Yes I am just that talented.
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Another example of Miss Hewson & I being absolutely slack correspondents. Well on this blog at least. But we are still alive, and still plodding along. Mid-2011 I returned to Uni, no not to finish my poor languishing PhD, but to start a Master of Information Services in Archives & Records. And I will admit, so far I have done quite well, and by quite well I mean I rocked it. 2 Courses, 2 HDs and one 1st in course. Yes I am gloating. Just a little, as it provided a much needed boost after yet another round of rejection letters. Yes, apparently I was not destined for gainful employment at any time during the last year and despite hope for this year I am kicking on with marketing my research and editing services (know anyone who needs help? I do it very well) and finally kicking myself into joining Umbrella Artisans properly. Someone should kick me for being so half baked last year, lots of projects and ideas, little progress or accountability. Apparently I need deadlines. Deadlines which are not set by me. Those ones make whooshing sounds as they fly by if they are not ‘vital.’ You can probably tell right. So I am setting myself a goal at a time, and you dear reader must help to keep me accountable. One blog post per week to start. How does that sound? Doable, yes?
Are like New Years Day. You make resolutions that you never keep; eat too much, drink to much and tell yourself that you’ll be good from tomorrow; and you beat yourself up over all the stuff you promised you would do the previous year but never did. This year however it feels a little worse. Tomorrow I am 29 (aww poor baby, yeah I can hear you all) and this has got me thinking about all the things I thought I would have achieved by the time I was 30 – A PhD, a fabulous world travelling job – all the things you are so sure you deserve at 19. I quit my PhD 18 months ago and have been out of work for 9 months now, and have had more rejections than I care to count so I’m back at Uni for a Masters. I am not an archaeologist, or head of the UN. I have not changed changed the world like I once dreamt of doing in one of my more feminist, socialist world on fire activist moments. I do have a wonderful partner. I have very good friends. I have a nutty but loving family. I have my health and unlike the majority of the world I have access to healthcare should I need it. I have an extremely high level of education, I am one of the privileged few. I do not want for anything. And most importantly, I have realised that the answers I gave to the big questions at 19 are not the ones I would give today. When asked at 19, what I wanted to be I’d have replied with a list of job aspirations and world changing plans. Today, what do I want to be?
Happy. I want to be happy.
On that front, I think I’m doing alright. Go pledge for a great cause! Ms Kylie Gusset, dyer of ms.gusset yarns and fibres wants us all to support the local yarn industry. In this case yummy Tasmanian bred cormo. With only a couple days left and $5000 to go it could use your support and in return you’ll get some delish yarn or fibre to play with. This might be shocking, but it needs to be said: I like the Beekeeper’s Quilt. I saw it and liked it and bought it and started it. It will be a warm, squishy, comforting blanket. It has some vintage whimsy, reminiscent of the old hexagon quilts but without all the cutting. It’s a good way to use up all those little balls of leftover 4ply that get thrown into the top of the stash box and then explode everywhere when you yank out the bag of yarn underneath them. Knitting has grown in popularity in recent years because it offers an alternative to mass-produced items that are never the right colour and don’t really fit anyone properly. We knit to show our style, we knit to make unique things. But sometimes I think we take this unique thing a bit far. We feel like we need to apologise if we knit something in the same colour as the yarn used in the pattern. We feel a little bit guilty knitting a pattern as-is, without tweaks and modifications, like it’s cheating to just mindlessly follow the directions. We scoff at patterns that go viral. I spend a lot of time looking through other people’s projects for patterns, and on popular patterns about half of them have comments like ‘I tried to resist, but I found myself casting on’, ‘I caved’, ‘I got sucked in’, ‘I struggled for a while but I couldn’t help myself’. For heaven’s sake people, it’s a knitting pattern, not an illicit affair. If over a thousand people have made a particular pattern there’s probably something about that pattern that makes it very likable, and good on the designer for capturing that. There are several viral patterns that I’ve made because I liked them and thought they were good designs. There are others I didn’t make because I didn’t like them. I don’t apologise for either. I’m not interested in being a ‘cool’ knitter, following the latest trends. Nor am I interested in being an ‘anti-cool’ knitter, shunning patterns just because they are popular. If you happen to like a popular pattern and decide to knit it, there is no need to feel guilty about following the crowd, and there is no need to apologise for liking the pattern. There is certainly no need to pretend you underwent a great moral struggle, sitting up o’nights sweating tears of blood, biting your fingers to keep them from casting on against your will. Remember how being able to make and own things we love is one of the reasons we like this knitting thing so much? In days gone by a hat wasn’t just something thrown on at the last minute to cover a bad hair day, a hat was a vital part of an outfit. A gentleman removed his hat inside, and at various other times as a sign of respect. A lady kept her hat on inside.
With my curly bob, I find I can carry off a vintage hat quite well. This may or may not have been a deciding factor in my choice of haircut. I have a particular weakness for hats from the 20s and 30s. I think my vintage occupation of choice would probably have been a milliner.
Before I rediscovered knitting I would buy vintage styled hats. I have also sewn one, however there are no extant photos that show it well. There are many vintage-inspired patterns floating around in the knitting community, and this seems to be an increasing trend. I love these patterns, as they’re written in modern terms and there are many photos of other people’s projects available for reference- this often isn’t the case with true vintage patterns. But the most lovely thing about them is that, in some ways, they are more vintage than the real vintage hats. In times gone by people had no need to knit their own cloches- they could go to a milliner and buy one. So the knitting patterns of the era reflect the knitted designs of the era rather than other fashions. The vintage inspired patterns being written now show wonderful creativity as designers use different knitting techniques to produce knitted (and crocheted, and fulled) hats that twentieth century milliners would probably never have dreamed of producing using hand knitting.
I often find the way to transform a hat from something nice to something beautiful is with the right colour ribbon and a vintage or vintage inspired button. Feathers, flowers and brooches also make good adornments to add that extra bit of pizazz. Two of the hats above feature vintage glass buttons. The hat below was the perfect place for a brooch that was always a bit much whenever I wore it on my clothes. On the hat, it was perfect.
I often wear hats as a way to add that extra something to an outfit. They provide a little bit of vintage glamour (and attract a few strange looks and double takes), with the practical benefit of being warm. Hats are a good instant gratification project, and it’s nice to wear them and know you made this lovely accessory. The fact that we no longer get mercury poisoning from the process of hand-making hats is an added bonus. As those of you who follow my tweet stream no doubt have noticed, I enjoy reading. I enjoy reading Jane Austen. I enjoy reading Jane Austen ‘inspired’ works. I have, over the past 6 months or so be plowing through many Austen inspired works. I have not, to date, written about this experience in any cohesive manner. For some unknown reason I think I should. It would make me write something at least. And some of you may find it amusing. Herein lies my current list (in no particular order), if there are more to be noted please do so in the comments. And Please excuse the mess for the moment, I didn’t realise how many I had! Emma
Mansfield Park
Northanger Abbey
Persuasion Pride & Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
Miscellaneous
So With Apologies to Miss Austen I shall begin my watching, readings and commentary anew
A Discovery of Witches is the first in a series and I am only a little more than halfway through the first. Judgement shall be deferred and Diana Bishop returned to at a later stage I think.
Mr Henry Tilney – for those non-Austenites out there – is the romantic lead in Jane Austen’s gothic parody Northanger Abbey and Emily C. A. Snyder’s rather enjoyable sequel Nachtstürm Castle: A Gothic Austen Novel. Unlike Austen’s other heroes, who tend towards taciturn, Henry Tilney is playfully witty and charming as seen in his interactions with our young heroine Catherine. He teases and flatters but always in a manner that shows his character to be one of kindness and good sense. While professing a somewhat wry and cynical view of human nature, he is enamoured of Catherine’s naivety and is careful to gently correct her many follies. In the novel his steadfast nature and truthfulness are placed in direct contrast to the falsehoods of Catherine’s other suitor John Thorpe whose constant contradictions confuse Catherine. Henry Tilney is the one male character in Austen’s pantheon whose opinions are clearly stated and unchanging. On women, on love, novels, - our dear Mr Tilney has many opinions – all subjects determined to endear himself to the young heroine and the reader. Where John Thorpe professes to not read novels – and in his ever changeable manner later retracts – Mr Tilney confesses to his enjoyment of The Mysteries of Udolpho and professes “The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid”, a radical opinion surely for a country curate. He certainly stands in opposition to the other Clergyman of Austen’s canon, being the only one not painted as silly, vain, weak or Edmund Bertram. Henry Tilney is by far the most likable of the Austen gentlemen. He possesses none of the pride or sternness of her other heroes and thus loses some of the romantic appeal that these characteristics possess, but this is more than made up for by his essential good character.
Yes, it was that time of the year again when dozens of knitters in the celebration of our hobby. The lovely Margot took over the reins this year after Sally was distracted by life and other disasters, and boy did she organise a cracker! She organised a lovely venue, thousands of dollars worth of prize donations and a horde of efficient and able volunteers who kept things moving. Margot, you went above and beyond. I managed to score myself a lucky door prize – a kit from Prudence Mapstone – Miss Hewson however, made out like a bandit. A $100 gift voucher to Calico & Ivy and a KnitPro interchangeable set. After the event it self a few of us wandered over the the Australian for what is becoming the traditional post WWKIP day Duck Pizza, this was followed by dessert at Max Brenner at Wynyard. We ate too much, drank too much, took silly pictures and laughed just enough. Overall it was a fabulous day and so good to see so many people I do not see near enough, including Miss Hewson.
 L-R: Nikki (Alacaeriel), Miss Hewson, Linda (EclecticRose), Miss Muffett  L-R: Hannah (Zeeblebee), Mandy (themissingpiece), Nikki (alacaeriel), Camee, Linda (EclecticRose), Miss Muffett (photos stolen off Alacaeriel, because I cannot find the ones taken by Dr Ben) |
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