modelled by Yuto Nomura
Emus are always curious. Colourful, sparkly, unusual things, catch their eye. I've had quite a history with Emus …..
One day whilst camping in my little yellow camper-van, staying with friends close to Mt Elephant, above Elephant's Pass, in Grey, NE Tasmania, their pet emus raced excitedly across the pademelon-cropped grass, to check out the visitors camped across the way, once they were let out of their night-time enclosure.
We awoke to their deep, hollow, throaty, bass drum beat, voices strutting around our van, inspecting us.
As we breakfasted and opened windows and doors, these two curious birds began exploring around the front window & doorways, trying to collect souvenirs from our dashboard. I went to close up the windows a bit, and one cheeky emu thought my bright beanie was fair game, snatching it off my head, nearly succeeding in wearing it. (And again whilst I sat on my cushion, eating brekky.)
They picked-out, nearly all off the sparkling fabric, sewn on my favourite handmade cushion my friend Oku had made, sitting outside on the grass. They just couldn't resist the rich turquoise iridescence.
My journeys with Emus didn't just start there. In the 70's, whilst travelling around northern Victoria with mum and my siblings, camping in her car for our holidays, we used to see HUGE mobs of Emus, hundreds all together, running crazily across large paddocks. Crashing thru the fences, to charge madly beside the car, till they raced in front, crossing with wild legs, feathers and necks flailing in all directions. What a sight, and an experience I have not seen since. The front head-band pays homage to those days.
Later, in the 12 years travelling around as a nomad in van and little bus, I only saw emus in small groups, like a Father Emu with his mob of teens.
Way back, before I knew about the Beaniefest, or indeed before it even began, I made my first Emu Beanie, after a custom order request for a beanie (like one worn by a muso in a video clip), a Sth American beanie with ear-flaps and a Llama/Alpaca on it I guessed. As I attempted to recreate it, (sight unseen), I saw the head & neck of an emu forming. So, after I finished the request, I began my emu beanie, tapestry-crocheting 3 emu necks and legs in as I went, leaving the feathers to embroider on later. As I attempted to make the feathered bodies, I used three different yarns, one over the top of the others. The third one, a fine 3 ply, grey and blue Scottish yarn, didn't seem to work, so I snipped the middle of each stitch. The ends fluffed up like feathers, so I didn't pull them out. They worked, (well kind-of worked. )
Circa 1990
(Of course this was back in the days before acrylic fluffy, 'Feathers' yarns became available, and I only ever used natural fibres in my beanies.) Also I never called them Beanies, - beanies back then were 'footy beanies'. Mine were Gumnut Pixie Hats or Antennas to the Universe Hats. Until I heard about the Alice Springs Beaniefest! (and later still, became a Beanieologist – Thanks Jo &/or Mez?) A friend told me about it 5 weeks before the 2003 Beaniefest. Luckily I was back up in the Northern Rivers, NSW, where my larger stash of yarn was stored, so I could rummage thru, finding what I needed. I recreated a new Emu beanie, which won the Flora & Fauna award.
The following year, another Emu on a Sunset Silhouette beanie, won the Spirit of The Land award.
I was not able to get out there, those first two years, as the yellow van was getting a little tired & worn-out, and in 2004, we were transforming the little white bus into a home, having 9 months 'off the road'.
In 2005, the first year I actually made it to Beaniefest, I sold my work-in-progress – a Waltzing Matilda beanie on a roadside stall at Mt Conner Lookout, as I needed fuel money, thought it was too lumpy? & odd. AND, thought I had another week to make another entry. Wrong! I reread the entry form, finding out that that year, comp beanies, had to be in a week earlier than Beanie Central !!!! Aighh!
AND, they had to be in That Very Day !
Madly we cleaned the dishes and packed up the bus, after 3 days camped at the lookout!
Drove flat out to Alice, arriving at dusk, found Jo's house, delivered a hastily finished strange emu beanie (#1) with a short standing neck, plus a nice purple tapestry crochet beanie from my stall collection.
Then found our way, in the dark, to one of our best campsites in the area, 'Big Tree', courtesy of a dear friend visiting our mutual 'FarOutTours' friend in Hobart Hospital.
Crocheting that mad Emu beanie in the bus as my partner drove, I checked out the emus at Erldunda Roadhouse, thinking how silly mine looked, but felt I couldn't arrive for my first live Beaniefest, and not have a worthy competition beanie entered, so I hurriedly finished it, adding a green beanie on it's head, the ear-flaps being it's legs and feet. I was slightly embarrassed with it, but ??? It won a Special Mention in the New & Innovative category, lol.
So I have had quite a 'history' of emu-beanies. Last year, on hearing the theme, soon after the close of BF2022, I began planning to finally re-do a Waltzing Matilda beanie, with a floating ghost in the billabong etc etc. Life took a twist, my health & energy began improving, I spent months out in the garden, not inside working on my creations. My mum got sick over summer, but my regained energy was sufficient to care for her, till she began to improve, and I found I was back in relapse, exhausted.
This year, I ditched my early stage, Waltzing Matilda Beanie beginnings and spied an old, Emu number 3, it's been hanging around for years. The much longer neck, like the number 1 and 2, never quite worked , and one year, I added a scarf to the back, reminiscent of a 'fox stole'. So I decided to finally finish it, to use it to tell My Tale, on a large, long-tailed emu beanie, my long journey as a travelling nomad beanieologist, detailing some of my Tapestry Crochet, my Pointy Pixie Caps; I always used to start the points in fine yarn and small 2.5 hook, creating patterns to add in new colours before I even knew it was called Tapestry Crochet.
My second beanie for 2023 is one of my Signature Beanies a Sunset Silhouette, going back to Tapestry Crocheting the tree branches and trunks as I work from top to bottom. (Lately I've needle-felted afterwards.)
My Sunset Silhouette, 'Signature Beanie', modelled by Donna Lisa Grey