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Monday, September 12, 2016

Wool on Sunday...

Linking up with Janine at Rainbow Hare once again for Wool on Sunday. https://rainbowhare.com/2016/09/11/wool-on-sundays-123-a-helping-hand/
My story starts a few weeks ago when a friend sent me a link via Facebook. Alison knew I was travelling in Western Australia and she wondered whether the item in the link might be close to where I was travelling.
It was a soft sculpture of some giant knitting which had won a prize (Emerging Artist) in a competition in a Sculpture By the Bay Project. It was an entry by the Steiner School in a beach town of Yallinup. A Google check showed that Yallinup was on the way to Margaret River which was one of our stops. 
The day dawned finally when we could detour to Yallingup...which turned out to be a tiny town. Very few shops were open ( most close for the cold months) but we did find a surf shop open. The lady there had no knowledge of the sculpture, but had a vague idea of where the Steiner School was...but we couldn't find it.

Then we went into a nearby winery ( The Naturaliste Winery), and asked there. The owner of the winery also had no knowledge of the sculpture but offered to ring the school...which she did. Long story short, we were invited to the school ( which was only about 600m down the road from the winery) to see the sculpture which was in the school hall. How lovely were these people? 
Kerry, a staff member from the school kept apologising that the knitting was not arranged how it had been for the competition ( which had been in March) but I still thought it was wonderful!!!
It was made by the students of the Year 3/4 class and was knitted on 2.5 metre 'needles'/plastic pipe. It took 3 students at a time to knit and the 'yarn' is hand dyed strips of muslin which were prepared by the students. After the piece was knitted it was placed on longer needles. I just loved it!!!
I had brought my knitting too...
Kerry asked me to cross my needles just like the sculpture...

Another photo with the giant project but this time sitting down!!
Before we left, DH commented how wonderful the paintings/drawings on the wall were. Kerry told us that these were actually done by the staff. Each Tuesday morning, the staff meet for some art; guided by the Konrad the Principal who is an Art Educator. Again I was impressed! In the latter years of my teaching career, our staff meetings were about 'dissecting' NAPLAN results! 😒😒😒😒😒


Aren't they wonderful??
Kerry told us that the photo of the giant knitting went all over the world via Facebook, but locals really had no idea it existed. 
I hope this works. I found a link of the children working on the knitting on the Yallingup Steiner School Alumni Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/469667386501081/videos/812818648852618/
Many thanks to Kerry and the Yallingup Steiner School.

6 comments:

Dorothy said...

Wow Maria .. that is so interesting. Isn't it funny how things can go all around the world and yet remain unknown to the locals? I bet those children will have lifelong memories of this display. You do find such interesting places. xox

Vireya said...

Amazing! Glad you finally found it. It is an impressive piece of knitting.

Janine @ Rainbow Hare said...

That knitting is amazing and I loved the video of the children knitting! Well worth the palaver of tracking it down :)
Thank you for linking up with Wool on Sundays :)

Jackie said...

I love that knitting sculpture!!! The students did an awesome job.

God bless.

angela said...

Wow. I had seen the pic on Facebook. But questioned its authenticity
I know it's hard to believe. But lots of things on the net just are not real.
I know. Shock horror lol
I'm so glad this is and you found it.
Thanks xxx

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

This post is wonderful. First that you actually took a detour to find the School and when you got there you were so welcomed. I love this sculpture and the the kids learning to KNIT!! And the Principal directing art during a school meeting. Amazing. Sometimes you find a diamond.
xx, Carol