Magpie's Nest

" 'Like' this if you're a young knitter...because not all knitters are old!"

Puh-leeeeeese!!!!!

The ugly politics of knitting rears its humungously downtrodden head yet again and grinds the Baby Boomers' faces in the dust !

This plaintive plea popped up in my Facebook newstream just a moment ago, and the implicit, incipient ageism of it all threatened to drown me in absolute despair. Why do the 'young' feel the need to confute one stereotype by perpetuating another one? When does ageism and sexism ever start to dissipate? Surely my age-wearied soul should know the answer to that one. It's 'never ever'!

Who knew that an ancient craft purportedly begun by fishermen or sailors, depending on what you read, would ever be so negatively dammed and associated with Wise Old Women of the Tribe? Is this consumerism gone made? Have we all been thoroughly hoodwinked by the descendants of the nineteenth century machine-mad industrialists? How has 'handmade' and individualised ever come to be subsumed by 'machine made' and mass produced in crap materials?

What is the underlying sociological message in these subservise and derisive comments. It's not 'just a joke'! Jokes feed on materials present in society that somehow upset and ripple our social fabric. A joke can't ever work unless 'we' get the underlying sociological truth or 'reality'.

This image and Post was Posted a year ago, but sufficiently indignant young things have obviously kept it well and truly alive by continuing to circulate it.

Well, this is my answer. This is my reality. I know no other.

In a Whirl - Spring Spinning.

I was still on a spinning high from spinning camp at Lake Keepit when I stopped in at 'Spunout' in Gulgong and had a wonderful lesson in yarn dyeing from the very generous Patricia. Aren't these colours wonderful? I'm going to see if I can create some ceramic buttons to match.

I also bought some more of this luscious merino and silk mix, and lots of other stuff actually.

My new Ashford double treadle 'Joy' traveller spinning wheel and I are just back from a wonderful spinning excursion to northern NSW at the Lake Keepit site hosted by Tamworth Handspinners. I had a wonderful time as a 'newbie' Lake Keepit camper, and I learned so much from the other generous craftspeople.

The venue was so beautiful and peaceful; the food was bountiful and delicious, and the company was great. I was able to explore (and purchase) a wide range of yarns from some of the lovely yarn shop people there.

Strange to say, I was breakfasting and chatting to a fellow camper only to find out that not only did we have a love of spinning in common, but that my grandfather had built her house!

I am really looking forward to the next spinning camp. Who knows what will happen there?!

Wise Old Women of the Tribe - P.D. James at 90 - on Writing

"I have lived a very happy and fulfilled life" says crime fiction writer P.D. James at age 90, and still writing and publishing.

How I wish that was me at that age, and there is time yet. I've discovered that writing is my happy place at 59, so writing and publishing at 90 seems such a wonderful thing to be aiming for.

I've created a new blog category here in homage to the women who go before me. I call it 'Wise Old Women of the Tribe'. It's about looking up in awe at the greats, those psychic mothers who have battled ahead on the path so that we may tread more gracefully and joyfully, and dance in the light.

I feel a lot like a first former (GenY translation - Year 7) gazing in awe at the sixth form prefects (trans - Year 12)  and thinking that I'd never get to be where they are. I accept that I will age, but I am daunted and humbled by the achievements of some very special women.

I think I may have even created a whole blog based on that at some stage in my bloggy evolution. I have a whole list of women who qualify.Margaret Whitlam was surely one. Germaine Greer - definitely. Ditto Simone de Beauvoir. P.D. James is definitely on my list. Who would you choose?

To an aspiring-as-yet-unpublished middle-aged writer, P.D. James is simply and utterly inspirational. I have loved her forever. Now that I am nosing 60 I love her even more. If you view the video link below you will see that crime fiction used as a structural vehicle to explore the big questions in life amalgamates the joy of genre reading with the philosophical weightiness of life's more intriguing questions and issues.
P.D. James is such an erudite writer. Teaching her novel 'The Skull Beneath the Skin' after reading Webster's 'The Duchess of Malfi' was one of the joys of my teaching career. She has done the same with Austen. Her intertextual links give the original texts greater resonance in a contemporary reading context. The pleasure in reading thus is exponentially increased.

I've just finished her crime fiction novel 'Death Comes to Pemberley' published in 2011. It has integrity. I fell in love with Darcy and Elizabeth yet again.I love it totally. I was blogging about it on my crime fiction blog called 'Lost in Crime' and thought that I'd blog out my enthusiasm here whilst carefully composing and drafting my literary analysis there. Keep popping over there if you want to read my literary thoughts when they appear; these are my unabashedly emotive fan ravings.

The UK paper, 'The Telegraph', has published any number of interesting articles on P.D. James. The beauty of these are that they are interviews where James herself reflects on writing. This video is delightful as is this article.

All hale Baroness James of Holland Park!