Day of the Lotus

Yes folks the movie has arrived.  After a "mad dogs and englishmen" sort of day in my temporary outdoor studio dividing my time between yarnbombing a chair and photographing  a waterlily,  I ended up with rather a lot of photos.  After some heavy deleting (since digital I indulge in the luxury of overshooting)  Still there was an  overabundance of pretty pics.  The solution came from Tony, my other half and partner in our Upfront Pictures business. 

 "Make a movie out of them" 

"You do it, your idea" 


So he did  

Going to be interesting and hopefully lots of fun creating a knitty version. I want a Bollywood  waterlily, with personality!

In fact I want at least five, maybe ten......... and the deadline is?  End of March. 

Better go and buy some wool......

A nice bottom is important

June last year this chair was rusting on the roadside.

  It seemed  to have the soul of a noble chair so it just had to come back with me and be saved.  Part of its saving turned out to be creating a very nice bottom as you will see............ eventually.  First thing,  deal with the rust, bandage its injuries and start knitting.

Only just finished in time, it was installed as part of Margaret Summerton and my artists' residency starting at Montsalvat late last July. 

 We learnt a lot during the time we were there.  My chair seemed brilliant at the start, maybe it was exposure to the artistic air, maybe it was the learning experience, maybe it was practice at knitting  but at the end my chair did not seem quite noble enough.  

In theory there is a fair amount of time between now and "Who Needs Permission" in September but it will race by, and new projects will keep popping up so.....time....  Anyway the chair has to be really noble by then. So last week on a  hot  day I decided to rework (renoble) the chair.  No time like the present after all. Out came the saw, off came the umbrella, off came the bird's next and back to basics.  Stitched old blanketing on the back, stuffed the seat, undid the arms and stuffed them too, comfort is important!

At this point too hot, too tired, so just left as is, mess and all, overnight.

Day two, hot again, and a good start with  an old diamond crocheted by Dijanne Cevaal becoming the perfect focal and starting point of the back.

 There were a couple of holes that had worn in the lovely old green wool I'd used on the arms. It was beautiful wool from a 90 year old who'd had it for quite a long time.  It kept breaking as it was knitted but it was such a nice tweedy, garden like, yarn I just had to persevere.  But then I've always loved patched tweed jackets so why not patch the arms of a chair?   

Mohair moss is starting to grow in the nooks and crannies of the arms.

Then the poor chair had a very boring bottom so it seemed a good idea to make it nice. The idea may subconsciously have come from my father-in-law who, being a furniture man, used  to tip chairs upside down anywhere, anytime, any place,  to look underneath to see who made them. 

So now it has the beginnings of an interesting back and, most important, a very nice bottom, obviously in need of more flowers. As its underwear hangs down a little it may just make  people curious enough to tip it upside down too... Next will be the decoration on top, a new umbrella , a vase of flowers and.........

It was very hot so in the interest of occupational health and safety  half hour watering breaks were deemed necessary- sipping  a nice cold tea I discovered a water lily opening in the pond.  It then became necessary to take half hour photo breaks.  The movie(yes I said movie) is coming - watch out for "Day of the Lotus" soon on  this blog..... Just so happens I need to knit oversize waterlilies to go with my knitty oversize peacock so with the photos to work from it was all in all a very productive day.

Mind you there's an awful lot more to be done on the chair, and, since then, I found another chair....less noble but still very promising.....

By the way, Margaret and I have a habbit of taking on projects bigger than we can possibly knit or crochet all by ourselves.  If you have unfinishable knitted projects or crochet blankets we are very happy to put them to good use. 

Occasionally we need volunteers to help us put up our knitty graffitti......... we'd love to know if you're  interested in helping sometime. 

Dont forget "Day of the Lotus" coming soon

First Train chugs along in the heat

Well it must be the hottest summer I remember.  Our poor knitty  train in Hurstbridge is covered in dust - its been just so dry. 

One hot evening just a little more was added ...........

Many thanks  Karen Joy for these elegant carriage doors.

Then a little further along, the empty pig wagon has an occupant......

we have a lovely  fat pig already for market.  Just to make sure he isn't bored, and fattens up a little on the way he has a nice big apple.  Thanks Lois Needham for the the pig and apples.  He wont be so free for too much longer.  The cage to keep him in place is on the way!

Its hungry work putting these pieces up in the late afternoon so a quick trip to Burke's for fish and chips.  Yummo.

On the way back, oh dear fancy being so hungry as to forget  to photograph the apple tree - so here's a quick shot from the car window in passing, no way were the fish and chips going to wait for a proper photo.

A new tree, old and new apples and leaves blowing off the tree as the train races towards the city.  Who knows, another might land in our pig's cage!

More up soon, when the weather cools....... when?