The Secret Garden

Taking liberties

I saw this posted on a friend's blog. I think it is worth repeating here.

The Location Managers Guild of Great Britain would like you all to know that the UK Government are about to propose restrictions on photography in public places which could make street photography and documentary photography against the law. There's a petition on the Downing St website against the Government's proposals to restrict the use of photography in public areas.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Photography/

Sign, and forward, if you are so inclined .... There are a number of moves promoting the requirement of 'ID' cards to allow photographers to operate in a public place. It is a fundamental right of a UK citizen to use a camera in a public place, indeed there is no right to privacy when in a public place. These moves have developed from paranoia and only promote suspicion towards genuine people following their hobby or profession. Many thanks Kindest regards Ray Brady.

I have no idea who Ray Brady is, but the petition is real. If you have any interest in photography or the protection of civil liberties, please sign.

Feeling very vanilla

I met someone last week in the pub. Her latest knitting project was a set of bondage cuffs - she'd just bought the buckles from John Lewis. The horror must've been apparent on my face, because moments later she made her excuses and went off to mingle elsewhere. I thought this was somewhat odd, until a friend of mine told me about his latest book purchase - DominiKNITrix - and how she'd probably got the pattern from in there, and did I know that there was also a pattern to knit my own flail.

Now there were days in my past when the thought of being tied up and whipped would've got me very hot under the collar, but these days the thought just leaves me cold. I don't know why. Maybe it's because there is already enough weirdness in my life at the moment that I don't need any additional kink?

Drink the Kool-Aid

It looks appetising, doesn't it?

When I started my foray into fibrecraft I swore blind that I would never touch Kool-Aid as a dye. It stands for everything that I dislike about the world, and yet somehow I found myself inexorably drawn in. I found that I could buy it from a sweet shop in London (for a small fortune) and I suddenly had to have one of every flavour (for scientific experimental purposes of course). Everywhere I looked online people were dyeing with Kool-Aid and while that would not normally entice me to try something out, there was something seductive about it.

I had a huge skein of nasty, sheepy-smelling yarn that was just begging to be dyed with this stuff, so I gave it a go. If nothing else then the fruit smell would mask the musky sheepiness of the wool. While I was mixing up wineglasses full of Kool-Aid I chatted with my housemate about how Kool-Aid was used as the drink of choice in the Jonestown Massacre. This was all very interesting, but I think even he was freaked out when I found myself humming "Don't Fear the Reaper" as I splished and splashed the colourful liquid onto the yarn. He sidled out to leave me to my dyeing. I reflected that it's not often you can freak out a voodoo priest.

Well, I wrapped the stuff up in clingfilm and nuked it, and I have to say that the smell didn't improve at all, but the dye really stuck. It stuck so well in fact that there were white areas where no dye penetrated at all, and the liquid that ran out into the bottom of the dish was clear. Clean up was easy too (although I did have to make sure that I got rid of all traces of the Kool-Aid laced wineglasses, lest my housemate think I was trying to poison him).

And here she is. Not bad for a first attempt, but I think I'll overdye it with some Tamarindo/Grape flavour or something to mute it down a bit since it is quite loud. I thought it was going to be quite seaweedy but Yemaya has said she doesn't want it - maybe I should take that as a sign. I'm not quite ready to drink the Kool-Aid.