Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Casting Off My Womb

This is the time of year when wombs are often mentioned (or at least it was when I prepared this post just before Christmas ;) That is one of my rationales for posting this piece today. I know some might find this video distasteful in the extreme and I hope my blog doesn't get flooded (snort!) with comments from outraged visitors.

Recently this performance was making news/waves. Thank heavens there are people in the world who push boundaries, for how else can we challenge our attitudes and grow as people, but this project by Australian performance artist Casey Jenkins might cross the line and be more than a tad shocking for many of us. Hold on, though, humour may find a way out.



On a lighter note, maybe these would be an appropriate item to knit this way:

Photo: Hahaha, a gift for someone who has "everything", bet they don't have a pair of these..... with love from Shelagh Duffett

Here's another thought:



Thursday, January 9, 2014

Knitting

 


I used to knit a lot - sweaters, mitts, socks etc. I started out when I was 7 and on the long train journey from Detroit to Houston with my aunt. She was an avid knitter and crafter and I was a willing pupil. There were a lot of dropped stitches and a few tears on that trip, but my aunt was magnificent, quelling the upsets and fixing the mistakes. She even had me knitting with two yarns at once, one of them a fancy gold thread. I can still recall how it felt in my fingers and how accomplished I felt to be using it. By the journey's end I knew that knitting was something I could get better at and since there are only 2 stitches, the world was going to be my oyster.

Then, when I was 13 and my first niece was on the way, I learned to follow a pattern and knit a baby sweater and bonnet. (Have you noticed that very few babies wear these lovingly crafted hand-knits these days?) That's when a monster was created, the result being countless adult-size sweaters, a cute poncho for my first-born to wear when she could finally stand and eventually beautiful sweaters for each of our three teenagers.

Finally I noticed that not many folks were walking around in hand-knit sweaters anymore and I put my needles away.

Then a couple years ago some friends were talking about the scarfs they had knitted in an unusual way and the bug bit me again, though it has taken this long for me to scratch the itch.

Anyway, while I was browsing the website of a nearby knit shop I found the photo of the adorable ponies above, so had to share it with you.

The scarf I want to make is a spiral scarf...looks like this....

 
So I'm off soon to the knit shop to choose some wonderful yarn in pretty colours. Anybody want a scarf?