If we ran the world......

If knitters ran the world it would be an entirely different place.

I’ve been thinking about this recently. As I am a current affairs junkie, I seem to be up to pussy’s bow with doom and destruction. Bombings, stampedes, dictatorships, the four horsemen of the apocalypse – it’s all go here on Planet Earth.

And then I thought, ‘What if knitters (and crocheters) ran the world? What would it be like?’

Well, let’s see. No-one would be cold. That’s a given. Children, babies and adults – warm and woolly. Have you seen the amount of knitted articles given to charities? – hats for the homeless, for prem babies, jumpers for Mongolia, for Afghanistan, for everywhere you can think of. Multiply this into a national goal and put some funding behind it!

Children would learn to knit in school. This happens in Steiner schools, so why not every other school. It is considered to develop manual dexterity, creativity, colour sense, mathematical skills and it makes a nice line in potholders for Mothers’ Day.

The national sheep flock would not be dwindling – and there would never have been a wool stockpile.

We would have wonderful foreign relations with fibre producing countries. Mongolia (cashmere), Alaska and Canada (quiviut – arctic musk ox fibre), Tibet (pashmina – but only sustainably), Egypt and the Middle East (camel), the continental USA (buffalo – and let’s face it, the whole of North America has fabulous spinners and dyers), India and Nepal (silk), Thailand (banana fibre), New Zealand (possum), the United Kingdom (rare sheep breeds), Germany (Wollmeise), Russia and the states of the former Soviet Union (Orenburg lace), Scandinavia (colourwork) and so on.

The meetings of ASEAN and the G8 would look a lot less silly if world leaders were clad in knitting and crocheting – in fact, do you remember the major conference in which every leader received a traditional pair of mittens (I’m thinking Reykjavik – but am more than willing to be corrected). What a fabulous gesture that was.

As well, a side effect would be a lifting of both the profile of, and respect for, ‘womanly’ arts. Instead of being categorised as ‘weird hobby’, the skills and challenges may be more widely appreciated!

On the domestic trench war – sorry – home news front, Saturday was the Princess’s sixth birthday. 20 children were here, luckily the weather was good and I, very sensibly, hired a magician who also did balloon sculptures. He kept the kids (and some parents) brilliantly entertained until food time, and then it was home time. The Princess was beside herself with excitement, amplified when her Aunt (my SIL) and partner appeared – a lovely surprise, flown in from the National Capital. I didn’t drink nearly as much wine as such an occasion normally warrants, so it was considered a success all round!

My circumstances may also be changing soon, in a very exciting way – watch this space! Off to do domestic things – like check when the P & F meeting is and try to remember to order more gas! Ciao!

An update and certain political comments

Computer running? Check. Third coffee? Check. Bathroom clean? Check (What? You thought I never cleaned the bathrooms – well, as little as possible – but it does get done. Eventually.) Alone in the house? Check. Quiet? Check. Smell of vomit gone? Mostly.

It’s been a fun night.

Those of you who have been following this blog for a while (its whole 2 month life) may remember the great vomiting incident of July. I say ‘great’ meaning lots, not ‘great’ as in ‘Hey that was fun, let’s do it again soon’.

Had an incident last night – luckily a lonely and isolated incident. But the washing remains – the entire bed folks, not just a sheet or two, but every single thing on the bed, including blankets, doona, mattress protector, pillows, assorted teddy bears and dolls, to say nothing of the Princess herself. A shower at 10.30pm for a five year old in tears in not the most fun thing for them to do.

Drawing a veil over this whole awful incident, I will replace it with good news – the fridge is back – this means more space for all the stuff I fill it with and an endless supply of cold filtered water which we have really missed – you can definitely taste the difference.

On the de-cluttering side, I delivered 2 bags to Lifeline (another bag in the offing), but bought a top and 2 dresses for me and some kids clothes for, well, the kids. So the net loss is more like 1 bag – but there is more to go, so I haven’t lost hope yet!

Juno has one front finished, and the second cast one, so I feel as if there is some progress being made.

And speaking of progress, I’m absolutely disgusted that the Gunn’s pulp mill appears to be going ahead – haven’t our politicians noticed that most Tasmanians, especially small business people in the area don’t want a stinky water polluting mill which uses native forests. With any luck, the coalition may realise it’s in a marginal electorate, with more votes in stopping it than in letting it be built – and it’s an election year. You never know your luck in a small country town.

It’s been a fairly open secret that Gunn’s actually runs this state – personally I think we might as well sack our entire state parliament and let Gunns run the place – they do anyway, and at least we’ll save on the parliamentary salaries that way. It wasn’t quite so obvious under Jim Bacon, but after he died, Lennon was in Gunns’ pocket so the rest was a foregone conclusion. The best analogy I heard about Paul Lennon taking over from Jim was that it was if the nightclub manager had dies and the bouncer took over.

Mind you, our Liberal ‘Opposition’ is a bit of a waste of space – given that they never actually seem to oppose the ALP on anything. The Greens are the only real opposition, and there aren’t enough of them to block legislation – Boo Hiss!!!

Politics of this fair, green isle aside, I think I’ll stick to my knitting. If you’re all very good, there may be some photos this week!