My Crocodile Wrap

Last time we went to Alice Springs was in winter time to take part in the Alice Springs Beanie Festival. Knowing it was going to be a cold experience I knew I needed some woollen clothing and definitely a beanie and some leg warmers. I intended to knit the leg warmers out of my hand spun wool and alpaca but as we all know time flies like blow flies. So departure date arrived and I still had no beanie or leg warmers.

We left sunny warm Mareeba not caring much about the cold desert far away.

We did not travel far and I was reminded about the frosty nights in Alice when I ogled at the weather forecast on the internet and saw that Alice was sitting on 0 degrees at day break. I knew that I had to get my act together. No good coming to Alice Springs blue legs and frost damaged knees and snowflakes in my hair. In Charters Towers I saw an old colourful jumper in an op-shop. It was staring at me as I entered the shop. It was actually talking to me. “Please take me to Alice Springs. My sleeves can be your new leg warmers and my middle body part can be useful too”. I grabbed the old cute jumper and back in the camp I pulled it apart. I threaded the top part of the sleeves with some elastic to keep them in place and quick smart within 10 minutes I had some very warm leg warmers.

I hate to waste stuff full stop. I recycle paper shopping bags, plastic bottle tops, bits and pieces of garden hose, ingrown toe nails, lolly wrapping paper, string of any description, toilet paper rolls, you name it I hate wasting.

It took me a few days to come up with a suitable idea for the jumper body. Finally I decided to turn it into a Wrap. I roamed through my craft stash in the car and found some hand spun silk, some pink and purple wool I bought along the road somewhere and I was hooked on the crocheting. Every afternoon after a rather long day on the road I did some serious crocheting extending the jumper body by crocheting around its edge. I had no pattern of cause to follow; well in fact I never follow a pattern or any manuals. It’s too boring and time consuming. I follow the flow of energy and the flow of how the project whatever it is unfolds. It is all about inspiration and let the crochet needle talk to you and away you go to unknown meadows where the fairies play the flute made out of reeds. The project was a growing business and by the time we got to Alice Springs the wrap was large enough to keep me warm.  

The first day in Alice saw me op-shopping and I found a nice pink woollen hat great object for being turned into a beanie. I had it done in a day ready for any frosty condition you could imagine. If you want to have a look at my beanie look in the Passions sections and find the article “Planetary Beanies”.

Since we got home I have added to the Crocodile Wrap several times as friends gave me leftover yarns that fitted the colour crocodile scheme. The reason it ended up being a Crocodile Wrap is that I am inspired by these prayer flags you see all over South East Asia. I added a few pointed flags on one side of the Wrap and when I put the Wrap flat on the ground and looked at it from a birds-eye view there was no doubt I had created a crocodile.  I am very pleased with the result. It is cosy very colourful and a one–off creation never to be repeated. It attracts a lot of attention and people look with their mouth agape. I can hear their thoughts go tick, tick, flip flop and tick, tick. They wonder how my brain is working but it does! Welcome to the world of wild creations.