Tea bag avalanche

Beautifully tied with old buttons

And still they come! Tea bag strings, in a range of hues and coloured tags that are a reflection of the diversity of my friends and family and the Stirling Street Arts Centre ladies happy to support a bit of creative madness. From Liptons to Twinings, green tea to Earl Grey. Some have quizzes on their tags, some have funny quotes. tea bag tags and strings from Bunbury, Donnybrook, Warnboro, Margaret River and even some carefully collected in Eastern Europe (who strangely all seemed to be named after men!

First balls of thread

Lace

To make thread, you first have to remove all the tags. Enter  my mother. Now blind and quite restricted by arthritis,  misses her knitting and sewing and is always interested in what I am doing. I had taken my tea bag string scarf for her to 'see' and she wondered if there was someway she could help. I had a shopping bag full of tags in the car. It didn't take long for a crowd to gather to see what we were up too and as mum pulled the tags off I knotted the strings as the ladies swapped craft stories. Ever since, detagging has become a part of mums world and she gets regular deliveries from me!

Scarf

It takes 2 golf ball sized balls of thread to make a small scarf and one to make enough crocheted lace to decorate the neckline of a dress. I have no idea how many. The colours have the same subtlety of variation of the tea itself, from dark browns to cream and a few pink ones from herbal teas and the knots add texture. Use needles and hook that create a loose result - it becomes too hard to work around the knots if you work on small needles. 3-4mm work for me.The scarves are soft to touch, warm to wear... worth the effort.

String of flowers

The Witches of Rottnest

The ‘coven,’ as one of the men describes us, has just returned from playtime on Rottnest Island.  We  managed to do very little for five days, saving our energy for a shopping frenzy in the big smoke on the way home.

Without shifting from our balcony we could watch other peoples‘ children at play, girls struggling to put up sun shelters, stingrays cruising by and the comings and goings of birds and walkers. Any boats pulling in to the moorings were scrutinised, commented on and categorised as to their desirability factor and the appearance of their crew and passengers  as we sat feet up, sipping tea or enjoying a tipple or a block of chocolate or two as we glanced up from trashy novels or knitting.

Great thumping noises heralded the whales that appeared many times each day to put on noisy displays of breaching and slapping while frolicking with their new babies. The Leeuwin training ship passed by carrying full sail and we were shocked the same day by a huge a navy submarine surfacing...all day free entertainment!

It was only when heading into the settlement the trouble started. On the road it was quokkas under foot (and almost under wheels) and hills to burn the fittest of thigh muscles. The shop was a minefield of gourmet nibbles, Connoisseur ice cream, imported cheeses and an array of alcohol, potato chips and every sugar confection known to woman.  Luckily the cakes and coffee at the bakery weren’t up to much and the food and drinks at the hotel outrageously expensive so we weren’t tempted back there after the first visit to each.

Rotto is no longer the rough and tumble make do sort of holiday I remember from my first visits I was thrilled to see the solar hot water systems , the wind generator and the revegetation work everywhere. The villas have been modernised and updated. It was sad to see the old Quokka Arms looking posh and exclusive and that the generic fast food outlets continue to multiply

What it does have is that wonderful aahhhh feeling when you step of the boat; the wild windswept west end and tiny bays so blue you would swear you were in the tropics.  It has the wonderful wildlife and a poignant sense of history radiates from the old buildings, the ruins and the graveyards. The lighthouses continue to mark the passage for ships heading for the busy mainland port as they have since early settlement. An easy going camaraderie exists between the visitors here; the lack of motor vehicles engages people with the environment and each other, instilling respect and fond memories.

For the coven, there was no need to weave any magic here; the island did it for us.

More Rotto adventures soon.

   

Knitting with grass

Much as I love spring, I get a bit sad about the longer days as it usually marks the end of the long evenings of knitting. This year I spotted has an amazing range of bamboo and bamboo blended yarns at our fabulous local wool shop that could keep the obsession going a bit longer.

I first fell in love with bamboo fibre when I discovered bamboo t shirts. It was soft, light weight and  drapes like silk. It is highly absorbent .and hypo allergenic. Bamboo, hemp, Tencel™ and cupro are all natural plant based fibres. Bamboo in particular is of special interest.

Because bamboo is a fast growing clumping grass, it can be harvested without the need to replant every year as with cotton and hemp. It grows faster than all the other natural fibre plants and is tolerant of drought and flood, holds soils to prevent erosion from runoff and gives a huge yield per acre without the need for pesticides or fertilisers. 

Unfortunately some processors use chemicals such as caustic soda and carbon disulphide to extract the cellulose from the plant material.. This is no different from the treatments given to cotton waste and other cellulose based fibres, including the treatment of organically grown cotton.  This is changing with the lyocell processing used to make Tencel ™ which uses chemicals in a closed loop process where over 99% of the chemicals are recycled for reuse.  It is possible to process the yarn without chemicals and the garment or yarn should be labelled as such.

The bamboo currently used for yarn is Moso bamboo, a variety from China that can grow up to a metre a day as a timber source. The Chinese have recognised that bamboo has a unique agent they call ‘kun’ that has anti bacterial and antifungal qualities that prevents odour causing bacteria to grow. That’s got to make for less washing! It is the same antimicrobial agent that makes bamboo resistant to pests and diseases (though has no effect on pandas!) Better still, the fibres are more wrinkle resistant while washing and that means less ironing too. The yarn is thermal regulating – keeps you warm in winter and cool in summer. While bamboo is touted as hypo allergenic, chemical residues may cause reactions on sensitive skin but can be avoided by always washing new garments thoroughly before wearing.

This is a product I heartily endorse. The problems in processing are being addressed and I feel these problems are outweighed by its sustainability and the fact that it can be grown, chemically free without the need for large machinery or soil tillage in a range of environments. Such are the desired qualities of bamboo that nano technology is being developed that traps particles of bamboo charcoal into other fibres for use in socks and blankets. Won’t it be great when you don’t have to look outside for the boys’ dirty socks?

Meanwhile, back at the farm...I will continue to knit with my beautiful yarn.

A free pattern is available on my web site and here’s the Margaret River Wool Company.

Knit on!