Thoughts from the Bus Stop

Thanks to Craftlog for flagging up The Lost Art of Knitting Nancies, which in turn links to a KidsCanMakeIt article on fingerknitting.

Speaking of learning new ways to knot yarn into pretty shapes... I've tried crochet for the first time, with dubious results. I got a simple chain thingy going and produce a quite acceptable rectangle of cloth, but after that I tried to make a round shape and couldn't understand the instructions and ended up just freestyling and producing a mutant flower shape. It's back to the knitting for now and I might give crochet another go when I'm feeling more patient.


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Via www.artdaily.com:
'Dave Cole is in residence at MASS MoCA with his project The Knitting Machine which comprises two excavators specially fitted with massive 20’ knitting needles. The product of The Knitting Machine is an oversized American flag – a flag which can be seen as both a celebratory gesture of pride and a commentary on America’s role in world affairs....

Cole explains, “The Knitting Machine combines the feminized domestic American tradition of knitting with the grandiose gesture of construction usually associated with masculine labor. The Knitting Machine challenges familiar notions of labor and production, while expressing a complex understanding of patriotism.” When the flag is removed from The Knitting Machine it will be folded into the traditional flag triangle and will be on display in a presentation case which Cole describes as “slightly smaller than a Volkswagen Beetle”, accompanied by the 20’ knitting needles, and a video of the knitting process.'


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I completely fell for White Town's 'Your Woman' when Mark Radcliffe started playing it on his Graveyard Shift show on Radio 1 in 1996. So I was gobsmacked to walk into my local caff the other day and hear a cover version playing. Here's what White Town's Jyoti has to say about it: Tyler James Covers 'Your Woman'.

Manchester Online: Tyler James - Your Woman
BBC Derby: The White Town revival starts here!
Music-News.com: 'Your Woman' was buried for a reason
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On my recent break in the Kent I went to Canterbury, and wandered into the Royal Museum. There I found the Elemental Insight exhibition - 'an exploration by artists of the heavens and atmosphere, weather and climate, environment and earth, a complex system that extends from the surface of the earth to the sun and moon and beyond...'.

Four artists were commissioned to make permanent works for the Met Office as part of the exhibition. (It's now left Canterbury and is continuing its UK tour - you can download the 40-page exhibition brochure here [PDF, 2660kb].)

There were many wonderful, evocative pieces of work on show here - nearly all using natural materials, in earth tones or icy shades of white and blue. This made Bridgette Ashton's handbag pieces really stand out. In jewel-bright colours and formed largely from found objects and beach debris, they were right up my street:

"For...works in her series ‘Forlorn Objects Reunited’, Bridgette Ashton collected plastic debris from the beach near her home in Cornwall. The material ranges from broken beach toys and a surprising number of bits and pieces of dolls to ship’s jetsam-bits of crates, buoys, nylon ropes, container lids, and packaging... The status of these bags of rubbish of beach pollution was then enhanced and elevated by their being embellished and decorated with jewel coloured plastic toys and knickknacks. Thus the banal qualities of the raw materials were converted into ‘talisman-like objects’."

(Extract from 'Transformations, the Art of Recycling' exhibition catalogue for the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford by Jeremy Coote, Chris Morton and Julia Nicholson.)


Trophy Vessel Tethered (1998) mixed media.
© Copyright Bridgette Ashton 2003.
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Have come across the website of the London Pearly Kings and Queens Society, which tells you all about the origins and traditions of these London icons and has a fantastic photo gallery.

"Each outfit can hold many tens of thousands of buttons on it and can weigh as much as 30 kilograms or more. There are two types of suit - a Smother Suit and a Skeleton Suit, the former having very little cloth showing and totally covered in buttons, and the latter having far fewer buttons."


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I welled up when I heard the news this morning. What a woman. What a loss. Mo Mowlam was warm, brave, principled, honest, witty and intelligent. Why aren't there more politicians like her?



'Marjorie ('Mo') Mowlam', by John Keane, 2001.
Oil on canvas, 60 1/4 x 48 1/4 in.
On display at the National Portrait Gallery

BBC: Former minister Mo Mowlam dies
Guardian: Mo Mowlam, in her own words
Guardian: Mo Mowlam - a life in pictures
Guardian: Obituary - Marjorie Mowlam
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ALA introduces Banned Books bracelet (via Managing Information):
' Just in time for Banned Books Week (September 24-October 1, 2005), the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom has added bracelets to its Banned Books materials. Debuted at the ALA Annual Conference in June, the bracelets (designed by Carolyn Forsman) feature covers of popular challenged books and remind everyone to exercise their freedom to read.

The adult-size bracelet features “The Color Purple,” “Howl,” “Go Ask Alice” and three other titles. The children's version features “The Adventures of Captain Underpants,” “King & King,” “Annie on My Mind” and three other titles...'


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Mo Mowlam in hospital as health deteriorates
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Great news - Edwyn's on the mend: Collins walks after brain surgery (BBC)

See also: www.edwyncollins.com
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Great 'day in the life' article about Manchester Cathedral on the BBC today: Doing the work of God in the city. Several parts of it made me want to cheer and a couple bits were quite moving.

I was so impressed to hear about the Cathedral's drinking garden, where people who would normally drink in the street (illegal in the city centre) can go to drink. It's attached to the Cathedral's homelessness outreach centre: "Some of the visitors will not venture past the door of the centre itself but will go into the garden to drink - and the staff can get to know them and see if any look as if they need help."

And this is the quote which really got me: "Of nearly 3,000 pupils on school visits last year, half were Muslim, says Cathedral Education Officer Joanna Booth. "Some said they didn't know they were allowed in."

Manchester Cathedral
John Shuttleworth
John Shuttlworth's blog
You're Like Manchester lyrics (from Keris Stainton)
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Ulla-Maaria at Hobby Princess flags up a great site which records Helsinki street fashion: HEL LOOKS. It's in the same vein as Japanese street fashion mag Fruits, which is endlessly fascinating. I still haven't got around to buying the Fruits book and now there's a new one - Fresh Fruits.


Ulla (31): "I'm a big fan of vintage clothes. I think 50's is always in fashion."
Jacket CELYNb, skirt Nanso, shirt Lisa Larsson vintage, sunglasses Prada.
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