An Emu stole my Beanie, but Won the Acquisition Prize !

My 2023 beanie entry in the 27th Alice Springs Beanie Festival [Beaniefest], 'An Emu stole my Beanie' won me a coveted award. My beanies have been acquired by the Beaniefest in the past [Winter in Alice back in 2006,

and Pagoda of Heavenly Peace, 2009,

currently on display at the Alice Springs Airport]. But I have never actually won that category. This is my 6th first prize, and I have been trying to work my way thru all the categories, since 2003, when I won the Flora and Flora Award.

The following year, I won the Spirit of the Land, with my now Signature Beanie, my Sunset Silhouette of Emus and trees.

I have over the years since then, had 7 Special Mentions, the second place, which is great, but at times frustrating. There have been two special mentions in the Mad Hatters category, one of which, felt annoying, as it was so clearly aimed at the main theme of that year, 'A Head Full of Love'. But you get that, don't you, lol.

[The winner and runner-up beanies, were quite insipid beanies, and I really couldn't fathom the judges of that year, apart from mine, there were several that ought to have been voted way above the two selected.]
'Tho I have had two beanies Acquired, as special mentions,I have never won that category. I have also never won the People's Choice Award, something that has been on my Bucket List, since 2008 when I came in 2nd AND 3rd! Second by only 4 or 5 votes! If only I hadn't entered two interesting beanies, neither of which placed in the other awards. My Alice Koala Puppet Hat

and my Greenie Beanie,

made from an odd assortment of things found in my bottom drawer.

So tonight I still have my fingers crossed for the Peopl's Choice Award which will be announced tomorrow afternoon around 2pm,

How to find MeggaYarnz links

Scan my QR code below to find all my links in one place

Did you miss out on one of my 10 beanies available in Beanie Central 2023? Or did you not get the chance to be there in person this year? Well, here's your chance to make that dream a reality. I love creating Custom Orders. You can specify how much you wish to spend. How much you can afford, how much you can devote for your special beanie. Obviously the more intricate ones, with tapestry crochet stitching, or sculptural styles, will be in the higher price ranges, but varied simple patterns like those above, can be quite affordable.

From the 90's

Ever changing ........... old yarns and new

Generally my custom orders begin around the $50 mark. (Custom orders are quite different to me free-forming to my personal choice and mood.) Occasionally I have some pre-made beanies marked down, due to 'It's Time to find it's new owner', type of thing, so you can be lucky. If this is you, please have a look thru the photos in my Flickr Collections, via the link above Flickr Gallery, to choose the styles and colour that speak to you. Send me an email, sms or message on facebook or Instagram, and we can begin chatting about your possible order. , More recent .... now in Beanie Central (or sold there)

MeggaYarnz in 2023 An Emu Stole my Beanie

Traveller's Tales is the 2023 theme for Beaniefest, so I chose an old, long-tailed, emu-beanie-reject, to be my large canvas for crocheting my long-tale of a traveller's story. A reject? Why was it a reject, you may ask. Well, it was my third attempt, many years ago, to create an Emu Beanie, with a neck that stood tall. and didn't lean and sag. It is now incased inside the neck of number 4 (pictured above), which received the addition of a scarf one year, as the soft beanie part, did make a rather cosy snood-like hood, so a wrap around scarf seemed like the way to go. That is how this Emu came to have a Long Tail.

When I was in my early teens, my mum took us off one holiday, on one of her car-adventure-camping-journeys, this one up into northern Victoria. It was there, gazing dreamily out of a back seat window one day, that I saw a huge mob of Emus, a hundred or more! all racing madly across a massive paddock, some running sideways thru the fencing, along the long-paddock, and some across the road infront of our car, a Kingswood by then, the VW Bug having been written off by our house-sitters when we lived in Singapore for 6 months. You don't see Emus in that number these days, so felt it meaningful to felt that story, onto the hat band of a found-object-beanie, I attached inside, to insure such a weighty, beaning might need, to be worn comfortably, without tending to slide off one's head. . . (Modelled by Yuto Nomura)

Did an Emu really steal my Beanie? Well nearly: my friends living down beside Mt Elephanat, near Elephants Pass, ,in north-eastern Tasmania, had two pet emus. When we stayed there, camped in my little yellow camper-van, these two emus would race across the paddy-melon-cropped grass, to check out the visitors, when they were let out of their night time yard. They'd wake us up Uuuup Uuuuping deep bass sounds as they swayed around the van. When we opened up and began spreading out cushions on the mat outside for breakfast, they'd weave their necks around the open doors, trying to investigate our intriguing items on our dash, sparkly things and found wood and feathers etc. They plucked every scrap of sparkly turquoise fabric, from a cushion with colourful shapes sewn on. As we sat eating breakfast, my beanie was easy pluckings for an emu, but I soon got it back. Later on that day, I learnt how to fend off an emu getting too close and domnineering, I raised my hand, bent my wrist, formed an emu beak and low and behold, he stepped back and walked more sedatley beside me. #beanies #alicespringsbeaniefest #alicespringsbeaniefestival #AliceSpringsBeanieFestival #emubeanies #emus #lifeontheroad # #artnomadix #artnomadixmeggayarnz #meganjack #megganjack

Megga Yarnz Online Studio Launch

AS I close my Etsy Shop, I am launching my Online Studio.

If you would like to join me on a virtual journey of creativity, take a look HERE at my Patreon Page and read BELOW for what I am offering ...

Join me on a visual journey thru photos of my freeform textile art. Be inspired, learn how I find an ideas, transforming them into reality. Attend Virtual Online Classes, or just Soak In some Inspiration. I am an artist who mainly works in textile art, creating wearable art, crocheting yarn, needle-felting fibre, painting on clothing as well as landscapes on canvas. Having endured Myalgic Encephalomyeliitis (ME/CFS) for the past 15 years, I am no longer getting my creations out and about, like in my previous ArtNomadix life, travelling the land in a van, with pop-up stalls and a regular market stall at St Andrews Market. I sit alone, creating slowly when my energy allows me to feel creative. You need energy to be creative! Over the past three or so years, I have been slowly recovering to the point of once again being able to attempt to connect to people thru the online world, to share my art with you and others, to inspire people with the wonderful world of FreeForm creations. It brings me so much joy, watching something appear from wool and yarns, to sculpt figures, animals, trees and birds, to create from a glimmer of an idea. Please join me as I grow this page, walk with me as I learn to make and edit videos. I have had an Etsy shop since 2007, when I taught myself to use a computer, just before I really got sick (unknowingly, with ME). I have kept the online shop, despite only ever having 29 sales. I joined the recent Etsy Strike and am considering closing it completely. So, I am now embarking in this new direction, a Patreon page. I can and do, offer a lot of inspiration to people, so I feel this could be the way to contribute my skills, inspire more people, and gain connection to the outside world from my home, either this fixed studio/abode or in the future, a new mobile home, when I can once again live nomadically. That is one of the goals I am working towards, to buy a travelling vehicle. A Travelling art studio/gallery, I have not owned a van (or even a car), for the past 10 years! From a nomad I turned into a hermit, almost. So hello ! Welcome to my MeggaYarnz Studio Insider Space, where you will be able to enter my personal studio virtually.

An old post from 22nd March 2014 that I am transfering from the 3rd blog I made back then when my brain fog couldn't work out why I could no longer access my first and second blogs. Note to self: Never try and make major changes/start new blogs etc when affected by by CFS and Brain Fog! . ' . Rubbish Site to Lookout Treasure . . The current fence around the world's most scenic waste transfer station,formerly a tip site with billowing black smoke. A little photoshop cloning so help 'see' what i could be like, Opened Up ! The huge pile of scrap metal ...... and the view without it!

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What my Studio looks like these days

Having found those old photos of my studio back in 2008 and 9, I thought I should show what it has morphed into but first here's a link to the Largest Canvas I have ever painted, my studio floor https://artnomadix-meg.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-largest-canvas-ever.html