Crafty Cocktail: This is what a feminist drinks like

Knitting. Yup, I've done a fair bit of that, too. Felix spoke recently about making something for her friend, and said things so well - but here goes me!

It was my lovely, lovely, much-missed friend Toots' birthday recently - and a special one, at that, though she's still not as old as me (no, I know, she'll never catch up). And like the last one, 10 years ago - here I am in Oz! I'm being altruistically pleased that she had a great party without me, though I'm not sure it really counts.

Anyway, suffice to say, T is someone who has always come through for me (her partner H has been pretty splendid, too, but isn't the subject of this post). Kept me going when I was depressed, is honest with me, wickedly gossipy with me, challenges me in my feminism etc etc. So I minded not being there.

I kept finding things to add to her parcel - an art hankie by Third Drawer Down, an Australian beeswax candle, a CD from a strange local clubnight, a book about getting old wickedly, etc. But I needed to MAKE something to express how I feel about T, my bestest friend. What to make, what to make - ah, a stubbyholder! Typically Australian, and I could knit it...

Much planning, swatching (ie doing a little square and seeing if it could be red, felting, measuring etc) was done. Then I plotted an appropriate message, tried lots of fonts - and knitted. Started at the top of the writing, knitted down (green is Rowanspun 4ply, sadly discontinued, orange and yellow are Scottish Tweed 4ply, freebies from a Di Gilpin Workshop at 2007's Wonderwool) and then picked up again from the top and knitted an inner tube on smaller needles. Lastly, picked up both at the bottom and did a flat base. did I say lastly - the felting took AGES because our washing machine died just then... and I did it by hand. Resulted in very smooth fingers and palms for a while, and certainly clean under my nails!