MARION'S MYSTERY.

Can anyone help us answer Marion's question?

Marion's great Scottish grandmother made this fabulous antimacasar.  The colours are from natural dyes like madder and onion skins, and the whole 'thing' is 60cm wide by 140cm long.

Here is a close up picture of the stitches. Marion, a skilled knitter can solve most mysteries, but she can't identify this stitch.  She has spent all her knitting life trying to work it out. Is it knitted or crochet? It is not broomstick crochet.  Here is the wrong side. Any ideas?

THE WONDERFUL GIRL MONSTERS.

Packing a spinning wheel for flight is not easy. We thought my blanky, duck tape and laundry bags were the best form of wrapping. The wheel was fine.When we arrived at the festival, we saw Reverend Billy, a soul /gospel / protest group, who excorsied the devil from credit cards, and sang chorus's about identity, climate change, recession and the world falling apart. Then we drank some beer in a glass which said 'beauty and obsession' and then we went to bed. 

In the morning we mixed jam and ham and cheese on rye bread and headed for the Girl Monster Orchestra rehearsal. It sounded great. We had tea breaks with custard pastries and talked to our heros the Raincoats about knitting. The Chicks on Speed made us feel welcome and Gustav put us at ease on stage. The wheel and tape sounded wonderfully perculiar.  After rehearsals we had a paddle in the Danube on a beautiful sunny day with a light breeze carrying the smell of lilacs. 

We couldn't believe we were in such a lovely place, and that this is our job.

We had a sound check at 16:00. Ian, dressed as the 'Farm Instructor', did some plugging in and twiddling knobs and Louise and I discussed having a conversation. It sounded great.  Anat Ben David noticed that we were English and needed more tea than everyone else and kindly had a kettle put in our dressing room.

 Thank you Anat.

'Men' came on. We didn't stop dancing. We are 'Men' fans. We bought the T-shirts the badges and the CD and then ran around screaming about 'Men'.

17.30 We had an interview on the telly. We talked about wool, tape, spinning, knitting, gold and freedom. Louise's wig kept slipping, but that didn't matter. The camera man tried it on . The wig that is.

19:30 Anat Ben David then blew us away with her energy. 

21:30 Yo Majesty. Boy that was good. Check that out.

22.30 Prick Your Finger.  We were not nervous. We made noises, chatted slowly in low voices and read Analogue Amnesty poem. Louise mic'd up carders and knitting needles, and clicked away. There were some men shouting encore at the end, and we bowed.  I said to the Raincoats that I couldn't remember how our performance went and they asked if it was fun, because that's how you know, and the answer to that is yes definetly. It has helped me see ways to develop the Analogue Amnesty. The spinning wheel is a powerful machine and the mix tape much loved. I shall write more about it when I've watched the films and let it sink in.

23:00 The Raincoats.  We were enlightened and very happy. They had applied 'make- down' and looked great. 

00:30  Girl Monster Orchestra.  1st Ramalangadingdong. It rocked. Anat Ben David played a black high healed knee length boot, there was a harp, Ann Raincoat on violin, Ana de Silva on the toy telephone, Gina Birch on the dictophone with the captain of the aeroplane saying 'welcome to the girl monster orchestra'  Chicks on Speed playing scissors and sticks and things, Koko Von Napoo singing and playing behind us. After the first song I kept the spinning wheel squeaking while Chicks on Speed did a lecture about feminist art. It was very interesting. I wish every gig had an art lecture in the middle of it. Then we shouted a tune Post Moderne Societe', which rocked.  The Raincoats started 'Lola' just like they always did, and we all joined in, just like we'd always wanted. Our mouths were wide open with the singing.

Girl Monster Song "She can dance, and she can sing, and....she sure looks good" was pure pop, we danced as much as there was space for and I think some tops came off and there might have been some boob action. What ever it was, it was wild and free, very happy and full of love, and the audience felt it and so did Yo Majesty, who came on at the end and rapped about love, lots of it, all buzzing around the room.

Big up Chicks on Speed for making history and being whole heartedly brilliant. We love you.

FM4, I hope you don't mind, I stole these pictures off your website...

'IN MY GARDEN I AM QUEENE'.

'In my garden I am Queene', is a misquote from the pre-Raphaelite painter Burne-Jones, and the title of a spectacular new show my Miss Fleur Oakes of The Glass Pingle, scheduled for a private view on Friday 1st May at Prick Your Finger. Fleur has been busy making a 16th C. style corset embroidered in raised embroidery / stumpwork.  Fleur suggests that we all be the Queene of May on that day, so we hope to see you there for pagan joy and celebration. (And Kings of course, we must have kings, can't have spring without king...)

TESTING TESTING.

Bless Ian the Tea Thompson who has managed to make some fantastic sounds come out of my spinning wheel ahead of our gig at Girl Monster near Vienna on Saturday night. We have yarn being spun with old tape cassettes, which pass over a pick up and then microphones on the wheel, picking up squeaks and knocks through effects to make it sound like I'm spinning in a dark and dingy cellar, with scary noises going on in my head.  Fortunately we will have Louise there on the stage with us in her fantastic new flax wig, carding beautiful rolags and doing her Bez Happy Monday's dancing.  I think we are going to have a fantastic time.  

ZARA'S RUBY SLIPPERS.

We love it when Zara comes to work with us, because she has lots of dreams which she makes come true. Today she wore these ruby slippers which were hand made for her by a man in Hollywood. They have 'J Garland' written inside them and felt on the bottom so she can dance really quietly. They were so shiny, they made the shop go all red and spotty. 

CELIA LETS SLEEPING DOGS LIE.

Thank you Celia. In keeping with this month's theme of letting sleeping dogs lie, Celia sent us this picture of an embroidery that used to lie at the foot of Aunt Lillie's bed (her friend Daniel's aunt) then for years it rested on the arm of Daniel's sofa, so when you lay down you could rest your feet in the foot prints. Daniel gave it to Celia last year and she has it on her wall as it is very fragile and the stitches are worn down. Celia loves that feet can be called dogs and so do we. 

LOLA.

We are loving learning the words to Lola, which we knew anyway, but we thought we'd better practice, so we can do our best, when we sing in the Girl Monster Orchestra with the Raincoats, yes the Raincoats, on Saturday in a little town near Vienna, and we love the song version so much, we thought it would be a nice idea to share it with you.