Almost as good as sacs...!

My nanna taught me to knit with fat pink needles and bright red wool, but no-one ever taught me how to crochet.

There's crochet and there's crochet - whole articles are written on what NOT to crochet.

But knitting is not the craft of choice for anyone who's not looking for a way to fill in an awful lot of time. I used to knit when I operated a switchboard in a little nook, shut away from the rest of the world. I used to knit when I was waiting for my babies to arrive. I still knit in doctors' and dentists' waiting rooms. But overall knitting is way too slow. Too slow, too unforgiving.

So for a number of years I have been determined to learn to crochet. I want to make granny squares too! I want to do clever things with the yokes of cotton dresses! I want to make lovely wool flower embellishments and amigurumi like all the other clever crafters! I want to be retro and play with colour and get all free-form.

Finally I mastered the hook - a combination of Brown Owls, Pip Lincoln on-line tutorials, and how-to books got me over the line. I made my very first squares, my first cushion cover, my second cushion cover, and now ...*drum rolls* ... The Boho Bag!

My inspiration for the bag, 'un sac, du crochet, du Liberty, de la dentelle et quelques fleurs' was made by Cecile Balladino and came from here: eclectic gypsy land

It looks like this:




...so beautiful!!

Cecile took her inspiration from Lucy Laine's 'Les Sacs Me Font Perdre La Boule!!' which is shown  here:

Also beautiful!

And now there's my own version:

If I take the rectangular cushion out it's much the same shape as Lucy's. And like her I've used some special vintage lace in homage if for no other reason.

Inside is some lovely Japanese print from the girls at Voodoo Rabbit.

So pleased with this, partly because I had to make it up as I went along, and pull it apart and try again here and there, so another tick against new skills learned, and a big tick also for perseverance. 

Thanks so much to Cecile and Lucy for their inspiration - go the on-line collaborative effort!!

Have great weeks!

Hair today...

Hair-dresser day!

I am off to spend the morning with Breah, Alyssia, Violetta, and Cinnamon (at La Moda), which is something I've done consistently for years, ever since I stopped being someone who didn't have a regular hair stylist and thought the whole dependancy cycle ridiculous. Then I found out Breah did my hair better than anyone else - cut it, coloured it, styled it - and I became hopelessly dependant.

Anyone who grew up with frizzy hair will empathise...anyone who grew up with frizzy hair through the Sandy Shaw/Maryanne Faithfull/Jean Shrimpton era will now have their own Breah, a GHD, and quite probably a keratin treatment thing happening. Like me.

 

This is a lovely book that I saw at Mary Ryan's at Milton a few weeks ago, which I want to go back to buy. Not that I want to replicate a Lucille Ball poodle do, but we're watching series 4 of Mad Men on DVD at the moment and you do start to hanker for french rolls and beehives...to go with accepting a more mature body shape and concentrating energy on finding a look to flatter! Yep...foundation garments and great make-up might be the way to go...

wimcee will be at St Mary's, Kangaroo Point, again this Saturday, from 10 am until 2 pm, for 'The Sounds of Music' Festival in the church which will celebrate St Mary's birthday. Market stalls, including Gino and his fruit and vegies, will be dotted around the grounds of the lovely church, and as usual proceeds from site fees etc. will go to the church's restoration fund. 


I'll be the one with the fresh cut and colour.

Aprons: a journey!

Making aprons is where I started with wimcee in 2007. I used gingham and added ruffles and frills and deep pockets, with extra long, extra wide ties to make a big bow at the back, but the first aprons were already over-the-top, using a slightly mad combination of prints and a liberal application of pom-pom braid and rick-rack. Not a lot changes. My aprons are still much to the same formula; I've tried different techniques along the way to gather and attach frills and to secure the apron and improve the fit, but the look is much as it always has been...aprons with attitude. 

 




Why?



I grew up in a 50's/60's environment, at a time when there was a great deal of spoken and unspoken conflict about a woman's role in the world. My childhood was populated by some interesting, intelligent and gifted women who nonetheless subscribed to a view of society as male-dominated. This may have been confusing, but it was all certainly interesting - the dynamics were never dull!








My aprons are part retro reference, part social dialogue - no answers, just questions, with certainly some humour but also a great deal of affection thrown into the mix. Not everyone gets aprons, but if you do then I hope that mine will sing to you!

wimcee has aprons for sale, and all the usual accoutrements as well, online at etsy and madeit, as well as personally at not one but two lovely Heavenly Harvest markets at St Mary's, Kangaroo Point, in September and the Mamma's Market at Buderim later in the month, so watch this space for more details! 

wimcee in the shops!

Major excitement! Thank-you Cathy, my market pal, for sending me out there in search of Belleville and the wonderful Billie! This is the most interesting and eclectic children's shop in the Annerley Arcade, cheek by jowl with a vintage comic store, second-hand book shop, retro shop, a couple of super-duper op shops and some antique stores, so well worth spending some pottering time. After an email exchange I went to visit Billie and now can boast stock in a shop like a real live couturier. Not Robinson Crusoe amongst the marketing fraternity in this step, but nonetheless a thrill, especially when my last minute inclusion, a tyrollean hat, sold within hours.

This is something I've been thinking about testing the waters with this year - love the markets, but it's difficult at the moment for various reasons so a bit of rationalisation is called for. And I must say I do like the fact that what I've taken to Belleville won't get knocked around to-ing and fro-ing to market and home - get a bit protective of some of the more delicate fabrics and constructions and hate it when things get really crushed or otherwise messed around. Fancy me getting pernickety about such things - !

But what a buzz!!