Thoughts from the Bus Stop

A cry for help from the Centre for Knitting and Crochet in Holmfirth:

'"We’re looking for Lego!" says Mary Hawkins of the Knitting & Crochet Guild of Great Britain. "It’s not that we’ve changed tack in what we are collecting – it’s to support our knitted village!"

Much-Knitting-by-the-Sea is the name of the village created by Morecambe resident Dorothy Entwistle by way of recuperating after an operation. Although the village is imaginary, it does include: Dorothy’s own bungalow, her local church, Trinity Methodist Church on Morecambe’s West End Promenade, and many, many more buildings. The knitted village first went on public display in November 1992.

"The intervening years have not been kind to the cardboard and sellotape which hold the houses together," says Mary. "The Guild has taken the decision to build more permanent frameworks in Lego or Duplo, and to drop the houses over like tea cosies."

Donations of these plastic building bricks are being now sought towards the upkeep of the village. They may be sent by post to:
The Collection Co-ordinator, PO Box 4421, Kidderminster, DY11 6YW

...or brought along to any of the Guild’s Open Days near Holmfirth in West Yorkshire, when parts of the village will be on view, along with possibly the largest and most exciting collection of knitting and crochet in Britain.'

I've never seen the collection at the Centre for Knitting and Crochet in person, but you can see highlights from it on their website - beautiful items from the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, including some fab knitted and crocheted dresses.
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42short loses his cool:

"Sometimes you think you're so cool, then you're eating an apple in the breakroom at work when a sneeze catches you off guard and little flecks of apple shoot out of your mouth and into your hand. That's right, ladies - all of this can be yours."

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I was dead chuffed to see that Laura Cantrell, one of my favourite singers, has renamed the stations and lines on the NYC Subway Map to pay tribute to her musical heroines (most of whom I'm ashamed to say I've never heard of) and flag up the free download of 14th Street, a track from her latest album, Humming By The Flowered Vine:

"This map places some the women artists I most admire along the subway lines of New York City, where I live. There isn't much organizing principle, other than the color-coded categories and the kick of seeing Rose Maddox's line crossing Hazel Dickens en route to Brooklyn..."

I love maps, and art made from or about maps. There's Simon Patterson's The Great Bear (1992), which I think was the first instance of someone renaming the stations on an underground map. (The title refers to the constellation Ursa Major, a punning reference to Patterson's own arrangement of 'stars'.) I also like JP 233 In CSO Blue, where he's renamed stars and constellations.



Then there's my longterm favourite Tom Phillips (see his 20 Sites n Years project), and Harry Beck, not a artist but a draughtsman - the man who designed the London Tube map. And ever since I heard about how Damon Albarn from Blur wrote the gorgeous This Is A Low by looking at the names on a shipping forecast map hankerchief, I've wished I had one (see item 80 on this page for a full explanation). It was from Stanfords in Covent Garden - one day I'll get round to going along to see if they still stock them.

Finally, I can't resist quoting some underground map-based innuendo from Friends (when the were all in London for Ross and Emily's wedding):

Judy Geller: Oh sorry we're late, my fault. I insisted on riding the tube.
Jack Geller: Judy? The kids...
Judy Geller: Jack, that's what they call the subway.

NYC Transit: Official NYC Subway Map
Going Underground: Geographically Correct London Underground Map
Amazon.co.uk: Mr Beck's Underground Map
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BBC: Fire hits Wallace and Gromit sets. Farewell, old friend...


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I love it when a chance 'click' sends me off on a journey round the net. Reading comments on the blog of a friend of a friend, I came across these beautiful tsumami kanzashi flowers, made by Naomi Graham-Diaz, who sells them on her PuchiMaiko site, and also runs Immortal Geisha, a fantastic info site about geisha and maiko (trainee geisha) culture and dress.

Kanzashi are hair ornaments used in traditional Japanese hairstyles, and the word 'tsumami' means 'to pinch'. These flowers are traditionally made by pinching a small, square-cut piece of cloth, usually fine silk, into bud and petal forms. This Japanese kanzashi site has dozens of breathtaking examples for sale - click on some of the thumbtails and be stunned! Then have a look at Gaijin Geisha's kanzashi, which are a gorgeous modern spin on traditional design.

I really want to learn how to make some - but I bet it's a fiddly business to get right. Apparently they are glued not sewn. Craftster links to a series of kanzashi demo movies which are fascinating. The speed and accuracy with which they work is amazing.

I've decided I want to get two books - an illustrated, factual guide to geisha life - maybe Geisha: A Unique World of Tradition, Elegance and Art, by John Gallagher; and a decent biography of a geisha. I read a little of Geisha of Gion last year when I was doing a History of Costume course and we read the passages about how the maikos and geishas dress. It's the autobiography of Mineko Iwasaki, whose life story was also the subject of Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha (probably the best known of the recent batch of geisha novels and biogs). Geisha by Liza Dalby is supposed to be very good too - her story of how she (an American graduate student in anthropology) became a geisha.

It's lovely to have a new interest! Well, not new exactly - I've always been attracted to Japanese and Chinese decorative art and clothing, but in a very vague, ill-informed way. 'Chinoiserie', I suppose - that mixed-up British perception of what Japanese and Chinese style is (like the interior decor in Brighton's glorious Royal Pavilion, for example). So the enthusiasm is there but not the knowledge - it will be exciting to delve deeper and learn a lot more about it, through reading and by trying to learn some new practical techniques.

***

PuchiMaiko
Immortal Geisha
Wikipedia: Memoirs of a Geisha (book and forthcoming film)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London: Chinoiserie
Wikipedia: Chinoiserie
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"The toilets at a local police station have been stolen. Police say they have nothing to go on."
Sad news today - Ronnie Barker has died. Ronnie and his comedy partner Ronnie Corbett were a big part of my childhood. The Two Ronnies and Porridge were regular viewing in our house, but most beloved was Open All Hours - still one of the finest British sitcoms ever written, starring Barker as Yorkshire shopkeeper Arkwright and David Jason as his hapless nephew, errand boy Granville. The phrase 'like Arkwright's till' has entered familial vocabulary - used to describe any dangerously belligerent (seemingly) inanimate object.

BBC: Comedy legend Ronnie Barker dies
BBC: Obituary: Ronnie Barker
BBC Comedy: Ronnie Barker profile
Guardian Unlimited: Remembering Ronnie: Barker's best gags


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