Respecting time, effort and resources of others’ creations is part of today’s upcycle which includes the waistband of a knitted garment now featuring as a loose collar.
Thinking of others is key to the inspiring story told at the Rural Press Club by Danielle Crismani about her leadership journey during the 2011 Queensland floods when a simple act of baking muffins for volunteers sparked an outpouring of baked relief at this time of community crisis.
By giving to others Danielle has achieved many things, including being able to opening dispense her recipe for overcoming depression – which is show gratitude, sleep, be kind to yourself and help others. There were many great pearls of wisdom in Danielle’s speech, which you can get a taste of by reading ABC Landline Pip Courtney’s twitter feed.
There was a wonderful sense of community and heart-felt care displayed at yesterday’s event which is not always present at this agribusiness networking forum, of which I am a life member. As my ARLF colleague, Durong beef producer and QRRRWN president Georgie Somerset pointed out, this sharing and caring around food is what makes the urban-rural connection come alive.
It is so easy to become bogged down in the day-to-day routine pressures and list of tasks, and forget to raise your head, look around and see how you can do things differently. That’s what I’ve chosen to do this year, because I can.
As with the rising interest in home cooking and food growing for health and well-being, there is a pressing need to rethink our approach to textiles and fashion. My Sew it Again model includes empowering individuals to reimagine and recreate their own wardrobe collection by resewing at home. In so doing, I’ve discovered there’s a global Fashion Revolution encouraging us all to rethink where our clothes come from and who makes them.
Today’s upcycle is more op shop finds. I was unravelling a cream wool knit to produce frogged wool (more tips here) only to find that being knitted on round needles, a pretty circle formation emerged as I got closer to the waistline. It works as a collar for now and if the stitches start to unravel at a future date, I can always pull it away to nothing then. There is gorgeous detail in this handmade linen shirt, which I’ve teamed with one of my signature jumper-skirts.
