with huge crowds getting to experience Knit the Beach! You can see more photos on my facbeook page and on the Knit the Beach tumblr blog.

the arts are AWESOME!

This year I started a new job. It is at AWESOME Arts! I am so passionate about this organisation, as well as my role there. Managing a community arts development project is such a challenging and exciting and dynamic experience, and my colleagues at Awesome Arts are totally lovely and talented! We are have a super rad office too!!

Our office is opposite a great cafe - Little Willy's - and artist studios - Paper Mountain.

love is in the air!

BIG LOVE to all of you in blog land! It's Valentine's Day! My beautiful G made some delightful cupcakes (which I helped decorate) for all of our work colleagues. Here are some pics of them before they got all gobbled up!!