It was early morn, and two Camera Whores (Linda and I) were on the prowl.
The day was one of perfect sun and the question wasn’t IF we would be taking pictures but WHERE. As it happened Linda forgot her camera (two point deduction), AND she got distracted by the donuts!
Oh yeah, did I forget to mention the fresh donuts where the dough had been freshly kneaded before covered with cinnamon?
Yeah they were pretty rockin.
So yes, we got up and out early and at the bright DAWN of 11:00 am we dragged ourselves to the farmers market 
which is also a craft market at Moss street. One of the places we went to see what can be seen, and while Cheryl got cheese curds, Linda and I picked up some fresh Cilantro and Chives (with blooms still atop) for our mexican chicken and veg for that nights dinner. Here is a fraction of the market with Linda holding her jade plant. 
She has been given a new desk at work, so here she is holding the start of her usual urban jungle desk, which will begin with a humble jade plant.
Due to my unique view (I call it the seven year old seeing the gum under the table view) from the wheelchair, it gives me a chance to both take pictures from interesting perspectives (click on any pictures to make them full screen).
I can get down low and take the close in shots without straining, like these blue glaze mugs 
from a potter who had not only cool hand made skull mugs but a wonderful skull topped Urn we thought would work well for…um….ME (with a name like Goat Dragon Studio, you know they must carry Hello Kitty too!). So we have his card for when times comes.
Instead of covering all the people I talked to at the market I am going to just give a taster for today, three artists: a native sculpture/painter, a spinner and skein wool maker (for those ADDICTS: the knitters!), and a soap creator/sculptor. I also picked up on the gossip: who had retired, who was a famous Japanese potter and ignored here, and talked to a seller from India who had the greatest ivory card case
from Shanghai and gave me tips on sending postcards to India. And of course, checking out the local artist: painters, wood carvers, gourd carvers, and cloth makers. This picture is $150 
and both Cheryl and I like it, very much the feel of the sea and the Island. But onward…
The woman spinning unfelted wool on a hand spindle
is Claudia Lorenz of Island Spindle Co. before she continues on that Ashford spinning wheel from the 80’s you can see behind her (contact me to get her email!). She advertises handspun yarns and spinning wheel repairs but who needs to advertise when you have a basket of skeins that looks like this (click on pic!).
This picture has the skein with the longest name of all, it is the one with the white mixed in upper left and is called: “Core Spun Silk Blend Plied with Unspun Corriedale Roving.” I hope the knitters and spinning people know what that means.
She not only makes long skeins,
like you can see here in yum-yum colours decorating her booth but she has a delicious selection of wool and silk mixed skeins which made several women passing by salivate. 
I tried to get a picture that did the skeins justice through the plastic bags.
From there I met Laura-Victoria Soaps, Laura advertises soaps (click on picture!) 
(yes, that is right, there isn't any fruit or veg, those are ALL soaps!) with no dyes, perfumes, coconut or palm oils AND she hand crafts each one, having everything from Cauliflower (back right) to Rhubarb. She sells her mushrooms at $3 each (about 2 pounds or $3-4 australian dollars). Did I mention she HAND carves each one - (uh huh Abi, EACH ONE! Every single mushroom!). The Mushrooms are a mixture of coca butter base, oatmeal, blackberry with a hand rub of light cocoa power to give the mushrooms the ‘just off the field look.’ The quail eggs which smell divine
and come in a little holder like you just took them from your little quail house, use cocoa butter and cinnamon with a darker cocoa rub. Meanwhile these little bags of baby potatoes 
(11 per sack – I want to put a bit of butter on them and eat them. DO NOT eat the soaps!) The potatoes are cocoa butter and oatmeal, blackberry and olive oil. She loves her craft and has over a dozen different fruits and veg at any time. It is always changing.
I finish with Jason Hunt who is from Fort Rupert near Alert Bay, works only on commission now at his Gallery here (Check on the 'Galleries' button on his site for some amazing art pictures: I love the 'Woodwork Archives' section).
His father and grandfather taught John sculpture and painting. His father and his grandfather were taught by his great grandfather; a lineage of West Coast Native Art. His Grandfather was the famous Native sculpture Henry Hunt and with his father they made two totem poles on commission. One of them went to parliament and the second was shipped to the UK and is now sitting outside Buckingham Palace in London (take a look). So, he just comes to Moss Street Market to meet people and to show off some of his prints.
He is a traditional artist and knew some of the types of carvers who made the rings Linda and I have (he had an AWESOME ring of gold, with carved white gold overlay on 80% of it!). He has a great sense of humor and specializes in traditional masks but does other traditional carving and is JUST the type of person I would want to have me make me some art (as if I could afford that!). But it was great to talk to someone who does this for a living, and is HAVING FUN doing it.
By this time I was out of oxygen, my hands were funny colours and with the sun high above I beat a hasty retreat. But I vow that this Camera whore will appear where pictures are to found! I hope you had a great long weekend (US and UK readers). And if you come to Victoria, I’ll take you around, for some reason, they seem to remember me…
Okay, socially I am compelled to speak out about a “lifestyle choice” 
that is seems to be spreading. You see people doing it publically in sunny parks, behind closed doors (of course!) but now though recently rightly considered a PUBLIC THEAT these same people are now, according to a 2008 article, allowed to pleasure themselves on a plane, as THEY PLEASE. I am of course talking about knitting.
Yes, the lure of the yarn, Canada, the same country with legalized same sex marriage has as the number one blog, Yarn Harlot. I think the name says it all, and if it doesn’t, the names of the colors of yarn, the skeins, range from Eye of Jupiter
to Dream in Color Smooshy and Maui Sunset. Do these not sound like drinks you have had, or the names of that waccy tabbacy or LSD? Yes, there is something seriously addictive about knitting and it all starts with this: the spindle. Sure, we have been warned by fairy tales to STAY away from spindles
(and knitting), but do we listen. No!
I myself would probably be clacking my own special titanium needles, if my hand eye coordination were not so crap. Why? Because it is alluring, the colors, the texture, the softness, the click, clack, click, clack. The whole experience lulls you softly to the dark side. And yes, there is a DARK SIDE. Knitting has no limits, no restrictions on its ‘lifestyle’, one just goes from one orgy of color and creation to another until it is TOO late. Things like rules, like morals, mean nothing to a dark side knitter. Yes, all was shown to me in this book, Loose Knits 
(I really have this cover), “Her private life was her own business.” Well, I think we all know what that means. Sigh. Oh the tales that cardigan could tell!
Why does this man have droplets of sweat upon looking at the Cat Boy?
Is it his erotic Uke charms (Uke is the traditional younger, more femme in a japanese male/male pairing) and the intricate pleasures of fur? Most certainly, but also because he knows that, yes, HE is a knitter (dare he approach?!).
And these women, don’t those eyes tell it all?
I think so. Yes, they are knitters too! They are probably off now for the erotic pleasures which are the only interludes between their knitting projects (Now that I write that it sounds sort of fun...wait!...see how easy it is to be sucked in). There is no boundary, country, sexual orientation; lesbians do it, gay guys do it, straight people do it, bisexuals do it. So alluring.
Approach knitters with CAUTION! 
I am not saying that ALL knitters have got to the place where it all skeins and patterns, schedules and new needles, more colors, variants of patterns, breaking tradition, breaking rules until nothing matters!!!!! But some are. Here is a tragic case I see all too often. Young girls, allured in by the easy pleasures of knitting, but then find modern world too dull, too confining when a skein and two needles can make anything you imagine. They start hanging with the wrong element, looking for those fast and cheap thrills to fill that hole which knitting made. 
Yes, that’s right, you down the left, with your knitted cap and ear flaps, a good girl once but now, just another member of a 'girl gang'. A life wasted....for earflaps? Sigh.
Here we see a knitter who has just finished her project, floating on what is know as ‘knitter’s high’,
yes, she is in her own world, dreaming of her next pattern and her next color, shall she use the swing needles and Jewel of the Nile? Nothing can reach her now, as she floats on the feeling of a project done. Even when they aren’t knitting, in a sad way, they still are.
This Uke is a knitter, and proud of it too, so boldly does he look in the eye.
That is the confidence of someone who has completed several patterns, who has created a pattern variation and successfully knitted it. “But, but,” I hear you say, “as long as he is happy.” Well yes, he IS happy, but what about those around him (and what about his poor Seme who never gets to play or hold him, as the Uke is now so obsessed with knitting?), how many yarn widows and yarn widowers have we across this great land? I am a workaholic but knitters go FAR, FAR beyond anything I could do. They dream knitting I think, as every spare second, every minute waiting for a doctor or on a plane is spent, knitting, knitting, knitting. The closer they grow, they more they cling to those who speak the language of patterns and skeins and fall away from those of us who still love them. Love like this, my first girlfriend, who didn’t in the end have time for me, didn’t even talk. And when I could get her to relax, what is she reading? 
SOB!!! A book of PATTERNS! Yes, I knew then that I had lost her to knitting.
Of course, it doesn’t stop there, as knitting leads on to embroidery and all sorts of other hand-crafts.
And while Kamikaze Girls is a great tale of a mismatched couple of girl who fall in love, it is also the embroidery love song as a girl who does her own embroidery ends up working for Baby, Star shine bright (VB rose, another manga/move also is about a girl, caught in the delicate web of sewing, of knitting, of embroidery).
Am I saying that all knitters are bad? Of course not, but to see this beautiful cat boy in a kimono,
NOT enjoying the sakura Cherry blossoms because why? He is deciding that he should start that pattern over with a skein of Blue Hawaii rather than Belladonna. Can he not see the beauty around him, the moon, the flowers, the petals, the stars. Sadly no, only the skein of Blue Hawaii.
Here is a classic trio who have enticed a newbie into the lure of yarn and knitting.
First, the one of the left is obviously aroused thinking of all the ‘help’ she will be able to provide this newbie in a community where people help each other with projects all the time, hands touching, knitting needles clacking, the soft rub of yarn…. The girl in the middle is the ‘catcher’, the one whose enthusiasm for knitting and how EASY it is pulls them in. Little do they know that a lifetime of knitting obsession awaits them? While the girl far right is already away, now that the little fish reeled in, she is back with patterns and possibilities. Oh, what will be made next? Already anti-social, even as she has convinced another to join her ‘lifestyle.’
Nor do I say that knitting (in moderation...with therapy) is bad, in fact, so many people seem to enjoy it I think there is a lot of good that can come of it; but much like pinball machines, we have to ask ourselves, what of those poor people for whom it becomes an obsession? There are literally so many patterns, so many people, like Yarn Harlot or Yarnophiliac who have openly embraced their addiction, who gladly push it on to others, not knowing if they can handle the strain. There is no way to complete all patterns, and yet, sometimes it seems that knitters will try. That the dozens of gifts will all be knit, that socks and sweaters will be done in record time. More, more more!
We finish with the fruits of labour, a knitter who has finished with her scarf and is enjoying a well deserved rest. 
Is that what you see? Because the truth is, she isn’t even looking at or enjoying the scarf she has made. WHY? Because that isn’t a book she is reading in enjoyment, no, it is a SCHEDULE that an enabler like Lene has created for her. No, no! Look at the trees, the park. But, for her, it is TOO LATE, she is already realizing that she is 90 minutes behind on her knitting schedule. And that is all she can see. No she didn’t turn delinquent, but there is a lonely lover waiting somewhere for her, who will have to wait some more.....she just needs to finish these socks before she can head home.
The day was one of perfect sun and the question wasn’t IF we would be taking pictures but WHERE. As it happened Linda forgot her camera (two point deduction), AND she got distracted by the donuts!
Yeah they were pretty rockin.
which is also a craft market at Moss street. One of the places we went to see what can be seen, and while Cheryl got cheese curds, Linda and I picked up some fresh Cilantro and Chives (with blooms still atop) for our mexican chicken and veg for that nights dinner. Here is a fraction of the market with Linda holding her jade plant. 
She has been given a new desk at work, so here she is holding the start of her usual urban jungle desk, which will begin with a humble jade plant.
I can get down low and take the close in shots without straining, like these blue glaze mugs 
from a potter who had not only cool hand made skull mugs but a wonderful skull topped Urn we thought would work well for…um….ME (with a name like Goat Dragon Studio, you know they must carry Hello Kitty too!). So we have his card for when times comes.
from Shanghai and gave me tips on sending postcards to India. And of course, checking out the local artist: painters, wood carvers, gourd carvers, and cloth makers. This picture is $150 
and both Cheryl and I like it, very much the feel of the sea and the Island. But onward…
is Claudia Lorenz of Island Spindle Co. before she continues on that Ashford spinning wheel from the 80’s you can see behind her (contact me to get her email!). She advertises handspun yarns and spinning wheel repairs but who needs to advertise when you have a basket of skeins that looks like this (click on pic!).
This picture has the skein with the longest name of all, it is the one with the white mixed in upper left and is called: “Core Spun Silk Blend Plied with Unspun Corriedale Roving.” I hope the knitters and spinning people know what that means.
like you can see here in yum-yum colours decorating her booth but she has a delicious selection of wool and silk mixed skeins which made several women passing by salivate. 
I tried to get a picture that did the skeins justice through the plastic bags.
(yes, that is right, there isn't any fruit or veg, those are ALL soaps!) with no dyes, perfumes, coconut or palm oils AND she hand crafts each one, having everything from Cauliflower (back right) to Rhubarb. She sells her mushrooms at $3 each (about 2 pounds or $3-4 australian dollars). Did I mention she HAND carves each one - (uh huh Abi, EACH ONE! Every single mushroom!). The Mushrooms are a mixture of coca butter base, oatmeal, blackberry with a hand rub of light cocoa power to give the mushrooms the ‘just off the field look.’ The quail eggs which smell divine
and come in a little holder like you just took them from your little quail house, use cocoa butter and cinnamon with a darker cocoa rub. Meanwhile these little bags of baby potatoes 
(11 per sack – I want to put a bit of butter on them and eat them. DO NOT eat the soaps!) The potatoes are cocoa butter and oatmeal, blackberry and olive oil. She loves her craft and has over a dozen different fruits and veg at any time. It is always changing.
His father and grandfather taught John sculpture and painting. His father and his grandfather were taught by his great grandfather; a lineage of West Coast Native Art. His Grandfather was the famous Native sculpture Henry Hunt and with his father they made two totem poles on commission. One of them went to parliament and the second was shipped to the UK and is now sitting outside Buckingham Palace in London (take a look). So, he just comes to Moss Street Market to meet people and to show off some of his prints.
He is a traditional artist and knew some of the types of carvers who made the rings Linda and I have (he had an AWESOME ring of gold, with carved white gold overlay on 80% of it!). He has a great sense of humor and specializes in traditional masks but does other traditional carving and is JUST the type of person I would want to have me make me some art (as if I could afford that!). But it was great to talk to someone who does this for a living, and is HAVING FUN doing it.
