sock mending

My lovely sock that I knitted back here recently developed holes from my intensive wearing...

I recently procured a darning mushroom...

Which makes the mending - a combo of swiss darning and grafting - much easier...

I used some leftovers from other recent sock knitting for the mend...

All ready for more intensive wearing xo

cushion mend

We have a couple of gorgeous Maiike cushions made from up cycled materials, given to us as a wedding gift from this fellow and his lovely wife. We had a bit of a moth problem last year and I keep discovering holes in woolly objects. I don't mind though... I like practising my darning and grafting and giving the cushions ongoing care through making. 

sticky tape ball ... the beginning!

cardi mend

It's a long time since I wore my once favourite cardigan ... the one that I mended with granny squares a few years back. When I pulled it out of the cupboard to wear last week I discovered a big moth hole on the front.

We were crafternooning at our place on the weekend so I did some mending with the latest sock yarn leftovers.

I wore it today and noticed another little hole on the sleeve ... back to the darning needle!

nest making

Back when I had not long completed and handed in my dissertation last year, I was getting back into the garden after it had suffered through a year of neglect. One of the projects, which ended up as an exercise in therapeutic making, was to create a fence around the sewer manhole in the back corner of the yard. It was accessed by the water board a couple of times in the last few years when they were relining the network of pipes, but had been covered by at least a couple of feet of soil and mulch. I hadn't even realised it was there! We considered different approaches to keep the manhole clear - we were thinking a brick wall at one stage. However, for a long time I have wanted to try Tino's technique for building a herb bed, and it suddenly occurred to me that this could be a great solution.

I had some hardwood stakes leftover from edging the veggie garden beds so I started by hammering these in around the manhole after clearing off the thick covering of rapidly gathered debris. Nearby is a big, old, and very rampant buddleia bush that needed hacking back - again. The long canes were perfect for weaving around the stakes to create the basket-like wall.

This is a beautiful, engrossing, process - I feel the quality of the material (the buddleia canes) as I bend it them the required shape. I listen to its feedback as it responds to my hand. I'm being 'taught' by the material, as it tells me the way it wants to go. I don't always get it right - bits break and pieces need repositioning - but the made form is forgiving and it accepts the messiness of added and re-layered pieces. I thought I was making a giant basket, but as variable making pervades, the more tousled form is unmistakably nest-like, and I realise, I am making a lovely human-sized nest!

More on how this nest has been going later... there have been other nests in the meantime. I've always viewed plant material as valuable - my dad always said to never let anything organic leave your property - but this value goes beyond just chopping up the prunings to become mulch.

A couple of weeks ago at Easter time I made some nests to house eggs for the nieces...

And for the more eggs for the in-laws...

A nest for us with Easter offerings, now nicely mounted on our front door...

And this week, a nest for our gorgeous neighbours to pop their business cards in. This weekend they are embarking on an amazing new business venture - 'pressing provenance' - serving up stylish toasties at local farmer's markets. Best of luck for the opening at Substation Farmer's Market, Newport and looking forward to enjoying a delicious toastie!

laptop jumper mend

My laptop cover has been in constant use since May 2011 when this happened ...
Funny that the jumper I never wore has become so 'well worn' now. This is the 4th round of mending that it has needed - applying a combo of swiss darning and grafting, using the yarn that I also use for this, and this ongoing project (cardis or socks always on the go now). The material flows across and through various making and objects, linking these things forever.

The mend prior to this was a rather desperate, post PhD, 'plug all the holes that I hadn't attended to in a long time' affair. This time there were only a couple of little holes developing, and this time attended to in good time.

dr now!

It's been quite a while since I've been about here properly... so many things, like this little 'bloggy' project, were put on back burners while the PhD got done. And done it did get!

It has been a roller coaster of milestones. The dissertation was handed in on August 15th 2014 ... my exam presentation and exhibition was on October 24th 2014 ...

I received the results (passed, no revisions!) on December 8th 2014 ... and given the word that I may now adopt the title 'Doctor' on February 11th 2015.

The desire to celebrate with rounds of drinks dried up by the end ... I just wanted to rest and it's taken until now to feel something like being more relaxed and a bit more 'normal'.

Now I'm feeling the things that are 'next' are piling up. There seems to be some space now for the 'next piles' to accumulate ... but ... what do I keep? what do I let go?

material matters media

A brilliant sum up of the issues and current practices around the value of materials by Droog Lab
 

patchwork quilts are strange

I was lucky to take part in a quilting workshop with the wonderful Kaffe Fassett at the Fashion & Textile Museum in London a few weeks back. I'm new to the world of quilts and I find it a strange process in regard to material use. Cutting  up new fabric and rejoining feels a bit un-thrifty, but I am planning to glean the remnants from the cut off corners. A slow arduous gleaning task coming up!

wakened hands

I recently finished reading Christopher Frayling's "On Craftsmanship - towards a new Bauhaus"... a very nice tome which unpacks many of the tensions between craft, art and design.

Hence, this charming piece of prose is on my mind:

Things men have made with wakened hands, and put soft life into
are awake through years with transferred touch, and go on glowing
for long years.
And for this reason, some old things are lovely
warm still with the life of forgotten men who made them.
Things Men Have Made, by DH Lawrence (1929)

Have a nice weekend and try to enjoy braving the continued cold...BTW...I did finish the socks :o)

food growing as practice

This has been niggling at me for a while, and I want to dispel what seems to me a popularly held myth, that growing your own food is easy.  There's enough banter out there about food growing, in book form, on the television and in the online/blogosphere scape, and although there is a lot of instructive info, it often feels like all that is required is some enthusiasm and a simple intent to start and it will be as easy as a wink.  I'm all for talking about the positive benefits of vegie and fruit growing, but it certainly is not always easy, if it was would anyone ever buy food?!

I absolutely adore Costa as the new host of Gardening Australia, but I can't help but wonder at the apparent ease at which his "Verge" garden has sprung up.  Commitment is such an important ingredient for successful gardening, particularly when the initial exciting flush that comes with something newly begun dies down.  What I find difficult to manage is the balance between patient waiting and quick action.  Like anything in life, you get out what you put in, you literally reap what you sow.  Food growing requires consistent effort, but an interesting kind of consistency that must also allow for adaptability.  You have to keep putting in, but keep a close evaluative eye on what's happening to know what steps to take.  How do you develop this eye?  How do you know how to respond?

The required skills and knowledge can be learned in part through books/television/internet (which, I'll say it again, overwhelmingly make it seem so easy!), but there's a level of know-how needed that can only be cultivated by doing.  I've been thinking about this for a long time since I saw an episode of Gardening Australia back in April (see "Gardening for Life" on 14/4/12), that showed a segment about a retired market gardener in Coburg who was turning over the lease for his cultivated land to CERES.  He had a knowledge of the land that he had tended all his life which seemed to defy logic.  At one point he says that a patch over there "looks" good for growing broadbeans, and I wonder about what is going on here.  Is it the development of a localised wisdom that comes through experience?  Perhaps coupled with repetition, careful observation and above all practice?  So food growing is a practice?!  Of course, it demands the consistent effort and commitment that developing a practice requires.  When expertise of a practitioner is demonstrated it dazzles and implies effortlessness, and perhaps that's what is happening on shows like Gardening Australia.

As my ripped up corn stalks (due to dog vs rat battles) from last season testify, food growing is not easy!  In actual fact, it was easier when I went more by my instinct and less by instruction from books.  So like the market gardener, I'm going into the next season with the intent to listen to my own intuition and discover the lore of my land.

winter moments

Hello after a big winter hiatus!  I'm at the point where I'm through the conference and teaching preparations and back into semester two...where did the time go?!
Winter is idling along...it's been so very chilly...but punctuated by lovely moments that can only happen at this time of the year.

There is broccoli in the garden and I'm looking forward to Spring and time to plan and plant!

I'm still crocheting away... thinking about the anatomy of known forms.

solstice greetings!

Winter solstice here today and it's a suitably cold, miserable and wet day.  But I'm happy as the house is toasty and warm (I blocked some holes in the yet to be renovated skirting boards with some junk mail :P).  See how great a salutation "solstice greetings" is?  Now I get to say it twice a year :o)

now I know where time went...

@ berg publishers

I'm reading "When Clothes become Fashion: Design and Innovation Systems" by Ingrid Loschek...while still working on some writing for the PopCAANZ conference next week...all writing/reading for me at the moment and only a little bit of sock knitting in the evening while watching prerequisite telly.
Anyhow, Ingrid has finally explained to me why I always feel so time poor: "sensory monotony explains why the impression arises of time passing faster and faster" (p. 142)
This is part of a discussion about why fashion is perceived to be so fast - and explains why fast fashion is so boring, but also explains why I feel like I never have enough time while I wear away these monotonous PhDing days...
The first sock is nearly done!

afters

When I haven't been around here for a bit you can most likely guess by now that there has been some demanding stuff going on PhD wise.  I was told by my lovely hairdresser today to update the blog (ta S xx), so here I am!   Our graduate research conference was weekend before last and I spent all of last week in recovery mode.   It took some serious wrangling in the last month or so to get ready to present my work, but the most interesting thing I got up to was making a sampler constructed out of this stuff...

Anyone for box chain?!

I will show what I made...just haven't got around to photographing it yet, but as a teaser, I will tell you that it is all about revisiting my making skills from my previous incarnation as a fetish wear designer!
Part of my post GRC recovery was spent on sock knitting...my feet have been so freezing during this very chilly wintery season that I decided to use some of my sock yarn stash to actually make socks rather than the usual baby cardi's.

This is the first time I've attempted sock knitting...so far so good, I'm nearly up to the heel shaping.

Other stuff...the lovely drawing salon semester finished last night...I'll get around to showing some more drawings soon...and the magnificent Ms Rehe is going on a drawing adventure to New York, so do stop by Patsyfox in the coming weeks to see what she is up to.

Not much happening garden wise...some winter planting and planning for hopefully a better warm season in a few months...I did pick some carrots yesterday...they were yum :o)

happy birthday to P and all other lovely Taureans!

P's birthday today...so happy birthday lovely husband and to all the many Taureans that I know!
Here's P's birthday card sketch...two lovely dogs :o)

thread and drawn

Last week at the drawing salon, the lovely miss Angie brought in some thread for all us to glean from...part of the stuff from a former incarnation that she was hanging on to...just in case...you know, that old chestnut!  I did end up with the lion share and I think that I must have a life time supply here now...

Luckily I managed to find a placcy container to store most in and I do feel quite inspired to get into some more varied sewing projects to use them too :o)


Speaking of drawing salons, time also to show some more of my drawings.  I like grouping them together here as I'm struggling to find my style...that was always my biggest drawing challenge.  Reflecting back on these later, with help of the drawing tag in the cloud might just help!

Some faces from a couple of weeks ago...and don't you know it...some hands too...

sunshiny day

It's the kind of day that I never want to end...it has been a day with the most perfect Melbourne weather and I've been pottering about doing lovely research things at home.  I've been trialling some photography of my gleaned __________ garments and catching up on some reading.  Enjoy what might be the last day before winter sets in y'll!

happy anniversary!

6 years today since P and I were wed!  I picked some of the few autumn roses that we have at the mo...both P and I agree that these are much nicer than the lanky and characterless long stems that you can buy...so these days I request no flowers on occasions like this!

Instead, we had a lovely dinner at Quaff in Toorak Village, close to where we were married at St Johns church.  We had a nice surprise that there was a sculpture exhibition along the strip, with various sculptures being shown inside the shop windows...we had a squiz after dinner...

And when we got home, an amazing surprise for me on the coffee table...a Lily Serna number puzzle book...much better than long stemmed roses - yay!