Settled

Australia, 1956. Some of our relatives who emigrated to Australia have adjusted.

Thanks to my Toronto Cousin for making this photo available to us.

Exchanging Portraits (Part 60)

Australia, August 12, 1952. A friend of Mr. Irene's Dad sent this memento.

A Lost Sheep

Big Ben needs a sheering.

Merino wool is the nicest fiber with which I knit. Cashmere is delightful, of course, but it wears poorly, and it pills because it is so delicate.

Now, a company is marketing merino-wool activewear.

Is a knitted beanie public art?

One covers the Killer Whale Museum.

A Different Place

Australia, January 14, 1964. My paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, saved this photo of a pair of her relatives who settled in Australia. Many Displaced Persons landed there after World War II.

My Parents initially thought they, too, would settle in Australia. My Mom was reluctant to move there because at the time, Australia did not grant licenses to graduates of foreign medical schools. Mom and Dad therefore waited until they could sail to the United States. Once in Brooklyn, Mom had to wait some time before her diploma arrived from Erlangen. She even hired a lawyer to coordinate the transfer of her medical-school documents.

"Architectural Crochet"

Hello, Dolly.

Related by Marriage: Distance

Australia, August 25, 1952. A friend of Mr. Irene's Dad wrote, "Although the ocean separates us, we remain together in our thoughts."

Round-Trip-Fare Reunion

San Francisco, California, April 1968. Dad captures a corner of Union Square.

A Stranded Throne

A yarnbombed toilet.

This is the first thing I saw when I went online this morning.

A Lithuanian folked-up version of Blurred Lines:

Knit for a penguin.

"Penguins caught in oil spills need [ ] little jumpers to keep warm and to stop them from trying to clean the toxic oil off with their beaks."

 

Pattern here.

 

ADDED: "Reality check" here.

Roo Row

The Australian Prime Minister sparks controversy because a story features her knitting a toy kangaroo for the royal baby. Here's more about the "charm offensive."

 

A columnist chided the Prime Minister for "giving encouragement to young female politicians by plying a hobby now synonymous with mad old aunts." Hey! We were just talking about knitting aunts. 

 

Australians should embrace knitting—even staged, political knitting. Australia once was a leading producers of knitting wool. In the 1960s and 1970s, Mom and I often ordered yarn from Australia.

 

Incidentally, Germaine Greer thinks the Prime Minister has "got a big ass." It's nice to see that Greer still is wearing those scarves.
 
Baaaaaa: 
 

 

 

Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, June 26, 2013. Ignore the gawkers and do your own thing.

 

UPDATE: The Prime Minister is out.

Leaving

Atlantic Ocean, April 30, 1949. Dad's friend rides aboard the USAT General Omar Bundy. The friend looks to the shore of what he called "old England;" this makes me think the ship was transporting Displaced Persons to Australia.